Battle of the lightweights: Ariel Atom 4RR Vs Nichols N1A

Jethro Bovingdon: Well, I do like to play it cool. But today I’ll make an exception and say 10 MILLION, or just any big number that sounds hyperbolic. Because I love these sorts of cars: lightweight, no gimmicks, no tech being used to disguise bad habits or excess chubbiness and big demands placed on the driver. Which means a bit of fear, too. And we all need a teensy bit of terror in our lives, don’t we? Speaking of which, you appear to have brought the sharpest knife in the box.

Photography: John Wycherley

JR: Yeah, and I don’t even regret it. Yet. I’ve brought along the Ariel Atom 4RR, built to celebrate 25 years of the Ariel Atom. Note it’s not the mere 4R (that lapped the Top Gear track in the hands of The Stig in 1min 13.7secs last year): this one is a whole ‘R’ faster.

Essentially, we’re looking at the spiritual successor to the Atom V8 – not in cylinder count, but in terms of sheer insanity. It has 525bhp, more downforce, weighs as much as a flip flop (OK, sub 700kg) and is the most focused and fastest Atom ever – and they’re all bloody quick.

If you recall the iconic flappy cheek Clarkson moment back in the day, that supercharged Atom only had 300bhp... this one might take our heads clean off.

JB: I have no shade to throw. Absolutely love a fast Atom. But you’re right, quite how they’ve ended up at 525bhp is beyond me... however, I also have no regrets because my contender is the Nichols N1A. Think of it as a slightly tamed and somehow road legal Can-Am car and you’re not far off. You remember Can-Am? A glorious, no rules motorsport series that ran from ’66 to ’74 in the US and spawned some of the wildest racecars the world has ever seen.

The N1A is actually inspired by McLaren’s first sports prototype, the M1/A. Speaking of McLaren, its designer – Steve Nichols – also happened to design the McLaren MP4/4 F1 car. Which won 15 of the 16 races in the 1988 Formula One season. Drivers? Senna and Prost. Not bad, eh? And I haven’t even mentioned the engine yet... I assume the Atom has some sort of explosive device connected to the rear wheels?

JR: Well, for a little engine it makes a hell of a bang. It starts life as the trusty Honda Civic Type R 2.0-litre turbo but is completely hand-rebuilt to motorsport spec, with each one taking 100 hours to complete – that’s a long day in the office.

There’s a bigger turbo with 1.7bar of boost for 525bhp and 406lb ft of torque, with an 8,200rpm redline – but also a higher pressure fuel system, forged pistons and connecting rods, revised cylinder head and port geometry, bespoke camshafts and... you get the idea. Translation: it should rip like a racing engine, but has road car longevity and usability at lower speeds. It also costs £250k.

JB: Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds? I should be shocked, but instead I’m just pleased people will give that sort of cash to Ariel to keep making these nutty creations. Of course, as the Nichols has real car things (like seats with actual pads) it costs around double that. 

It does have an engine with twice the cylinder count, though. And more than three times the cubic capacity. Yes, of course it’s a big banger! A hand-built, dry-sump LS7 7.0-litre V8 with Jenvey throttle bodies and eight individual trumpets just a few inches behind your head. 

The engine has two maps but you only want the full fat one, selected by pressing a button marked ‘11’. That gives 700bhp, heralded by a noise from the gods. Even better, it drives through a sublime six speed manual gearbox shared with the old Audi R8 and it’s mounted to the right, on the wide sill, Ford GT40 style. Love it.   

JR: That is cool. And I’ll admit that all the F1 stuff makes some sense of the £500,000 – plus taxes, I presume – asking price. But, just look at the Atom’s, erm, beautifully wrought and specified interior if you want to talk perceived value... there’s aircon, courtesy of mother nature, and unpadded seats with race harnesses that are an immense faff to get in and out of, but entirely necessary to stop you flying off in the wind. 

The gearbox is a Quaife six speed manual sequential – manual because setting off in first gear requires the clutch pedal, but once up and running you can smack the gears through with the paddles.

There’s a trio of engine maps – one with just 450bhp (let’s call that supermarket mode), a middle setting with the full 525bhp but a gentler torque curve (my personal favourite) and then the full unleash the beast. And there’s more – seven-stage traction control, aka the how brave are you feeling knob, and 11-stage ABS.

