The Ariel Hipercar is an all-new creation from the boutique British manufacturer, powered by four electric motors. Ariel even plans to sell a version of the Hipercar with a turbine jet engine as a range extender. Now, the brand’s founder and director, Simon Saunders is taking us through the design process as the first full-bodied prototype begins testing.
Saunders recently spent time with Top Gear’s Ollie Marriage to go over the finer details of his company’s latest creation. The Hipercar is targeting a 0-100 mph (161 km/h) time of just 4.4 seconds. It can only do that through the use of four in-board electric motors and a 62 kWh battery pack in combination with sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.
Saunders says that the gas turbine engine is by far the most efficient way to extend the driving range for this application. According to him, Ariel considered conventional engines and even a rotary as a range extender before settling on the jet engine you see protruding from the tail of the Hipercar. He also says that the idea of the range extender was specifically so that Hipercar, which won’t be its final production name, won’t be reliant on a charging network to use the car.
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So long as there’s some sort of fuel for the range extender it will keep the battery topped up. Of course, that can’t be said when the car shows up at a race track. In fact, Saunders says that “you couldn’t do a full track day” in this car. The power requirements are simply too vast to lap it all day. That didn’t stop the team from creating eight different cooling systems to enable at least some track capability though.
The aero bits are equally unconventional as well. “There’s a lot of Venturi under there,” he says of the underbody paneling and the rear diffuser. Originally, the company considered ground effects but it made the car incapable of going over normal road obstacles. A major part of the aerodynamic touches seen on the body is specifically there to aid in cooling. The tall fins on the front fenders break up the airflow over the mirrors. Form and function live together in the Hipercar.
On track though, it’s still very much a prototype. As Marriage pummels it over and over again it finally skips, studders, and inspires its driver to say that it feels like a misfire. It might not be ready for production just yet but we expect that when customers finally get their hands on it that the only thing that skips or stutters might be their heartbeat.
Saunders goes into much further detail about the interior treatments, the construction of the doors, and more. It’s a film that’s well worth a full viewing.