Ariel Nomad
Time to see if a supercharger is worth the extra
Report 6 Ariel Nomad £36,538 OTR/ £55,313 as tested
Remember last month’s little mishap? I was doing some rally rides for Mission Motorsport, and the driveshaft got yanked out of its housing. Well, Ariel came to my rescue and loaned me a supercharged car while my one was being fxed.
This was interesting. To supercharge or not to supercharge was a regular topic of conversation in the ofce, because the one moan I have about the naturally aspirated Nomad is that it lacks guts at the bottom end. The gearing is long (70mph is 2,400rpm), but the 2.4-litre doesn’t get into its stride until torque peaks at 4,300rpm, so you have to be quick with the six-speed stick if you don’t want to have diesel Golfs hurtling of into the distance.
Now, this is perfectly easy to manage – the Nomad’s gearbox is perhaps the loveliest manual shift anywhere. But I still wondered if the supercharged version (290bhp and 251lb ft of torque) would be the motor of choice.
The answer, it turns out, isn’t that straightforward. The frst question to answer is a more convoluted and complex one: what do I want to do with my Nomad? If, broadly speaking, you’re more biased towards track days, humbling ‘proper’ sports cars and fast road driving, have the supercharger. If you’d have your Nomad like me – loose and languid, for of-road larks and rolly road driving, have the nat-asp one.
The combination of soft suspension and s’charged torque is something I’d imagine would become a handful very quickly. Bucking broncos spring to mind. Fun, provided you’re not the one clinging on to your Stetson. The yellow Nomad copes because it’s stif and snappy. This makes it fast and nimble, but moves it back into Atom territory, when what I love most about the Nomad is the ocean-going body roll, the more casual approach to cornering.
The supercharged one also has a ferocious appetite for fuel – I was looking for fuel stations after 160 miles, and averaging 19–23mpg when the red car will do an easy 240 miles at 26–30mpg. So that’s the one for me – zippy of the line, but best work done by m’way speeds. While driving the supercharged car I got a speeding ticket.