Ariel Atom 'ring lap: Time For Tea?

Time for tea and a lie down, possibly, after a lap of the Nordschleife in an Atom with our man Dale

"Do you want a go?" sounds the voice behind me. I've been caught! Caught in a trap baited by a 300hp supercharged toy. I might be a grown man wandering around the car park at Destination Nurburgring, but in reality I'm as helpless as a fly in honey. I break away from inspecting the Atom before me, and turn around to face the friendly voice.

"Erm, I'm not sure I should," I offer, somewhat weakly. Something in the back of my head is ringing a warning bell. It's muffled by the imagined roar of blown VTEC, but I can still hear it.

"Ah, come on," says the car's owner Neil. "You'll love it. Take it for a lap!"

I'm silent. He's right, I will. A 2010-model Ariel Atom with the 2.0-litre K20 motor plucked from a Honda Civic Type R with a blower fitted. No aero. Semi-slicks.

"You know, if there was a GP track session I'd be all over it like a tramp on chips," I say. "But I'm not sure the Nordschleife is the place to learn about the limits of something I've never driven before."

And that's how, one 15-minute session of the GP track later, I find myself rolling out on to the Nordschleife in the video you can watch below....

Nordschleife lap here.