U.S. customers itching for the chance to own the Ariel Nomad will finally get their chance after the long-reported partnership between England-based Ariel and Virginia’s TMI AutoTech was finally made official. The team-up gives TMI AutoTech the license to produce and sell the extreme dune buggy in the U.S. market. All that time of wishing to see the Nomad in our shores and it’s finally going to happen.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Nomad, think of it as an off-road version of the track-focused Atom, right down to the Nomad’s own brand of hellaciously fun performance credentials. It’s got the same Honda-sourced 2.4-liter K24 engine tuned to deliver 230 horsepower and 220 pound-feet of torque while mated to a close-ratio six-speed manual transmission. It may not run as smooth as the Atom on a race track, but the Nomad is still good enough to pounce to 60 mph in just 3.4 seconds and 100 mph in 8.7 seconds to go with a top speed of 125 mph. The Nomad also comes with a similar exoskeleton body as the Atom. Considering its purpose, Ariel took the time to reinforce the tube frame design while also toughening up the chassis to be able to deal with unpaved terrain, the kind of surface that the Nomad was built to conquer.
Everything about the Nomad looks and sounds like a ball of fun. The only downside, if you can even call it that, is the car’s price tag. That starts at an incredible $80,000 for the Sport variant and $92,250 for the Tactical version. By comparison, the standard Ariel Atom retails in the U.S. for $64,500, although the myriad of versions does push the model’s price up to the vicinity of the Nomad. The Atom 3S, for example, comes with a price tag of $89,975.
If customers are willing to pay that much money for the Nomad – I can’t blame them – TMI will be happy to accommodate any orders from North, Central, and South America.
Continue after the jump to read the full story.
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