Published: Jul 17, 2012

Ariel Atom Hits the Track with new Cup Racer

Racecar for the road turns back into a racecar.

Ariel designed the Atom to be the closest thing to a racecar as any road car can be. So what will they do with it next? Why, turn it into a racecar, of course! It's a story we've heard before with cars like the McLaren F1 (which was never designed to race, but ended up beating everything at Le Mans) and the KTM X-Bow (which has shaken things up in GT4 racing). But in the Atom's case, Ariel is giving it its own racing series instead of taking it to an existing one.

more at CarBuzz:
Challenger to Get Supercharged V8? Jelacy Returns for a Bouncy Ride Eleanor Sold for $1.1 Million

The Atom Cup will be a spec racing series, similar to the Porsche Cup, Ferrari Challenge or Lamborghini Trofeo, starting next year in the UK with races to be held at Silverstone, Brands Hatch and other tracks in the British Isles. For the task, Ariel has modified the Atom into the Atom Cup, with a bit of extra bodywork, rollover cage, Ohlins dampers and Yokohama racing slicks. The 245-horsepower 2.0-liter i-Vtec four sourced from Honda carries over essentially unchanged, but racing fuel should help it eke out a bit of extra power.