Ariel (vehicle)
|
|
Ariel was a British bicycle, motorcycle and automobile manufacturer in Birmingham.
History
Ariel was established by James Staley and William Hillman in 1870. The first products were penny-farthing bicycles under the Ariel name. By 1896 they had started on motorised transports.
The first Ariel Tricycle was used a 2.25 hp De Dion engine mounted at the rear. More tricycles and quadricycles were produced and Ariel then moved into car production.
Cars were produced over two periods: from 1900 to 1915, and again from 1922 to 1925. The first Ariel car was a 10hp twin-cylinder car produced in 1902. In 1903, their first four-cylinder was a 16 hp model. Both, these vehicles had a leather cone clutch that entirely separate from the flywheel. A six-cylinder model, built on a seemingly inadequate tubular chassis, entered production early in 1904.
An entirely new range was announced at the end of 1905; called the "Aero-Simplex", these cars were Mercedes-inspired four-cylinder designs of 15hp and 25/30hp and a six of 35/40hp. In 1907-08 the company began production of the monstrous 50/60hp six, which offered a engine of 15.9 litres for a chassis price of £950. In 1907 Ariel sold its Bournbrook, Birmingham factory to the British Lorraine-Dietrich, and thereafter assembled its cars at the Coventry Ordnance Works. Production of a 1.3 litre light car was quashed by the outbreak of World War I.
After 1918 the company tried one last, abortive attempt to cash in on the small car market; the Ariel Nine featured a flat-twin air-cooled engine, and was built by A. Harper Sons and Bean.
In 1944 Ariel became part of the BSA group.
The last Ariel was in the 1970's The "Ariel 3" was a 3-wheeler 50cc 2-stroke moped different from other mopeds at the time not just for having 3-wheels but because it was a tilting vehicle. The front half of the moped was hinged to the rear and so it could tilt into corners whilst keeping all 3-wheels on the ground. Production of the Ariel 3 was short and the moped was dropped along with the Ariel name shortly afterwards.
Famous Models
- Ariel Square Four
Modern Ariel
Ariel Ltd is based in Somerset, and is one of the UK's smallest automobile companies, with just 7 employees, producing no more than 30 cars per year.
The company's flagship car is the Ariel Atom. An extremely light, high performance car based around the Honda Civic Type-R engine and gearbox. The Atom is the world's first exoskeletal car, it has no bodywork or roof, and is built entirely around the tube chassis, making it extremely lightweight at less than 500 kg. This means that the high performance supercharged model has a power-to-weight ratio of over 600 bhp per tonne, at the fraction of the cost of a conventional supercar.
The Ariel Atom has received great media interest, most recently when Jeremy Clarkson tested the Atom on BBC motoring television programme Top Gear.de:Ariel (Auto)