Ladies and gentlemen, the 2012 BuyYourCar.co.uk award for the scariest car known to man goes to... the DDMWorks Ariel Atom.
And to explain why this new tuned version of the Atom is so terrifying, you have to look at the figures.
The four-pot Honda i-VTEC engine in the standard Atom develops 245bhp and propels the car from 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds. By contrast, the 3.0-litre V8 in the Ariel Atom 500 develops 500bhp and hurls you to 62mph in 2.5 seconds.
The DDMWorks Atom, however, develops 700bhp.
700bhp in a car which weighs just 675kg is a lot. To put that into perspective, the Atom has a power-to-weight ratio of 1,037bhp per tonne. A Bugatti Veyron manages just 530bhp per tonne.
DDM has taken the standard V8 Atom and replaced the pistons, con-rods and injectors. And as if that wasn't enough, they've added a bloody great turbocharger to it. Uncharacteristically for an American tuning company, they've also beefed up the suspension and the brakes. This is a good thing.
It's almost as if DDM know that 700bhp in a car as small as this is a recipe for disaster as they've given drivers the opportunity to 'turn down' the car's power output to 450bhp.
There is no word on how much the DDMWorks Atom costs, but don't expect it to be cheap.
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