'Radical's V8 Could Power A New European Sports Championship"

Marcus Pye - Autosport Magazine

10th February 2005

Last Wednesday was another red letter day for me. I was the first journalist to be entrusted with Radical's sensational new V8-engined SR8 model on a race circuit. Following tests at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, it was time to let it out on Brands Hatch Indy's Circuit, an unremitting challenge for any racer. And take it from me, it is the business.

Making your own engine, even using bomb-proof Hayabusa barrels and cylinder heads on a common crankcase, is a massively ambitious engineering project. But one which fits in perfectly with the Radical ethos. Under company co-founder Phil Abbotts's direction, the RPA Macroblock V8 came together in under a year, with designer Steve Prentice and Powertec division guru Ted Hurrell at its centre.

The initial unit is of 2.6-litre displacement, and contains plenty of trickery such as a flat-plane crank and counter-rotating balance shafts - a system invented by British pioneering car maker Fred Lancaster early in 1904 - to dampen the inherent vibration. That it already develops more than 360bhp (the early 3-litre Ford Cosworth DFV Formula 1 engines made around 400bhp in 1967) is all the more impressive. And Radical reckons the lightweight unit has the potential to reach 500bhp in 3-litre form, which requires a switch to 1500cc Hayabusa barrels, already proven on the company's top-selling SR3.

What struck me was the quietness of the V8, both from the perspective of a bystander in the pits and as its driver. From the cockpit, the smoothness of its power delivery was extraordinary, co-ordinated by the custom-designed Quaife sequential transaxle, which engages smoothly and positively. No whirring chains with this one!

Whereas the rampant SR3 Turbo's torque 'curve' exploded skywards with a graph like Shelsley Walsh hillclimb and a kick in the kidneys with every gear-change, the eight pulls like a turbine, from nowhere. And continues to do so strongly to the point where I felt I could ease back on the steering wheel at the crest of Paddock Hill Bend, vault the River Thames and carry out a perfect landing somewhere on the opposite bank in Essex.

Apart from the engine's phenomenal tractability, and I was being careful not to use every rev in the box, with others set to experience the car - the Radical chassis has evolved in proportion to embrace the extra performance, on all fronts. A new aero package has more than doubled the SR3's downforce (which gives the pilot a splendid workout for his neck and shoulders), while enhanced mechanical grip and brakes balance the plot with confidence-inspiring precision in the tricky bits.

On alighting, it's difficult to comprehend that the V8 engine was made, as Abbott succinctly put it, "by a bunch of (immensely talented) guys in a shed in Cambridgeshire. What's more exciting is that, at £16,000 plus VAT, it could power a new open chassis European Sportscar Championship, an update of the classic Group 6 series of the 70's. Once Powertec has built enough to satisfy Radical's overflowing order book!

Humble Pye













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