► New Ariel Atom 4RR revealed
► Track-focused version celebrates 25 years of Atom
► Uses extreme 525bhp Honda engine
Ariel has wheeled out the candles and party poppers, celebrating 25 years of the Ariel Atom with this: the 4RR. Just 25 will be made.
It’s the most extreme and most powerful version of the Atom yet (even topping the wild V8 version), and uses a 525bhp 2.0-litre turbo from Honda. Ariel has managed to squeeze so much power out of the four-cylinder by overhauling and strengthening many of the engines components and improving its oil and cooling systems.
The structure and aerodynamics build on the already hot 4R, with Ariel calling this a ‘track-focused’ (and therefore not ‘track-only’) model. More technical specs will be revealed later in 2025.
Ariel as we currently know it has been around since 2000 when the first Atom launched. The extreme and clean-sheet sports car found a niche and enthusiastic crowd – and was no doubt propelled into many a car enthusiast’s consciousness (including mine) by a certain car journalist-turned farm owner in the early 2000s.
Since then, Ariel has constantly evolved the Atom – usually by upping the power of the Honda engines it’s always used. The general structure has hardly changed, though, with Atoms (and the off-road Nomads that have come since) still proudly looking like scaffolding with wheels attached.
Those 25 owners, then, are getting the most extreme Atom yet. Lucky them.
Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
By Jake Groves
CAR's news editor; gamer, trainer freak and serial Lego-ist
