Ariel, the English carmaker best known for building the Atom track toy and squishing Jeremy Clarkson's face into a horrible mess, intends to build a hypercar that will rival the fastest cars on the planet. Only Ariel is calling its project the HIPERCAR. It stands for High Performance Carbon Reduction, but will get a proper name nearer the time of its release, slated for 2019. Autocar claims its currently codenamed the P40. Like the Atom and Nomad, the Hipercar will offer staggering performance.

Ariel claims it will deliver 1,180 horsepower and 1,330 lb-ft of torque, which is enough to propel it to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, to 100 mph in just 3.8 seconds (so comfortably over a second quicker than a McLaren P1) and to 150 mph in an astonishing 7.8 seconds. Top speed is set at 155 mph. The Series Hybrid EV comes powered by four motors delivering 295 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque to each of the four wheels. As well as featuring a centrally-mounted 42 kWh, lithium-ion battery running 680 Volts, the hypercar gets a 35 kW micro-turbine range extender. Running at 120,000 rpm, it sends around 50 hp to keep the battery charged independently of any charging infrastructure.

A two-wheel drive model with a 56 kWh battery is also in development. The design of the car has yet to be finalized but Ariel has confirmed that it will be made from carbon-fiber body panels and based around an aluminum folded and bonded lightweight chassis with full rollover protection, with aluminum front and rear subframes carrying aluminum wishbones and outboard adjustable suspension. A set of carbon composite wheels will be staggered 20/21 inches front/rear. Built in collaboration with partners Equipmake and Delta Motorsport, and partly funded by a British government initiative, prototypes of the car will be shown on September 6-7 at the Low Carbon Vehicle Show at Millbrook, UK.

As for pricing, Simon Saunders said, "Like other Ariels we want HIPERCAR to represent excellent value for money for the remarkable performance on offer. It will be an expensive car because of the technology involved but when compared to £1m+ supercars, which it will outperform, it's going to represent excellent value for money. This is the first true electric supercar that will cross continents, drive to town and lap a race track."