Ariel Atom 4R: Faster Than 500bhp Atom V8? | Stig Laps

Stig Laps are back!

That’s right, The Stig is once again roaming free at Dunsfold, and in this eight-part series we’ve gathered, well, eight cars, to set new timed Power Laps at the Top Gear Test Track.

So far, we’ve seen the Koenigsegg Jesko Attack, Ford SuperVan 4.2 and Porsche 911 GT3 RS set lap times, all wildly different types of vehicles, but all with huge big splitters and wings sprouting from them. Today’s contender is no different!

It’s the Ariel Atom 4R, and this particular one has had many options thrown at it, including carbon wings and panels and a pneumatic six-speed sequential gearbox. This one's on forged wheels and steel discs, but you can have those in carbon too. It costs about £140,000 with all options, almost double the standard 4R.

But what price progress? Thirteen years ago a first-generation Atom fitted with a 500bhp V8 blitzed the TG track in 1:15.1. This new one might have an inferior power-to-weight ratio and half the cylinders, but brakes, tyres and aero have come a long way. Over to Top Gear’s Editor-in-Chief, Jack Rix, and The Stig…

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00:00 Intro
02:05 Walkaround
03:04 Stig lap
04:49 Stig POV
06:15 Leaderboard
06:53 Bonus Lap
08:31 Next time

[TopGear]

Can the 4R slay one of its own and go faster than the old Atom V8?

[ROMELZ]

Tires, 13 years of tire technology makes a huge difference. Would like to see the Atom V8 perform on 2024 tires

[daviddogbert]

I watched about 1 minute of this before turning it off. For gods sake enough already with the crazy edits.

[raptureto]

Thanks for these videos but can you reduce the number of cuts? They're quire jarring.

[whatwelearned]

Dear editor: please feel free to not use speed ramping every 3 seconds. Cheers.

[jamesm]

The gear changes, both up and down, are absolutely brutal and just beautiful to listen to

[farishanafiah]

Would still have the Atom V8 though. There's nothing like it ever again (unless Ariel themselves made a second-gen successor to it).

[joewolf]

3:18 i don't like this format, sorry guys. I don't wanna see the commentator, the voice is enough, i would like to see the car and hear the engine.

[RJAH]

£140.000. Can’t remember when everyone’s wages tripled. Everything else as but I missed my wages tripling.

[urbanstrencan]

Ariel Atom is just a crazy machine, Stig's wrestling skills are shown properly driving it:)
Great lap :)

[Justinzhang-cg]

What a brutal reaction to the Drive Tribe Vid

[aboodmkm]

You have a stig, not The Stig. Just saying 🙂

[dthdthdthdth]

Super cool and impressive, visceral car ... that sounds like a vacuum with those anemic shift "puffs." I can't believe they've released it with that audio profile.

[leoac]

For that amount of money I would've expected a flat floor and diffuser and a less draggy rear wing.

In addition, by using a wider span, less cranked rear wing, the car would look a lot better than it does with the ridiculously tall, short span wing, in my opinion.

As for the floor and diffuser, I would design a floor for most of the length and the entire width of the metal chassis with a single diffuser for it, but I would also place a floor on either side of the chassis, starting at the sidepods and ending with a diffuser not too close to the rear tyre.
But that would be a big increment in performance. Ariel wants to increase the performance very gradually so that each car can be better than the last one.

[DonLee]

You can see they really pulled out the stop for this lap, and probably had fresher tires, because ex-stig Ben Collins recently drove this car to try to beat 1:15, and ended up 1:15.8. Yet here, Top Gear and the new stig did 1:13.7.

[crabapple]

This is basically down to 14 years tire improvement? Turbo has better torque than the V8 aswell. I would trade a few seconds on the lap for the sound of that V8!

[sebastianjo]

3 seconds faster than Ben Collins, they must have changed something on the car. That's a lot faster on this track.

[Jcannabiss]

need that quife gearbox- shifts absolutely flawlessly

[jasonmillington]

Would be nice to know the tyres from the V8 to 4R and see if it is down to those changes. Impressive time

[mikebeer]

Serious question, what did Ultima ever do to the BBC ? The Arial atom is on the show so much it should be in the credits, while the Ultima RS is also british made, equal price, road legal and most importantly one of the fastest cars in the world - yet it's never, ever been featured on the show.

So I repeat, what did Ultima ever do to the BBC ?