Naturally, listing the features of the Nomad’s spartan cabin is like cataloguing the innards of a Challenger tank: what’s there is less interesting than what it does, feels and looks like.
Likewise, the steering is unassisted and the brakes are ABS-free, but the front-to-rear brake bias can be adjusted, even on the move. It drives through a six-speed manual gearbox and there is no traction or stability control here. It develops 235bhp and 221lb ft in this naturally aspirated form, although Ariel being Ariel, a supercharged version followed now made defunct. Ariel’s store of 2.0-litre Type R engines for its track-biased car isn’t in danger, though, because the Nomad gets a torquier 2.4-litre unit, as used in the Civic Type S in the US.
#Ariel nomad driver#
The engine sits transversely behind the driver and is a four-pot Honda unit, just as with an Atom. All offer dual-rate springing – softer at the top of the suspension’s travel, to easily absorb small lumps and ruts, while becoming firmer as travel increases to retain fine body control. There are three damper options: the regular Bilstein units fitted and sat on Eibach springs of our test car, adjustable Bilsteins or adjustable Ohlins. It feels curious to call the Nomad an off-roader, but ostensibly that’s what it is, so it has stronger double-wishbone suspension than the Atom’s and a greatly increased ride height. It’s beefier to cope with the rallies or competitions that, Ariel estimates, 50 percent of buyers will undertake with their Nomads. Most noticeable, evidently, is the chassis, which is still built by Arch Motor & Manufacturing and still skeletal in appearance but is now stiffer and heavier. Everything else is different from the Atom.
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