Atom overtakes a million pounds’ worth of cars at the ’Ring

We only went and got the  bloody dates wrong. On the day we arrived at the Nürburgring, we expected to see a fat cat supercar day in full swing. That would mean lots of Ferraris, mostly, being driven slowly, universally. Ferraris tend to be driven by hapless showboating bunnies, especially around the Nürburgring's Nordschleife, so picking off a million quid in a day would be easy. In fact, there was a chance we could do it in a single lap.

But no. The supercar day had happened the week before. Er, s***. So I was faced with a bunch of hard nut Germans and Brits wearing expensive open face helmets, driving gloves and boots and grim facial expressions. That'd be fine and dandy if they were piloting clapped-out MkII Golfs. No, again. I'd never seen so many Porsche 911 GT3s and Turbos and BMW M3s in one place, some fitted with near-slick tyres. These boys will be quick and will know this place.

Words: Bill Thomas
Photos: Fly

This article was originally published in 2010 in Top Gear magazine

Unlike yours truly, whose familiarity with the track goes no further than a Sony PS2 game called Gran Turismo 4, using a plastic steering wheel attached to an ironing board. Braking point? What's that, then? Lucky I'm driving a supercharged Ariel Atom...

Ah, Atom, the purity of it. No roof, no bodywork, no heater, no windscreen. Just some beautifully designed, high-grade steel tubing, four wheels and a very powerful engine. It's blindingly rapid by any standard, road or race - as you would expect of a thing weighing only 456kg and packing 300bhp. A two-litre Honda VTEC engine from the Civic Type-R, with a Jackson Racing blower sitting right behind your spine gives it plenty of urge, revving clean and quick to 8,500rpm. It's a fabulous unit.

Click here for a full rundown of all the cars we crushed at the ’Ring

A power-to-weight ratio of 660bhp per tonne puts the Atom into a rarified zone. A Ferrari Enzo, by comparison, weighs 1,365kg and produces 660bhp for a power-to-weight ratio of 483bhp per tonne. Bugatti Veyron? That's 987bhp, 1,888kg and 522bhp per tonne...

The car's scary enough, but the track is truly terrifying. You probably know that the Nürburgring's Nordschleife (the north loop) is the world's longest and most challenging race circuit, lurking in the Eiffel mountains in northwest Germany. It is 13 miles long, has 75 corners - many of them blind and off-camber, high speed and difficult, with no run-off - and is open to the public on many days throughout the summer.

It's classed as a ‘toll road' where you can do any speed you like for 16 euros a lap and where quite a few people are seriously injured every year. Especially bikers, who are let on the track at the same time as the cars. And the buses, vans and trucks...

The journey to Germany was a real epic, full-blast for four hours across France and Belgium with photographer Fly riding shotgun, in convoy with our hot hatch Lifers. Of course, I drove the whole way - that's part of the challenge, to drive to the track and back. Somewhere near Gent we diced with two superbikes at unprintable speeds on a quiet motorway. This is the only car on earth that gets respectful nods from bikers and so it should. It's one of few cars that can keep up with most of them.

Click here for a full rundown of all the cars we crushed at the ’Ring

I started out just pussyfooting around, relearning the track with 911s and Ms passing me on all sides, but the Atom didn't like it. This thing's built to go quickly, and after the second sighting lap I was getting more confident. No ‘normal' road-going car - not even one as focused and quick as a 911 GT3 or M3 CSL - can live with the Ariel's braking performance into and acceleration out of corners. On the longer straights against a well-driven quick car, I was in trouble, because I was running out of revs at 150mph, but the Atom was getting to that speed in such a short distance that by the time the 170mph-plus GT3s and M3s caught up, we were approaching the next bend. Then my brakes came into play. Six more laps and the job was done. 

Click here for a full rundown of all the cars we crushed at the ’Ring

Then I began to hunt down the BMW M5 Ring Taxi. This was the scalp of scalps. Fully liveried-up in white, red and blue BMW corporate colours, these 500bhp cars circulate at a serious pace, giving hot laps to paying punters. I let one through then caught him quickly. Four up, he was pushing his tyres hard, cutting a perfect racing line, driven by a master, but he wasn't quick enough to stay ahead too easily. I moved to overtake him at the exit of a corner, and it was the wrong thing to do. Across came the M5's rump in a blatant blocking manoeuvre, on the straight, just before I drew alongside. Schweinhundt.

Click here for a full rundown of all the cars we crushed at the ’Ring

The message was clear. "You're not coming through now, you're not coming through ever, I might ram you if you try, so back off, squirt, I've got paying customers on board and a mighty Bee-Em-Vee M5 won't play second-fiddle to a Britisher piece of scaffolding on wheels." I backed off, but not before I let him get 500 yards ahead and then caught him again. I could have forced my way past with some very late braking, but it wouldn't have been smart.

Click here for a full rundown of all the cars we crushed at the ’Ring

Near Kallenhard, Ford Focus ST 

Hocheichen (maybe), Ferrari F355 

Flugplatz or Klostertal, Mercedes SL500 

After Hohenrain, Porsche 911 Carrera

Pflanzgarten (or similar), Ferrari 360 Modena

Adenauer Forst, Porsche 911 GT3 

Hocheichen, Porsche 911 GT3

Exmuhle, BMW M3 CSL 

Kesselchen, BMW Z4 3.0 Coupe 

Kesselchen further on, another BMW Z4 Coupe

Schwalbenschwanz, nutters on sidecar 

Into Kallenhard, Audi RS4 Avant 

Hohenrain, Ferrari 575 Maranello

Into Flugplatz (perhaps), BMW M3 CSL 

Possibly Pflantzgarten, Porsche 911 Turbo 

A moral victory thanks, BMW M5 'Ring taxi