The Goodwood Test: Ariel Nomad – The Ultimate car?

Heritage

The Ariel name in the context of personalised transport dates all the way back to bicycles manufactured in the 19^th century, with motorbikes and powered tricycles coming along from early in the 20^th century. Despite several ownership changes, Ariel built a good reputation before the war but was sold in 1951 to the Birmingham Small Arms company where it joined not only BSA but Triumph under the same roof. But once the decision had been made for Ariel to drop powerful motorbikes in favour of small scooters the writing was on the wall. The last scooter was made over 45 years ago.

The name was exhumed by Simon Saunders in 1999 and first applied to the Ariel Atom, a pure sports car with a distinctive exoskeleton spaceframe design. Saunders and his small team in Crewkerne have painstakingly developed the Atom over time to the point where now it is one of the fastest accelerating road legal devices available. A new motorcycle, the Ariel Ace, was added to the line up in 2014.

Design

The Nomad looks like an Atom on steroids, but it’s not. The Nomad philosophy is entirely different to that which underpins the Atom and owes more to the beach buggy way of thinking than anything you might consider using to attack a lap record. Its tubular spaceframe is altogether bigger and heavier, its engine a 2.4-litre Honda unit in place of the Atom’s 2-litre powerplant because what the bigger engine loses in top end power, it makes up for in low down torque, which is a much more useful commodity in such a car. Like the Atom however, the engine is available in normally aspirated or supercharged form, yielding in the Nomad’s case a choice between a 235bhp or a 290bhp output.

But the biggest departure from Atom thinking is the suspension which, instead of being taut and resistant to roll in all three dimensions, feels 2CV soft by comparison, all the better for clambering over off-road obstacles and finding traction on low to no grip surfaces.Where you go from there is entirely up to you. Prices start at around £33,000 but can easily rise to £50,000 or more depending on how much gear you choose to add. In addition to the supercharger, there are numerous wheel and tyre options, damper sets from standard road to world rally car specification and huge banks of lights that can be mounted on the roof for those intent on marauding at night.

Performance

The ‘standard’ Nomad is a rapid machine whose performance is actually more in keeping with the limited grip afforded by the ultra soft suspension and dual-purpose tyres. Strap on the supercharger and the car goes berserk, it’s 0-60mph time slashed from the mid four-second range to the early threes. It’s a generally hilarious way of getting about, so long as you never forget that paucity of grip works in two dimensions: those tyres will also only provide so much deceleration too. But the noise is great whichever engine you choose and the standard six speed Honda-sourced transmission as good a stick shift as you’ll find.

Passion

There’s no point trying to get the most out of the Nomad on the public road – it’s ceaselessly entertaining but it’s only when you book some time on a gravel rally stage or two (there are plenty you can visit and it’s as easy and probably more affordable than a circuit-based track day) that an entire other dimension of automotive enjoyment becomes apparent. If you’ve only ever driven on a road or track before, it’ll make you feel like a baby opening its eyes for the first time and seeing this whole new world open up before you.

In terms of pure, laugh yourself silly fun, there’s nothing a million pound hypercar on a racetrack can do to rival a Nomad on the loose. Work at it and you’ll reach the stage where your entire journey becomes one vast drift, possessed of an infinite range of angles and directions. You’ll see hands on the wheel deftly applying just a touch of opposite-lock here, a great armful of it there, and it all seems so automatic you may briefly wonder whom they might belong to.

The Nomad is a highly specialized device: it’s fun on the road and funnier still on the track, but take it to the forested habitat it prefers, and the Nomad will try to convince you it’s actually not possible to have more fun on four wheels. And it will probably succeed.

Price tag of our car £36,000 (Nomad Supercharged)