Ariel Atom 3 burns up the tarmac in Malaysia

We first had the pleasure of getting out minds blown by the Atom back in December of 2008 (read more) at the hands of the company's race manager, Oliver Thomson, within the confines of the Changi Exibition Centre.

The precise turn-in's and gut-rearranging acceleration of the car left us with our mouth's dry and a perpetual smile on our faces. I should remind you, the car was only fitted with road tyres then and wasn't running at its optimal since it was only received days earlier.

This time however, the team promised us a much more potent afternoon with the Atom at Sepang. Employing sticky semi-slicks and with the car properly "run-in", the machine sat in the pits, calmly deceiving the anxious beings of it's truly vulgar and raw nature.

But what good's a track car without a driver to harness all that performance? That responsibility fell on Malaysia's only Formula 1 driver to date and current Malaysian A1 Team Owner/Driver, Alex Yoong, to muscle every inch of the cars supercharged 2.0-litre Honda K20 block onto the track.

The ride

After observing the pit lane speed limit, Alex floored the throttle from the line all the way into the first corner, quickly 'heel-toe'ing' his downshifts from third and turning sharply into the esses.

The Alcon brakes worked great with the tyres to accommodate the high speed braking, all without any complaints from either of them. Alex then accelerated out of the second corner in second gear, catching the rear as it stepped out, and controlling it into the uphill sweeping right hander that lay before us.

The car felt great. No signs of understeer when braking hard into tight corners, and negotiating the sweeping corners at speed was taken in its stride.

Coming out of turn 11, Alex once again got early on the gas and controlled the car's drift for almost 50 meters before braking gently into turn 12. Probably the part I was most looking forward to, the long straights, was now in sight.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh" the supercharger wailed in anger as we accelerated up from second all the way to sixth gear before the brakes were tortured into stopping the wheels enough to make the last corner. Unfortunately while braking hard, Alex realised we were going too fast to make the sharp bend, and decided to let the car run off into the gravel instead of trying to make the turn.

Even though we were just on our out-lap, the fury unleashed by the 300 bhp feather-weight machine was enough to convince me of its acclaimed prowess. Britian's Top Gear star Jeremy Clarkson wasn't joking when he said this car was insane. With direct go-kart-like handling, and a power-to-weight ratio that's better than an Enzo's, the Ariel Atom 3 left me wanting more of its trademark adrenaline-inducing, face-reconstructing experience.

In fact, I was looking forward to taking the Atom around the track myself, but as with our unpredictable tropical weather system, it started pouring moments before the Atom was scheduled to go on track. Citing the tricky damp track conditions, the Atomic Racing team decided that it would be in our best interest to get a more experienced hand to drive us around the track instead.

Journalists were taken on an out-lap and then an in-lap. With each successive passenger carefully stumbling out of the Atom, the initial comments started to take a repetitive turn.

"That was incredible!" and "It's crazy. This car's just crazy. Wow™just crazy going around the track", stand testament to what this car reduces you to after redefining your understanding of speed and bringing you close to experiencing motoring nirvana.

Of course they did go on and on about the car's handling and how well Alex handled the manic nature of the car, but you wouldn't have paid much attention either if you were up next, would you?

So another event and another set of minds blown way out the window. Here's hoping the next time we do get a call from Atomic, it'd be for a track drive instead.