Ariel Atom 4 review

Define inside. Always a point worth making in a car where there's a porosity between inside and outside.

It’s a car you wear, that you strap on like a parachute. You climb over a high beam, and drop-down onto plastic seats that look like they have been nabbed from the nearest pre-school, but are actually rather comfortable and better shaped than many supercar firms manage. It’s worth upgrading from the standard harnesses which can be a bit fiddly, and on a warm summer day you might want to shove a jumper down your back to up padding levels.

However, there is good elbow room between driver and passenger, and as we mentioned before, airflow over the cockpit is very well managed. Minimum protection should consist of a beanie and goggles, though.

How’s the dashboard?

That's about the only other element to the Atom’s interior. The dash panel is something of a triumph: a proper colour screen surrounded by a brilliantly logical panel of switches, knobs and buttons that were second nature to use after ten minutes of night driving. There’s even an auto setting for the lights – the sensor is in front of the gearlever. And those headlights are a massive improvement – a strong, straight beam with good range and brightness.

And best of all you won’t be fiddling in your pocket for the keys immediately after doing up the harness, as the immobiliser triggers automatically.

What about the fit and finish?

Ariels have always been well made and robust, so the only rattles tend to come from the suspension as it moves. The driving position is close to faultless (we’d like a fraction more spacing between the pedals to aid driving in shoes other than racing boots), the steering weight is fine when manoeuvring and the turning circle is now substantially tighter.