Evo Magazine - "Speedfreak"

The Radical SR3 Turbo is the fastest ever road car around the Nurburgring. We find out what it’s like to drive on a UK B-road, but first it takes a crack at another lap record….

What you’re looking at here is the fastest production car around the Nurburgring, the 7 min 19 sec, 600bhp per ton Radical SR3 Turbo. You’ve probably read about touring car ace Phil Bennett’s heroic record breaking lap. And now it’ s our turn.

I suspect the prospect of attempting to break evo’s Bedford Autodrome West circuit lap record is hardly going to set the wastegate fluttering with excitement. But a record’s a record, which is why we’re gathered in the pitlane at 8am on a sunny Thursday morning hurriedly hooking up the Racelogic V-Box data-logger for our one stab at lowering the benchmark a few tenths further.

There’s a certain frisson to the morning’s proceedings, for the current quickest outright lap of our road test circuit, or Westschleife as I like to call it, is held by the Palmer Jaguar JP1, the progeny of Bedford Autodrome’s owner, Jonathon Palmer. Word of our attempt travels fast around the workshops, and it’s not long before normally inscrutable faces peer inquisitively out at radical’s new challenger in an attempt to decipher what makes this one special enough for us to get up early. When I inform them that it’s the SR3 Turbo, eyebrows rise in unison.

To be fair, unless you’re a Radical Spotter, the SR3 Turbo is outwardly little different from it’s normally aspirated brother. Those same swooping curves remain, untroubled by the gaping vents or makeshift intakes you might expect with a car with thermal activity to rival Mount Etna. In fact the only clue apart from the distinct livery) is a row of narrow intake slots cut into the leading edge of the nose to let in some additional cooling air. It’s a proper job.

Time is short – we’re sneaking onto the circuit before one of Bedford’s Total Motorsport Sensation days kicks-off – which means I’ve only time for a couple of installation laps to familiarise myself before embarking on a five lap session to set a time that will (hopefully) eclipse the JP1’s 1:07.7 set earlier this year during our Trackday Car of the Year extravaganza.

The Turbo’s seating position is the same as any SR3’s. That’s to say roomy if a little too reclined for my taste. So, with a slice of foam stuffed behind my back and the five point harness pulled uncomfortably tight, Radical’s Mick Hyde gives me the green light to flick the fuel and ignition toggles and prod the starter button. The engine fires with a familiar flare of thrashy revs before settling into a zizzy, thrumming idle. Clunk the sequential lever into first, feed the surprisingly smooth clutch in with a few helping revs and chunter out onto the circuit. So far so good.

With cold slicks and a boiling cauldron of turbo-boosted power and torque simmering away behind me, the first few upshifts towards the chicane are timid to say the least. Even using half throttle you can feel the power begin to swell at an unnatural rate, and each clutchless upshift releases a disdainful hiss from the turbo’s pipework. This car craves full throttle like an addict craves a fix.

After a lap of pussyfooting around, and much against my sense of self – preservation, I squeeze the throttle to the floor in third gear and wait for the bang, grimacing through the red wire of a primed-to-explode boobytrap. There’s a brief pause, almost as though the Radical is bracing itself, before the boost builds and delivers a solid, insistent, unstoppable shove of acceleration that squeezes you in every direction, like a bear-hug from gravity itself. It’s an almighty feeling, dizzying in its intensity and, if I’m honest, ever so slightly scary.

It’s funny how the need to set a lap-time shifts your focus. Those few familiarisation laps were raw sensory overload – my emotional trace surely mirroring that of the SR3 Turbo’s boost gauge – but now, on the approach to the hairpin at the start of my best flying lap, all my energies are directed at nailing the breaking point. It’s a tough one to hit spot-on, for there are so many distractions in your peripheral vision: tyre walls and marshal’s post, vast hangers, cars scuttling to and fro, not to mention a couple of bumps just where you don’t want them. In the Radical it’s one of those corners you never think you are going to stop for, and yet every time it slams into the braking zone like the tarmac’s turned to molasses. You can feel and hear the stresses pound through the drivetrain, gearbox and diff, clattering under the strain of mediating between road and engine speed.

Punching out from the hairpin is a fine balancing act, for the turbocharge delivery is more than enough to break even the Dunlop Slicks’ prodigious hold of the circuit. Too early on throttle and the resulting spike of torque kicks the tail out too far out of line, forcing you to back off and loose time. Too late and you’re left cursing your own timidity. Get it right, though, and the turbo spools up with enough force to j-u-s-t break traction, the tail sliding a few degrees out of line and the SR3 accelerating crazily up to fourth gear and over 110mph before the Club Chicane.

At times the turbo’s additional power is more of a hindrance than a help. In the regular SR3 the endless left-right Palmer Curves are taken flat, powering through third, fourth and fifth gears before grabbing sixth and firing out onto the shortest of straights. In the Turbo it feels better to short shift into forth and use the torque to power through the long left before grabbing fifth for the right-hander. Third gear simply delivers too much grunt for the slicks to handle and the stabby oversteer wastes precious tenths. There’s more time to be had here for sure.

The charge to Pif-Paf sees only the briefest burst of sixth gear before braking as late as you dare before the chicane. From here the run to Bank requires just one upshift, then really hard braking before pitching into the most daunting corner on the circuit, Bank. Once again you need to be careful on the throttle, for it’s easy to break traction mid-corner and spoil the lap. Exiting the Beckham Esses always signals a hard swallow for you know the quickest corners are fast approaching. O’Rouge is taken in fourth with a quick stab of the brakes to settle the nose. It’s here that the cornering forces meld with the Turbo’s added accelerative muscle, straining arms and neck to an almost painful extent as you fight to hold the car on line, running to the right-hand fringe of the circuit before teasing it back to the left approach to Tower.

With more time in the car I reckon you could pull fifth gear through here, but I opt for th upper reaches of fourth and another stab on the middle pedal before getting the nose turned right and pinning the throttle. It’s a fabulous corner, an intoxicating blend of fear and exhilaration you love and hate with equal measure. One upshift later and we’re across the line with a new record of 1:07.29. Nothing compared with 7:19 around the Nordschleife, admittedly, but surely the most mind-blowing minute-and-a-bit you’re ever likely to experience. Over to you, Dr Palmer…

One for the Road?

The SR3 has the ‘Ring record for a road car – but what’s it really like on a good B-road?