LUST FOR LIFE

The Ariel Atom 4RR and Nichols N1A are two of the most extreme cars money can buy. We take a bottle of brave pills and hit the track

- WORDS JACK RIX & JETHRO BOVINGDON

Jack Rix: I HOPE YOU PACKED SOME SPARE BRAVE PANTS TODAY JETHRO

JR: - I just wrote off a pair scanning the spec sheets. Today we have two of the fastest and most extreme road-legal cars money can buy, the TopGear test track to ourselves and Stig is rumoured to be nearby. Excitement levels on a scale of one to 10?

Jethro Bovingdon: Well, I do like to play it cool. But today I'll make an exception and say 10 MILLION, or just any big number that sounds hyperbolic. Because I love these sorts of cars: lightweight, no gimmicks, no tech being used to disguise bad habits or excess chubbiness and big demands placed on the driver. Which means a bit of fear, too. And we all need a teensy bit of terror in our lives, don't we? Speaking of which, you appear to have brought the sharpest knife in the box...

JR: Yeah, and I don't even regret it. Yet. I've brought along the Ariel Atom 4RR, built to celebrate 25 years of the Ariel Atom. Note it's not the mere 4R (that lapped the TopGear track in the hands of The Stig in 1min 13.7secs last year): this one is a whole 'R' faster. Essentially, we're looking at the spiritual successor to the Atom V8 - not in cylinder count, but in terms of sheer insanity. It has 525bhp, more downforce, weighs as much as a flip flop (OK, sub 700kg) and is the most focused and fastest Atom ever - and they're all bloody quick. If you recall the iconic flappy cheek Clarkson moment back in the day, that supercharged Atom only had 300bhp... this one might take our heads clean off.