Ariel got started making bicycles in the 1870s. And its best known product is the skeletal Atom sports car.
Meanwhile, the custom-built 2018 Ariel Nomad Tactical recently for sale on eBay is from another era—and another world. The custom low-slung, off-road vehicle pushes dune buggy performance to a new level.
The Nomad is manufactured in the US by TMI Autotech in South Boston, Va. The 2.4 liter, 4-cylinder Honda i-VTEC powering the Nomad is a durable workhorse. And after TMI fitted the vehicle with a supercharger, the Honda four-cylinder engine’s output jumped to 300 horsepower.
That allows the 1,750-pound all-terrain buggy to go from zero-to-60 in 3.5 seconds. That’s the same time offered in a 2021 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody. Gear changes come through a Honda six-speed close-ratio transmission and hydraulic clutch.
The satin black Nomad has just 2,200 miles, so it has decades of remaining life. The seller will help get the vehicle titled and registered in a buyer’s state. The Tactical Package includes these goodies:
- custom light bar with four overhead spots with halos
- high-performance Alcon brake system
- Warn front winch
- remote brake bias adjuster system
- 15-inch BFG Mud Terrain tires
A Heritage Revived
The Ariel penny-farthing bicycle design from 1871
The Ariel brand made bicycles, motorcycles, hillclimbers, and race cars throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But Ariel went dormant by the early 1970s.
Ariel revived the nameplate in 1999 with its Atom sports car. The lightweight, high-performance racer feature an exoskeletal tube chassis and Honda Type-R engines and gearboxes. The company, based in Somerset, is England’s smallest car manufacturer, producing only 100 vehicles annually. The company also makes the radical Ace motorcycle, using a skeletal design and Honda power.
The Nomad cockpit
The Ariel Atom went through several iterations since its introduction in 2000—before the Nomad was introduced in 2015. TMI Autotech purchased the license in 2016 from Ariel United Kingdom to make Ariel vehicles in the US.
Adventures on the Fringe
Road and Track tested two early Ariel Nomads manufactured by TMI Autotech. The magazine crew was impressed with on-road and off-road abilities seldom found in buggies with mud tires and long-travel suspensions.
The magazine reported:
The Ariel Nomad, with its armadillo profile, looks like a creation of a madcap engineer on the fringe of humanity’s outpost.
The 2018 Ariel Nomad Tactical is ready to travel wherever paved and unpaved routes might lead. And its reliable design will make sure you return safely to civilization.
