So I did something Radical…

As some of you know I've been racing a gen3 Spec Racer Ford with SCCA for the past two seasons.  I've made great friends and improved a great deal, and I only have good things to say about the car and the race class. Unfortunately life takes its twists and turns and this year I've been too busy with work to commit to 3-4 day race weekends. It's unlikely to change any time soon, so with mixed emotions I sold my SRF today.

Atlanta Motorsports Park has a Saturday club race once a month. It is open to non-members and has turned out to be a lot of fun.  The classes that turn out in numbers are Spec Miatas and Downforce, where they've had 10-16 cars (mostly Radicals) for most races. The SRF was too slow to play with the Radicals and too fast to play with the SM's. So I've committed to buy this:

It's a 2019 SR1 that Primal had been using as a school car. The 1340 Hayabusa motor is fresh back from a rebuild. My first race is tomorrow, I'm excited. In addition to their races, it will make a fun track day car.  I'm trying to find ways to keep having fun motorsporting and manage professional/family conflict with a limited schedule.

I've seen Radicals mentioned here but haven't read a lot about direct owner experiences. Glad to share what I learn. I did a test drive; it was lead/follow so I didn't really get to stretch its legs, but it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys. 

This is awesome.  I look forward to some first hand experience with these and some driving impressions.  

That's awesome!

I have been intrigued by the thought of a Radical (or something similar) for the mix of HPDE/TT I do, and it seems like a huge amount of performance for the investment.  I'll be very interested to hear your experiences.

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

So having raced this level of car I will chime in:

The braking points are way later then you think they are. Beware the high speeds straights into hairpins, you actually need to bleed off the brakes sooner than you think.

The turn in speeds are going to be 5-10mph faster than you SRF.

This may seem obvious but they don't like being chucked about in the manner that SRFs do.

I don't know this version of car well but depending on what type of floor and diffuser it has, it may require turning in on the throttle as some of the higher down force set ups don't take well to trail braking.

Overall you will be blown away by the level of performance; this will be a solid 10 seconds a lap faster than your SRF.......if not more.

Have fun and congrats.

I bet that you'll discover that the straights are a lot shorter in this car than the SRF! Let us know how it goes.

Anytime you feel like running a day at the FIRM just let me know. Only price is I get to wire it up and take a few laps and some video. 

About 15 years ago I was at the June Sprints and watched the West/Radical/Storh cars tear up Road America in the CSR and DSR classes.  I recall looking up the lap record for Mark Donahue in his 917 back in 1973.   It was 2:04.374 at Elkhart Lake.  Then I looked up the lap record for CSR, 2:01.230.  There is a West DSR at 1:56.  My point is, these little bike-engined sports racers are mighty fast.  Tire technology and ground effects makes this an apples;oranges comparison but still,  possibly the greatest Holy Grail road racer of all time is the 917, and these little guys are in that same lap time group.

I would be interested is seeing photos of the mechanicals under the body. Close ups and some over all. 
 

I really like these cars. They were just becoming popular when I was stepping back from racing. I always wanted to take one on a sighting lap to experience what they were about.  
 

I always thaught they were fantastic looking cars as well. 

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I may take you up on that when I get the car settled JG. It is loaded up with an Aim MXL2 and SmartyCam so data/video is easy. 

In reply to Tom1200 :

Thanks Tom, that's helpful. During the test drive I discovered the braking potential; the downforce and light weight make it possible to push the braking very late. These things only weigh 1050lbs. The SR1 runs a treaded tire so even with downforce the mid-corner grip felt similar to the SRF on Hoosiers, although a little less edgy at the limit. 

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I hope you do that, and make SG write a sidebar explaining how different an SRF is to one of these.  It's hard to fathom how very different the cars are- you can see it, but I'd like to read a first hand account of how they are different, too.  Try to get ShinnyGroove to write it, so he gets some writing credit.

Very cool car.