The suspension uses ‘twin tube’ Öhlins dampers, manually adjustable for compression and rebound – although there’ll soon be the option of controlling them electrically through an app on your phone. 

The brakes are AP Racing 310mm two-piece ventilated discs, the largest that can fit inside the Atom’s wheels, along with four-piston callipers and race spec pads. The wheels are forged alloy – 16in at the front, 17in at the rear – with Yokohama A052 tyres. Mic drop, your turn.

JB: So, the Atom has no windscreen. Cool. But the Nichols goes one better by fitting an aero screen that so distorts the outside world that you have to look over it so as not to crash into the bendy trees or wavy lamp posts. Strange choice. But, the interior is pared back and really cool. There are tiny doors but you really climb over the sills and into the car rather than truly ‘through’ the door aperture. Even standing on the seat as you do so.

Shuffle down into position and you sit super laid back in carbon fibre buckets with a surprisingly tall machined-from-billet instrument cluster ahead, a simple three-spoke wheel and that wide sill with the beautiful gated shifter, topped by an anodised shifter similar in shape and feel to Senna’s in his MP4/4. The view out is so evocative. Tiny little wing mirrors mounted on those flowing front wings. It’s like you’re ready for the Goodwood Revival.

You can see the extruded aluminium chassis – which is reinforced with carbon fibre, because F1 – and there’s just a proper sense of focus. After the Atom it’s an S-Class but by most standards you’d say the Nichols is simple, functional and pretty extreme. It weighs circa 900kg. But it’s gorgeous, too. Proper 1960s sports car cool with just enough comfort to actually use on the road...

JR: That’s probably enough spec sheet willy waving. How about you tell everyone what happened when we had a drag race? I should note it was a mandated 20mph rolling start in second gear to avoid lunching anything oily and expensive before we’d driven them properly... we’re nice like that.

JB: Well, the car with no bodywork and a stick of dynamite up its backside won. Which is annoying, but not surprising. On paper the Nichols has a power to weight advantage. But nobody has told the 4RR, because it’s insanely fast. The Nichols did get the jump on it thanks to the lovely normally aspirated V8, but once the Atom’s fuse is lit you know it’s just a matter of time before it wheelies past anything. It’s wild. Shall we actually drive them now?

JR: Righto, you hop in the passenger seat then and buckle up. Probably wish you hadn’t asked now! Fear not, the 4RR is basically uncrashable because unlike the N1A it has actual downforce – around 110kg at 70mph, which as a proportion of the car’s total weight is more significant than it sounds.

And as I shall now demonstrate (by taking three bites at going around Hammerhead) it’s a bit of a handful. The ferocity with which it charges forwards is difficult for the human brain to compute – this isn’t acceleration, it’s deletion of distance. On the public road it’s probably a bit much, but out here on the TG test track I can feel the car and I beginning to gel. Either that or I’ve wet myself.

After the Atom 4RR the Nicols N1A is an S-class

Yes, the small wheel wriggles about in your hands like a ferret, and you need to be cautious on the throttle, but the car is on your side – speed is what it’s made for. There’s massive mechanical grip, the gearbox is whipcrack quick and perfectly suited to the car’s manic demeanour, and once you experience how devastating the brakes are, and how addictive the turbo’d rush of torque is, you find yourself flinging it about in a way that would have seemed reckless when we were first strapping ourselves in.

JB: As a passenger it’s bloody awful. But, I have to say, probably about as thrilling as it gets. I’ve never wanted to die beside Jack Rix, but in the left seat of the 4RR I came to accept my fate and it didn’t seem all bad. He just looked so happy. Mostly oblivious to what the car was actually doing. But happy.

Anyway, by comparison the Nichols is a very different animal. The gearbox is so, so good. Light and precise and, well, perfect. That engine has MASSIVE and relentless power but it takes great lunges where the Atom snaps forward like it’s connected to the world’s strongest bungee cord. And the noise is deep and physical. In fact, the way it vibrates your ear drums can be painful, but in a strangely satisfying way.

There’s no power steering so the wheel requires some muscle at lower speeds but soon starts to free up and the feedback is gorgeous. Love the brakes, too. 

The pedal is solid and completely reassuring, although ABS is an option. Tick that box. Traction control is standard and works really effectively, plus you can dial it out bit by bit as confidence grows. Balance wise there’s a bit of understeer in slower corners but the Nichols has the grunt and the poise to slide with the best of ’em. To do so feels very heroic.

