Here’s an experiment for you: ask any car enthusiast forum to imagine the ultimate street legal budget supercar.  The answers you get will depend on the forum, of course, but one answer that will almost always pop up will be ‘Ariel Atom with a Small Block Chevy engine.’ Combine the bulimic weight and insane handling of the Ariel Atom with the stump pulling torque and infinite potential of the SBC and you’ll have an unbeatable combination in most people’s eyes.  Apparently someone has been paying attention, because the Deronda G400 is almost exactly that.

The Deronda G400 is a tube frame, open top racecar with a 6.0 liter, 400-hp Corvette sourced LS2 V8 stuffed in the back and mated to a Porsche 5-speed transmission.  The Deronda weighs 1,890 lbs according to Autoblog, which recently road tested the British built roadster.  The Deronda is quite a bit heavier than the Atom’s 1,400 lb curb weight.  Despite being almost 500 lbs heavier, the Deronda’s power-to-weight-ratio is identical to the supercharged Atom’s, both come in at 4.7 lbs/hp.

While it has the same power/weight ratio as the Atom, the Deronda’s extra 100 horsepower makes a huge difference in top speed.  While the Atom runs out of breath at 140 mph, the Deronda keeps going all the way to 180. For comparison’s sake, the Audi R8 will go 186mph, and the fastest motorcycles in the world will go about 187 from the factory.  That’s not bad company to be in.

Here’s the best part: the Deronda G400’s and Ariel Atom both start at around $65,000, but for that price, you’re stuck with the less impressive naturally aspirated, 245-hp Atom.   That makes the Deronda G400 the new ultimate bargain supercar.

Pictures via Autoblog.