come on be honest you're looking at this
car here and thinking we've made some
sort of horrible typo in the headline of
this video that can't be an all-new atom
but it is so new in fact that the only
carryover parts are the fuel filler cap
the pedal box the steering wheel and the
top six inches of the steering column
and that's it the big headline is here a
new engine still a Honda but now the
2-liter turbo and 6-speed manual from
the current Civic type-r producing up to
320 brake horsepower and 310 pounds feet
of torque weight is up a bit to 595
kilograms but power-to-weight ratio is
still a frankly terrifying 538
horsepower per ton nought to 60 takes
2.8 seconds nought to 100 6.8 and top
speed is 162 miles an hour if you think
you're hard enough but here's the really
clever bit when you feel like not
hurting yourself you can dial down the
turbo boost with this switch here from
1.3 bar to naught point 6 bar to naught
point 3 bar that roughly equates to 320
horsepower 290 horsepower or 220
horsepower and as you turn down the
violence you also turn down the Darth
Vader sucking noises coming from the
intake behind your head and there's more
because the new engine is bigger and
required a new rear section of the
chassis aerial took the opportunity to
go through the whole lot thickening up
the steel tubes rethinking the
suspension design to give it a more
settled grown-up feel and optimizing the
aerodynamics to the point where only
shaving your head and legs would improve
things further climbing into an atom has
always been a bit of an adventure and
that's no different here in fact these
seats are even lower than they once were
and the sides are a little bit higher so
you're more cocooned than ever but the
frame is wider so there is a tiny bit
more space and get this no more fumbling
around with that annoying little key fob
thing that you need to disarm the
immobilizer with no now you just put a
key fob in your pocket and it does it
all autumn
matically the future we've got our
harnesses here I won't put it on because
you probably don't have two minutes to
spare and the seat yes plastic seats
which are actually quite comfortable as
comfortable as you could reasonably
expect plastic seats to be anyway and
would you look at this in front of me a
proper color screen yes with lots of
knobs to play with including this one 7
stage traction control be careful with
that and down here automatic headlights
in an Ariel Atom whatever next day
you've gotta love the atom haven't you
20 years on and it's still unlike
anything else out there
yeah the back mano delivers the same
uncompromising thrills you could say but
that cost three times as much this
starts from under 40 grand so long as
you don't get too frisky with the
options list stuff like ap racing brakes
carbon wheels sports exhausts but given
the engineering detail in this thing and
the capability of this car I'll call
that a bit of a good old British bargain