The Ariel Hipercar is a 1,000PS nutjob with a turbine

Hipercar is a portmanteau of “high performance carbon reduction”. It’s not very exciting, but then perhaps it doesn’t need to be when you have something this black, menacing and spiky. And true to Ariel form, so very fast.  Ariel’s first closed coupe – actually its first car with doors and a windscreen – is electric, looks like nothing else, and will blast from 0-100mph in just 4.4 seconds. 0-60? Ariel says with typical precision that takes 2.09 secs. So definitely hyper.

And did we mention the rocket booster out the back? Actually it’s a baby gas turbine whose 47PS (35kW) keeps the batteries topped up and so extends the battery pack’s 150 mile range. The turbine adds weight and complexity and not all will want it, so the thinking is it will be offered as an option. A motor in each wheel rated at 295PS (220kW) means a total system power of 1,180PS (880kW). Each motor dishes up 450Nm (332lb ft) of torque. Total pulling power? A mammoth 1,800Nm (1,327lb ft), with full torque vectoring to ensure deploying all this grunt doesn’t get unruly.

This thing couldn’t not be fast. Ariel even says there might be more to come. With some tweaking to the torque vectoring the company is hoping to get down to sub 2.0 seconds for 0-60 and under 4.0 seconds to 100mph. Fast yes, but fun too. “Fun” is in fact one of the drive modes, available if you want to shred the Michelin Pilot Sport rubber. The other modes are Eco, Sport and Serious. Alongside the four-motor Hipercar, Ariel’s intention is to offer a two-motor, rear-drive “entry” model with 590PS (440kW) and just the 900Nm (664lb ft) of torque.

The Hipercar might be daring in the extreme and a massive departure for Ariel, but it displays the kind of engineering you expect of the company – the kind that delivers its cars’ signature light weight and agility. But with all that bodywork, by Ariel standards at least, some luxury trimmings inside and plenty of features to deliver what Ariel calls “usability”, it’s inevitably the heaviest Ariel ever at around a tonne and a half. That’s still not bad for a car with a 62kWh slab of lithium-ion batteries under the floor and all the other gubbins needed to run an 800-volt electrical system.

It’s all housed inside a lightweight aluminium bonded chassis structure with aluminium front and rear subframes and double wishbone suspension. The brakes are AP Racing, with six-piston calipers up front. The body, with its plethora of vertical fins and intakes – including a roof-mounted scoop to feed air to the turbine – is all in carbon fibre.

Do not imagine this to be a one-off. For sure the car you see here is a prototype, but Ariel is working to develop it into a fully type-approved road-legal model to put into low-volume production. It’s thought the first customer cars will be ready in two years’ time. And a price? Ariel suggests that will be “under a million pounds”. For something so unique and with such potential as a hypercar giant-killer, it might just be a bargain…