I’ve always had a thing for the Ariel Atoms…scratch that, I’ve always had a thing for all light weight driver oriented cars. The Ariel Atom happens to be towards the front half of that list in terms of quality and fun. Yet somehow fun just is never fun enough for some people. 300hp and 1000lbs would be a formula for a heart attack to begin with, but now Ariel is coming out with a version sporting 200 more hp. Over the top? For sure.

They are hard at work building a custom V8 from two Suzuki Hayabusa engine blocks to create enough power needed to permanently reshape your face (no windshield here).

This car will be a pain machine. The expensive kind of pain you’d need to spend $160,000 USD for.

Disclaimer: I have a bit of a thing for Hayabusa modded V8 engines…I’ve already come really close to using one in a project car (until reality struck me). Someday I hope I have the extra money to waste to actually make it happen.

I heard it first here: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/08/v8-powered-ariel-atom-500-could-cost-at-least-160k/

More info on the Atom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Atom