Well, the weather was rainy and crappy today and true to form I had a personal obligation tonight so I sat the race out. Unfamiliar car + wet track = unnecessary risk for this amateur racer. I'll give more updates when I get back in the car but in the meantime here are some more glamour shots from the sale listing. The fact that it has a (very small) passenger seat is cool, it should be fun for casual laps with (brave) friends.

Will be interested to hear about how it would be to run these as a 1 man team. Maintenance, prep etc 

Also these are chain driven, right? If so be watchful of the chain and sprockets for wear and tension, that is a the source of a lot of the issues on F600 cars. The BPA chain tensioning tool helps be consistent 

In reply to gixxeropa :

So our F500s are a halfway point between a Spec Miata and these cars.

The big difference is the downforce.

In reply to Tom1200 :

True, plus a fancier suspension. Actual coil overs instead of rubber pucks 

In reply to gixxeropa :

The biggest thing isn't the suspension believe it or not. It's the track width along with the aero. Our cars are only 55" wide and by contrast modern sports race we are 61-65" wide.

In reply to Scott_H :

I can't speak to Shinny Grove's Radical but our car pulled over 2Gs in a corner and 3Gs on the brakes. I expect spending similar on his car.

In reply to gixxeropa :

They are chain driven. There is a protocol for frequent application of dry lube to the chain and checking of the chain tension that I have yet to learn.  From what I can tell it's normal race car stuff, not difficult. 

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, definitely not difficult but just something you want to keep an eye on and check between each session or two, because chains like to cause a lot of collateral damage when they come off or break. (Ask me how I know )

Highland Park Raceway in Cromwell NZ has these available as a U-Drive.  Best 500 bucks I've ever spent and looking forward to another go this year when we venture south.

I have been told that with all those Suzuki powered racers that you need a twitchy clutch foot - if you spin and the motor is allowed to turn backwards then very expensive noises come from the starter mechanism  (maybe one of the reasons Cromwell send out a co-driver).

In reply to RichardNZ :

Yeah that's true, you gotta get the clutch in or replace the starter

RichardNZ said:

Highland Park Raceway in Cromwell NZ has these available as a U-Drive.  Best 500 bucks I've ever spent and looking forward to another go this year when we venture south.

 

I have been told that with all those Suzuki powered racers that you need a twitchy clutch foot - if you spin and the motor is allowed to turn backwards then very expensive noises come from the starter mechanism  (maybe one of the reasons Cromwell send out a co-driver).

Yes, true story.  That said, most race cars will have issues if you spin and run backwards without the clutch in.  I know it happened to one of my buddies in SRF this year, took out a bunch of drivetrain stuff.

So here's an interesting turn of events.

Last week when I tried to wire the money for the car, the banks screwed it up (long story) and the payment was not made.  Then I went to the track on Saturday to drop my trailer off after selling the SRF, and hung out with some of the guys that were racing that day.  It got me thinking that I'm not exactly sure whether I want an SR1 or SR3.

SR1 pros: lower initial investment, lower tire cost, smaller and lighter.  Potentially more cars to race with at the AMP series.

SR1 cons: little racing opportunity outside of AMP.  Since the use case is more limited, it might be harder to sell it if I decide later that I want to upgrade to the SR3.

SR3 pros: eligible to race with NASA and SCCA, gear driven (rather than chain driven), possibility of racing Radical Cup down the road if I get really serious.  Probably easier to sell when the time comes.  Faster (not sure if this is a pro or a con)

SR3 cons: bigger initial investment, higher tire costs.

I'm going to hit pause and do some more research for a few weeks.  I'm still buying a Radical this winter, I'm just not sure which one yet.

Given your entire reason for buying the Radical, I'd be putting a lot of weight on "I can race it easily and locally".

We were pitted beside a Radical team at the T25 one year. I didn't get to spend a lot of time hanging around their pits, but I do remember they were crazy fast and had to do a couple of mid-race engine swaps :)

I was on track with an open wheeled bike engines car at HPR ones - F1000? It was in a totally different stratum of performance than my little Miata with a big engine.