A 2-litre Honda -derived four-pot is what you’ll find at its heart, but thanks to the addition of a supercharger it sends 335bhp and 243lb ft of torque to the ground, up 45bhp over its ordinary sibling. Some of today’s hot hatches might boast more power, but combined these figures with its 700kg kerb weight and you get a power-to-weight ratio of 486bhp/tonne - that’s more than the Ferrari 812 Superfast .

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The long-standing Atom is a welcome break from today’s influx of hefty, numbers-focussed performance cars, with a kerb weight of well under a tonne and driving-machine interaction a high priority. Blend this with the Nomad and you’ll find yourself with the Nomad R, a road-biased off-roader with a track-spec sequential gearbox and supercar-rivalling power-to-weight number.

Somerset-based Ariel has provided us with some of our favourite driving machines over the years, through a handful of Atom variants and more recently, the off-road biased Nomad. In this week’s car pictures, we look at a new model that aims to offer the best of both worlds… To read John Barker’s verdict, pick up your copy of evo issue 278.

Such a power-to-weight figure makes for impressive straight-line performance, with 0-60mph said to happen in only 2.9sec and top speed coming 11mph later than the standard Nomad thanks to lengthened ‘Tarmac Rally’ ratios. Also aiding acceleration is a set of sticky Yokohama A052 tyres, a drastic change from the off-road biased Geolander rubber on the standard car.

As intriguing as it may sound, can the Nomad R really offer the best of both worlds? A 486bhp/tonne power-to-weight figure is mightily impressive, but coming at over twice the price and 140kg heavier than the recent Ariel Atom 4, is it an iteration too far?

To read the full story, pick up your copy of evo issue 278 where John Barker put it through its paces. If you’ve been unable to make it to the shops, single issues are available for purchase via magsdirect.co.uk, or subscribe here.

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Car pictures of the week: archive

Below are some of our favourite images from previous editions of evo car pictures of the week. Click on the pictures for the full galleries.

Gallery 1

Click below to see all the images of our first car pictures of the week gallery, here featuring the indomitable Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, mk1 Volkswagen Golf GTI, Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 and the stunning Porsche 911 re-imagined by Singer.

Gallery 2

Here we dig further back into the evo archives where we pull out some iconic images of the Ford GT slightly out of context in the European Alps, a TVR Sagaris in central London, the Audi RS2 as well as one of our most iconic twin tests between the Ferrari 599 GTO and Lexus LF-A.

Gallery 3

The previous-generation Bentley Continental GT seemed to get better with age, a notion mirrored by the Jaguar E-type when in modern ‘lightweight’ form. Both of these British icons, as well as the Aston Martin Vantage GT12 feature in gallery three.

Gallery 4

Fans might have cried fowl when Ferrari decided to turbocharge the Ferrari 488, but it’s not like Ferrari don’t have a history with turbocharged V8 engines. Here the 488 co-stars alongside the stunning F40, while elsewhere in this gallery we take a Porsche Cayman GTS to Japan for a stunning mountain blast.

Gallery 5

Italian twelve-cylinder supercars seem to be the main agenda in the fourth evo car pictures of the week gallery, here featuring four V12 Lambos and the stunning 599 SA Aperta limited edition alongside its 550 Barchetta predecessor.

Gallery 6

GT3s and GT-Rs are just the beginning for gallery number six, with the Noble M600, Aston Martin One-77 and a couple of McLaren flagships filling out our most amazing gallery yet.

Gallery 7

A gallery of new and old, here the McLaren 720S cemented its place as a truly great supercar alongside a daring night shoot with an Audi R8 LMX, pitch a Nissan GT-R and Audi Quattro against each other on Welsh mountain roads and drive the original 'Hakosuka' GT-R.

Gallery 8

Ford's RS200 in a moody dark garage is just one of many amazing shoots in our 8th gallery, click on the image for the full gallery

Gallery 9

Click on the image below for our ninth car pictures of the week gallery, including this hardcore lot!

Gallery 10

Our tenth gallery turned it up another notch, including the wettest shoot in history (apparently).

Gallery 11

The best hardcore Ferrari supercars and more feature in our 11th car pictures of the week gallery.