And it's… just a vehicle processing center…

2.6-second land rocket to promote motorcycle safety in Somerset

 Ariel Motors 

The Atom will be used by the Constabulary to promote motorcycle safety in the county. 

We never pictured the Ariel Atom as a police car, but now that Ariel Motors has actually equipped one with all the appropriate police gear, it makes perfect sense. It's light, it's highly visible, it's relatively cheap to run on a daily basis and it's wickedly fast.

Ariel Motors has teamed up with the Somerset Constabulary in the south of England to equip an Atom 3.5R, which features a 2.0-liter 350-hp engine from the Honda Civic Type R, with the necessary police gear. That includes blue LED strobes in the nose cone, a small LED light bar by Hella for the "roof" and a siren system, in addition to the standard high-visibility reflective police livery vinyl wrap. We would have thought that it would be difficult to add features like a police radio and an effective siren system (the speaker has to be pointed forward) given that the Atom has relatively limited room for all those things, while making such a low car visible to motorists, but Ariel has successfully incorporated all these features into the spartan Atom.

 Ariel Motors 

The Atom can hit 62 mph in just 2.6 seconds. 

The purpose of the Atom in the police force will be (no, not transporting multiple suspects from a bar brawl) to serve as part of the Constabulary's Safe Rider campaign, which is designed to increase road and traffic awareness by motorcyclists, in addition to promoting motorcycle safety. With a 0-62 mph of 2.6 seconds, it can outrun virtually anything on the road, two-wheeled or four-wheeled, though it probably wouldn't be the first choice for an actual pursuit because the car and the driver are so exposed.

Ariel Motors is set to debut a motorcycle soon, so the addition of the Atom to the local police force will give the Crewkerne-based automaker a publicity boost.