The Ariel Atom

Our city held our first annual 50s Greaserfest, which some would consider appropriate given all the politicians that took the stage and did their best to appeal to the audience down by the water.

We wandered up and down the rows of 50s and 60s classics, staring at their spiffy chrome and juicy juiced engines. We got ice cream Sundays and apologized to the owners of the cars as we spilled our dripping ice cream on their tweed seats. Then we noticed something totally unexpected.

The Ariel Atom.

I watched the tiny, candy coated hand-built racer roll across the grass, and was surprised at how quiet it was. It didn’t fit in with the other cars in the field, but it didn’t matter. It was the super-yummy Atom!

I’ve only ever seen this car in this awesome video, and was utterly blown away by it’s amazingness. I never thought I would ever see one in real life, since the company only makes a few hundred per year, and didn’t think there was much of a market for it way up north here where there’s snow on the ground for 13 of the 12 months of the year.

The owner was only there briefly and was preparing to leave, so I snapped a couple of pictures before he headed off to some race track to make some cocky Ferrari Enzo driver eat his dust, dust and more dust.

This particular Atom had the supercharged Chevrolet Ecotec engine in 250 hp format, which was 105% more powerful than the version Suz had in her Crapalier.

I don’t know if all Atom’s are, but this one was street-legal, so the owner tipped his hat to me, bid me adieu, felt his moustache with his fingertips, pulled his goggles over his eyes and slowly buzzed across the grass heading toward the exit.