The Ariel Atom Is Marking Its 25th Birthday With This 525bhp Special

Can you believe the Ariel Atom is turning 25 this year? The skeletal little sports car made its debut in the first year of the new millennium, and although it’s gone through various evolutions and powertrains, the fundamental recipe remains the same to this day.

That doesn’t change for the car’s obligatory 25th anniversary special, but what does is the power output. This is the Atom 4RR, and though it uses the same basic 2.0-litre turbocharged K20 four-cylinder from the Honda Civic Type R as the regular car, it’s had its power turned up to 525bhp.

Just think about that for a second. Ariel hasn’t given a weight for the 4RR, but the regular Atom 4, with 321bhp, weighs a shade under 600kg. Assuming it’s largely the same for this birthday special, that’s a power-to-weight ratio of around 875bhp per tonne. Torque, too, is up from the standard car’s 310lb ft to 406.

Just as impressive is that it’s the most powerful Atom of all time, beating even the bonkers V8-powered Atom 500 by 25bhp. To get such a ludicrous amount of power out of a four-pot engine, Ariel has given the K20 a host of unspecified internal upgrades and new components, and optimised the fuel and oil systems.

Not much else is known about the 4RR for now, with full tech specs and pricing to come later in the year, although we can see it’s wearing some rather aggressive-looking aero – perhaps its best shot at keeping that utterly mad performance under some semblance of control.

We also know that the 4RR will, aptly, be limited to 25 examples, each one made to order. We sincerely hope those 25 people have a very big supply of brave pills. We’ll bring you more on this ridiculous birthday present as we have it.