Ariel Motor Company Ltd is a British, low-volume performance
motor vehicle manufacturing company in
Crewkerne
Crewkerne ( ) is a town and electoral ward in Somerset, England, southwest of Yeovil and east of Chard all in the South Somerset district. The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Coombe, Woolminstone and Henley – and b ...
, in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
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, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
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, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
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England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
History
Founded by Simon Saunders in 1991 as Solocrest Ltd., the name was changed in 1999 to Ariel Motor Company Ltd. The original Ariel Motors remains as the trading company of the Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club (AOMCC)
Ariel Motorcycles
Ariel Motorcycles was a British maker of bicycles and then motorcycles in Bournbrook, Birmingham. It was an innovator in British motorcycling, part of the Ariel marque. The company was sold to BSA in 1951 but the brand survived until 1967. Inf ...
firm. Ariel Motor Company is one of the UK's smallest automotive companies, with just 30 employees, producing up to 100 cars per year.
Products
Atom
![ArielAtomGoodwood](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/ArielAtomGoodwood.jpg)
The company manufactures the
Ariel Atom
The Ariel Atom is a road-legal high performance open-wheel car made by the British Ariel Motor Company based in Crewkerne, Somerset, England, and under license in North America by TMI Autotech, Inc. at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, ...
, an extremely light, high performance car, powered by a
Honda Civic Type-R engine and gearbox. The Atom is the world's first road-going
exoskeletal car; it has no bodywork or roof, and is built entirely around the tube chassis, making it weigh less than . This means that the Ariel Atom 3.5R
supercharged model has a
power-to-weight ratio of around per tonne.
In July 2018, at the
Goodwood Festival of Speed
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in late June or ...
Ariel announced and started taking reservations for their new
Ariel Atom 4. The new car is completely revised from the previous
Ariel Atom
The Ariel Atom is a road-legal high performance open-wheel car made by the British Ariel Motor Company based in Crewkerne, Somerset, England, and under license in North America by TMI Autotech, Inc. at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, ...
, with all but a few parts having been changed. The new car is powered again by the engine used in the
Honda Civic Type R
The is a series of high-performance hatchback/ sedan models based on the Civic, developed and produced by Honda since September 1997. The first Civic Type R was the third model to receive Honda's Type R badge (after the NSX and Integra). Typ ...
, but is now turbo charged as standard in the Atom 4. The new car also features a thicker frame, separate seats and a revised intake. The new car has been reviewed by
Autocar and deliveries started at the start of June 2019.
Ace
![Ariel_Ace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Ariel_Ace.jpg)
In June 2014, the company announced the new
Ariel Ace
The Ariel Ace is a 2014 sports motorcycle that is manufactured by the British Ariel Motor Company in Crewkerne, Somerset, England. It uses the V4 engine from the Honda VFR1200.
It is the Ariel marque's first new motorcycle in more than 50 ye ...
motorcycle. Powered by a Honda 1237cc V4 engine and gearbox, the bike will be produced from 2015 in similar volume levels to the existing car-based products.
Nomad
![2019_Ariel_Nomad_2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/2019_Ariel_Nomad_2.4_Front.jpg)
In January 2015, Ariel introduced the Nomad, a road-legal
buggy designed along the same principles as the Atom, at the Autosport International Show. The Nomad utilises a 2.4 litre Honda engine producing 235bhp.
HIPERCAR
In August 2017, Ariel announced the HIPERCAR (High Performance Carbon Reduction), an electric
sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
. The HIPERCAR uses
Equipmake APM200 electric motors, supplied by a
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
-based
electric bus
An electric bus is a bus that is propelled using electric motors as opposed to an internal combustion engine. Electric buses can store the needed electricity on-board, or be fed continuously from an external source. The majority of buses ...
manufacturing start-up.
See also
*
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
References
External links
*
{{Automotive industry
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1991
Car brands
Crewkerne
Car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Somerset
Sports car manufacturers