Need for speed

Need for speed

We’ve become great admirers of 37signals, who produce Web-based collaboration tools such as Basecamp and Campfire, and have written an excellent, punchy tract on developing software, called Getting Real, which you can download from their website. Their weblog Signal versus Noise carried an entry admiring the Ariel Atom, a car built on similar minimalist principles to 37signals’ software.

The car was built to maximise performance, and breaks all the known rules. It can outrun a fast motorbike round a racetrack. If you can shift through six gears fast enough, it will do 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds. It will outperform a half-million pound supercar, costs around £35,000, and is made by a 7-employee company in Somerset, that turns out about three a fortnight. And it’s road-legal; you could take it racing at a track and then drive it home. On a clip from TV program “Top Gear” on the manufacturer’s website, Jeremy Clarkson reported it is the most exciting car he’s ever driven. Oh, and it’s powered by a Honda Civic engine.

The secret? Designer Simon Saunders left off everything he could possibly do without, which turned out to exclude CD player, windscreen, doors and coachwork. Total weight: 500kg. The premise? Software should be written this way too.

To Crewkerne in Somerset then on Friday, to visit the Ariel Motor Company en route to Exmoor. Even to sit in the Atom is to change your view of motoring, and Tom kindly demonstrated how one tours in the car, packing your light baggage down in the spacious passenger footwell. He even had a model at the works with a towball fitted. Many thanks to all at Ariel Motor for their hospitality, and for their inspiring work.

Posted by SJT at August 14, 2006 09:15 AM