Superbike thrills from a car

The Ariel Atom V8 is "the ultimate car for wind-in-the-hair motoring", says Tom Phillips in AutoExpress. "With no doors or roof, the standard Honda-powered Atom is one of the most extreme cars money can buy.

But now Ariel has gone one step further, with a limited production run of 25 Atoms powered by a V8 engine." That makes the performance "seriously brisk": 0-62mph takes less than 2.3 seconds, with 100mph from rest taking just 5.4 seconds. The top speed is 170mph, stretching to 200mph in race set-up. In short, this is one of "the most extreme cars ever built".

And it's one of the most fun to drive too, says Matt Prior in Autocar. The whole experience is "utterly, utterly addictive". You might think the V8 would "be an Ariel too far too fast, too firebreathing, too monstrous and borderline un-driveable. Whisper it, but Ariel thought it might be too; a car just to keep the lunatics satisfied. But it isn't; the Ariel blokes don't know how to make a bad car.

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The V8 is brilliant to its core." The Ariel is the only car that can truly rival superbikes for speed and acceleration. It's "absurd", of course, as a practical proposition, having no roofs, windscreen or doors.

But it behaves itself surprisingly well on the road the V8 is "tame and docile", the ride "agile and nimble" and the unassisted steering "lovely".

"Really, there's nothing else quite like it."