Honda’s UK division and the Ariel Motor Company have renewed their exclusive engine supply deal.
The small British company called Ariel Motors only has eight assembly technicians, and they are currently celebrating the manufacture of 1,500 Atom cars.
It took them 16 years to build this number of vehicles, something a regular car factory makes in just a day, but they are proud of the result. Ariel claims no two Atoms are the same, as every car is made to order, and customers choose from thousands of possible configurations.
Considering that this model provides a level of performance comparable to that of a supercar, it makes the production milestone even more impressive.
Ariel Atom production began in 2000, but the first cars featured a 1.8-liter Rover K Series engine. Three years later, Ariel Motors signed an engine supply deal with Honda that provided them with the Honda K20A engine, used on the Civic Type R of the time.
Ariel Motors eventually developed a supercharged version, but they also manufactured cars with standard specification engines. The British company even sells a V8 version of the Atom.
Each Ariel model is built by a single technician from the beginning to the end, and the build engineer only puts his name on the car once he is happy with the result. Ariel prides itself on allowing customers to visit the factory and enabling them to be a part of the assembly process and talk to the people building their car.
The Atom is not the only model manufactured by Ariel Motors, as the British company has introduced a motorcycle in its range in 2014, the Ariel Ace. Last year brought the Nomad to the lineup, a crossover with an exoskeleton.
Ariel Motors prides itself on the small workshop it operates in the United Kingdom, as it allows them to attain a high level of quality and individualization. The British carmaker has explained that it considers its customers as a big family, no matter where they are and who they are, as the limited production numbers allow them to keep in touch and provide a personal level of after-sale care.
It took them 16 years to build this number of vehicles, something a regular car factory makes in just a day, but they are proud of the result. Ariel claims no two Atoms are the same, as every car is made to order, and customers choose from thousands of possible configurations.
Considering that this model provides a level of performance comparable to that of a supercar, it makes the production milestone even more impressive.
Ariel Atom production began in 2000, but the first cars featured a 1.8-liter Rover K Series engine. Three years later, Ariel Motors signed an engine supply deal with Honda that provided them with the Honda K20A engine, used on the Civic Type R of the time.
Ariel Motors eventually developed a supercharged version, but they also manufactured cars with standard specification engines. The British company even sells a V8 version of the Atom.
Each Ariel model is built by a single technician from the beginning to the end, and the build engineer only puts his name on the car once he is happy with the result. Ariel prides itself on allowing customers to visit the factory and enabling them to be a part of the assembly process and talk to the people building their car.
The Atom is not the only model manufactured by Ariel Motors, as the British company has introduced a motorcycle in its range in 2014, the Ariel Ace. Last year brought the Nomad to the lineup, a crossover with an exoskeleton.
Ariel Motors prides itself on the small workshop it operates in the United Kingdom, as it allows them to attain a high level of quality and individualization. The British carmaker has explained that it considers its customers as a big family, no matter where they are and who they are, as the limited production numbers allow them to keep in touch and provide a personal level of after-sale care.