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Put your money where your mouth is... http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/

First off it's a concept vehicle. The point is to try new things, good or bad, to see how it works.

Moving forward, the skin of this car is almost purely for aerodynamic effect. There is a certain amount of visual additive, and it keeps the wind and dirt off the occupants. In reference to other mechanical value, there are plenty of cars which have no skin at all and are faster than pretty much any other production road going vehicle. Ariel's Atom, to name one. Cars don't need skins. Hell, look at motorcycles. The passengers aren't even contained in the vehicle!

I think it's an awesome idea. Of course, my current roadster is paint chipped all to hell and being able to replace body panels of fabric would be rather appealing, but think about washing your car. Strip it down like bed sheets and throw the skin in the washing machine. Want a new paint job? Maybe a thousand dollars of fabric, or perhaps even just a dye job. You could change your car's color in a matter of minutes.

That brings up a really interesting point. How do the police identify cars? Color and shape? Well those two are irrelevant with this vehicle. You can change the shape while you're moving and theoretically the color in about 10 minutes, I figure. It goes into a parking garage as a red roadster and comes out as a green pickup truck.

Most importantly, and realistically, I'm sure the weight savings are impressive. And saving weight improves performance both in the go fast and the save fuel sense of the term. Imagine this combined with the Tesla Roadster. Shazam!

This is just an Ariel Atom with the motor removed and an electric and batteries put in.
http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/04/frames.htm

That being the case, I have seen this car put up against a sport bike on a closed course... and out did the bike in the TURNS. First turn the car went under the bike and never looked back.

Due to regulation, such cars will never make it in the US, which is a shame since they could get the same MPG as a hybrid car but with half the cost and twice the performance (like a motorcycle).

but google seems to rank the X1 as 0-60 in 'under 4 seconds' - the Ariel Atom 2 chasis that the car's based on does it 2.9-3.5 depending upon who tested it.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that the X1 makers took a very very fast car with a 2 litre Honda petrol engine - and have made a slightly slower electric version for a significant multiplier more.
Whoopeee-skip.
Now if you want an electric car, this is all wonderful - but don't plug it as electric being better than petrol.
If you want to see Ariels very understated show-off page clicky this
http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/04/press.htm

The vast majority of that vehicle appears to be the Ariel Atom... a car which, with engine, can be had for $30k US. I'm sure you could get it for $20k if you wanted to do your own engine... and I don't imagine it would take $80k to get numbers nearing these... though the gadjetry looks nifty.

They're comparing this vehicle to complete passenger cars (although ultimate luxury sports cars). It would be more appropriate to compare it to something like a 7, or an Ariel Atom, which is faster than the Veyron 0-60 anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I love electric cars, and plan to convert my own some day, but don't compare apples-to-oranges, article.

The problem with electric cars was never performance, it's range. And this car doesn't solve that problem, although the range isn't that bad either (100 miles). Being an open car, it's not exactly a daily driver though.

Also, if you look at the pictures this is actually just an electric Ariel Atom, which is also faster than a 360 Spider or Carrera GT.

Don't get me wrong -- this is cool. It's just not nearly as revolutionary as the article writer thinks it is, and it certainly won't "save the planet--fast!"

The chassis on that looks exactly like the Ariel Atom. The Atom is a very slick, road-legal, car fitted with a Civic Type-R engine that's then supercharged. It produces more power-to-weight than an Enzo, I believe. They're also very cheap (It think the basic model is around £20k here). That'll also do 0-60 in 2.5 seconds (faster than the Ferrari).

That's not a new car - that's the Ariel Atom with an electric motor in it. http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/

The coolest open 4 wheeler costs for about $40000:
Weighs 1000 pounds
220 Bhp Honda VTEC w/6 speeds
2 seats
Better power to weight ratio than most $100000 sports cars.
0-100-0 mph in 10.88 seconds

http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/04/frames.htm

Its engine is the Honda 2.0 litre Vtec engine. Fast _and_ economical (It's a 4 banger, after all). If I was to blow an equivalent wad of cash on an impractical car like that mentioned in TFA that has half its value in the silly _battery pack_, I'd much rather spend it on something _fun_ and impractical.

--
BMO

ariel atom, Honda vtec engine, faster than an Enzo and $60k. More bugs in teeth, however.

You havn't a clue.

Google for kit cars, eg the Ariel Atom or the Westfield XTR. Cheap kit cars which will blow away most expensive, exotic sports cars on a track. The Westfield has a 1.3L Hayabusa motorcycle engine in it btw, less than 200HP iirc.

You can build one of these things in your garage or buy them pre-built. Not hard at all, in relative terms.

Tried to submit this as an article but got rejected:
Ariel motors - here is a true geek's car: no body panels, just the bare minimum required to drive, small, light, Honda iVTEC 4cyl 220bhp engine. Looks very cool, but I find it to be a problem that there is no option to have it with body panels and the windshield for those rainy days.

Would you drive one of those? I realize that the traffic in North America today looks like WWII traffic columns: SUVs look like tanks and behave like tanks too and there are way too many of trucks on the road. (Isn't it time to revitalize the rail road in North America and get rid of the Tractor Trailers?)

In any case, at around 15-19K British pounds this is a very nice little car but I guess it's for summers only.