This is the Ariel Hipercar, the latest toy from the British sports car company behind the Atom trackday weapon and its Nomad off-road brother, and a vehicle that makes even those two seem vaguely sensible. Called the Hipercar, though it will get a new name for production, this is Ariel’s first coupe and will be its first fully homologated car when it goes on sale around 18 months from now. But don’t go getting the idea that this is an Atom with a set of doors and a roof, because the reality is much wilder. Try almost 1,200 hp of electric muscle, zero to 161 km/h in just 4.4 seconds, and a gas turbine strapped behind the seats.
Instead of the Atom’s spaceframe chassis,
there’s a bonded aluminum tub with detachable subframes and a carbon fiber body
structure with butterfly doors. And that bodywork has so many interesting aero
add-ons including three vertical fins on the rear end and a multitude of
surfaces on the nose that it’s difficult to actually get an idea of the
Hipercar’s basic shape. But what really sets it apart from Ariel’s other cars
is what’s going on under the skin. Ariel has had a long association with Honda
powertrains in both naturally-aspirated and supercharged forms and even built
its own V8 for a while. But for the Hipercar it moves into the electric age.
Each of the four wheels is driven by its
own in-board electric motor, each one of those delivering 285 hp and 450 Nm. To save you the math that equates to a total of
1,185 hp and 1,800 Nm, which is enough to send the
Hipercar to 97 km/h in 2.09 seconds, and accelerate it between 97-193 km/h in only 3.51 seconds, roughly the time a Bugatti Chiron
takes to bridge the same speeds.
Fortunately, the Hipercar features an
adjustable traction control system and sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires,
with the options of even gripper 2R rubber, to help manage all that energy. But
if the idea of marshaling 1,185 horses sounds a little too frenzied there’s
also the option of a two-wheel drive model that generates a more modest 590 hp and 900 Nm. The Hipercar draws its power from an
800-volt, 62 kWh battery that is good for 241 km of WLTP range,
though that’s not the true range, because you need to factor in the optional
Cosworth micro-turbine range extender. Weighing less than 50 kg and
generating 47 hp, it is smaller and lighter than any
combustion-engined alternative, says Ariel, and will eventually be able to run
on hydrogen, for full zero-emissions driving.
If there’s a downside to all this new-fangled technology, which includes power-assisted steering and even air conditioning, it’s the weight. An Atom weighs just 595 kg, but Ariel says the Hipercar comes in at 1,546 kg in all-wheel drive form. The sheer power of the electric drivetrain more than compensates when it comes to acceleration, but a 260 percent increase in curb weight means this is going to feel very different to an Atom when it comes to turning and braking.
Ariel says the Hipercar will be homologated in Europe and Australia, but it looks like North America might miss out. As for prices, the company isn’t revealing specific figures but told Autocar that it should cost less than £ 1 million (US$ 840k), meaning it’s not just the performance that is supercar-sized.