JR: Right, shall we hand the over to The Stig and man the stopwatch?

JB: Mega impressed with The Stig and the Nichols. The noise and the 1960s vibe make you think the N1A will be brutal and require strong, punchy inputs. But actually it responds to smoothness, to loading up the chassis predictably and using all that grunt once the thing is turned in. Looked brilliant in the high speed stuff, too. No real downforce to speak of, but The Stig was dancing it beautifully. And it’s fast, too.

The Atom looked like a cornered Honey Badger looking for an escape route. So manic! So aggressive and putting on speed like you just can’t quite believe. Looked like it was getting some rear locking under heaving braking – adding to the wild ride – but Stig gave as good as it got. Mega commitment, huge speed – it looked like all the scary fun even our friend in white could handle.

JR: Yep, pretty sure I saw some oversteer in the Atom at 135mph past the tyre wall... and Stig delivered a shockingly fast lap time – 1min 12.3secs – a full 1.4 seconds faster than the 400bhp Atom 4R, which puts it 14th on the all time leaderboard when you include both road-legal and track-only cars. 

Narrow it down to only those with a numberplate and it’s the fourth fastest thing to ever lap the TG track, ahead of the 992 GT3 RS Manthey, Dallara Stradale and Ferrari 488 Pista, and only just behind the Ferrari SF90, Koenigsegg Jesko Attack and the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Not bad and, once again, helmets off to Stig for holding onto it.

The Nichols managed a 1min 16.1secs, still a hell of an effort for something designed primarily as a road car, and still in the prototype phase. That puts it joint 35th on the all time list, 23rd when you only count the road-legal stuff. It’s a tenth of a second faster than the McLaren MP4-12C, right alongside the 991 GT3 RS and just a tenth behind the standard Ariel Atom 4.

It also claims some other significant scalps – namely the Aventador LP700-4, Maserati MC20 and Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. It’s also – fact fans – the fastest manual gearbox car we’ve ever had around the track.

JB: A great result for both, then. But, for me, the lap times are almost incidental. It’s the way each car makes you work, the reward for wringing them out and the purity of driving them. Sounds a bit wistful and hammy, but it’s true. They’re just a mega antidote to e-4WD and torque vectoring and ‘deployment’ and, well, all that stuff designed to fool you into thinking your car doesn’t weigh 1,900kg. 

Also, isn’t it bonkers to think you can drive these home. On public roads. For that task I think I would choose the N1A. I can live with the weird house of mirrors windscreen and imagine how good the V8 sounds without a crash helmet.

JR: Agreed. I love the idea, the look, the noise, and the fact it’s more comfortable than my sofa... but in my book the 4RR is king. You can feel that Atom DNA coursing through every fibre, it’s just been sharpened and heightened in every way possible. 

The Atom, in any flavour, already delivers the pinnacle of adrenaline soaked, exposed to the elements fun, blurring the line between motorbike and car... but this is more of everything. If what you’re after is the biggest possible thrill, then this is the new boss. It’s a stunning evolution, and perhaps conclusion, of the Atom idea.

JB: It’s outrageous. In every way. And, much as I hate to do this, I’m going to have to agree. The level of polish, of thought and care that’s gone into the N1A, surprised me. It feels like a fully realised, characterful and properly sorted vision and nails the Can-Am attitude, old school feedback but superbly intuitive to drive thing in a way I didn’t think possible. Big respect. But nobody delivers pure uncut insanity like Ariel. 

As it turns out, the Atom 4RR with 525bhp is the purest yet. It’s an expensive habit, but we leave wondering if it might be a bargain. What else on four wheels makes you feel like this? And all for the price of tinted exposed carbon fibre weave bodywork for another generic hypercar. Who needs bodywork, anyway?

Ariel Atom 4RR

Price: £208,000 (+VAT)
Powertrain: 2.0-litre turbo 4cyl, 525bhp, 406lb ft
Transmission: 6spd sequential, RWD
Performance: 0–62mph in 2.4secs, 175mph
Weight: sub 700kg
TG track lap time:  01:12.3

Nichols N1A

Price: £500,000 (+VAT)
Powertrain: 7.0-litre V8, 700bhp, 600lb ft (est)
Transmission: 6spd manual, RWD
Performance: 0–62mph in 3.5secs (est), 180+mph (est)
Weight: circa 900kg
TG track lap time:  01:16.1