So I did something Radical…

IIRC, a lot of the SR3s have the 1500cc engine.  I would expect the maintenance/replacement costs to be significantly higher compared to the more standard 'Busa 1340 mill.

In reply to Rodan :

If I do the SR3 it would be with the 1340cc engine.  Less power but longer service intervals (up to 100hrs) and similar rebuild costs to the ones in the SR1.

Keith Tanner said:

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

This is very true, although an SR3 with the 1340cc motor can also fill this niche.  There are fewer cars in the local series but many of the people in the SR1's are recent race school grads, so the SR3 racing is a little tighter.

Keith Tanner said:

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.

For reference my 1000cc bike engined sports racer was 32 seconds a lap faster than the Spec Miata lap record.

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Rodan :

If I do the SR3 it would be with the 1340cc engine.  Less power but longer service intervals (up to 100hrs) and similar rebuild costs to the ones in the SR1.

This is my biggest downside on single seaters; I don't want to deal with the constant maintenance some of them require. Note I'm lazy as well as being cheap.

What's the price difference between the SR1 and SR3? That would factor heavily for me. If I can race local and the price difference is significant I'd compromise. Many track day groups would allow either car so you can still run other tracks with the SR1.

I can get the SR1 for about the same money that I got out of my SRF.  The SR3's about 1.5-2x the cost.  There are a more of them for sale, but most of the used ones have the 1500cc motor that I'm trying to avoid.  The SR3 with the 1340cc motor that I've looked at is pretty much new and about double the money.

At this point I may just stick with the SR1 but I'm going to take a few nights to sleep on it.

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

As a professional cheap bastard I'd buy the SR1. Worst case is you race it for a season then sell it to another local to fund the SR3.

So after thinking this through for a few more days, I decided to buy the SR1 as originally planned.  Just sent payment- very excited!  Motivating factors:

- the SR3 may indeed be easier to sell down the road, but selling race cars is rarely "easy" per se and in the meantime I would have a lot more cash tied up in it

- the SR3 is incrementally faster, but the SR1 is already faster than needed for track days and has the bigger class for racing.  If I'm racing with less experienced racers and don't have to stress over 10ths of a degree of camber each race, that is perfectly OK and in keeping with my original goal.  The incremental speed would have been completely wasted for my purposes

- the tire cost is far less and a single set of tires can get through most of a season for casual racing and track day use

- I just like small lightweight cars

Next challenge is getting it on and off my trailer.  It has less than 2" of ground clearance under the splitter, so I just spent far too much money on a giant set of Race Ramps.  I'll report back once I get some practical use with it.

Sounds like a good plan!

FWIW, I've been using Race Ramps since I did the aero on our Miata and they work great.   Where you may still have an issue depending on your setup is getting over the ramp hinge on your trailer.   

Race Ramps are ridiculously expensive and very good at doing what they're designed to do. I haven't regretted mine at all - once I'd paid the bill. 

Keith Tanner said:

Race Ramps are ridiculously expensive and very good at doing what they're designed to do. I haven't regretted mine at all - once I'd paid the bill. 

Yeah as a dedicated DIY'er I still felt it was worth paying the king's ransom for the right ramps for the job. It's the old Good/Cheap/Light (pick any two) paradox. 

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

Keith Tanner said:

Race Ramps are ridiculously expensive and very good at doing what they're designed to do. I haven't regretted mine at all - once I'd paid the bill. 

Yeah as a dedicated DIY'er I still felt it was worth paying the king's ransom for the right ramps for the job. It's the old Good/Cheap/Light (pick any two) paradox. 

So as a noted cheapskate I bought some craptastical HF 72" so I could load my F500 on my tilt trailer. After using them for the past 9 years my advice is................buy the race ramps. LOL

On a different note; wise move on the SR1, it has plenty of performance as well as being more user friendly.

Whoah. These things are intense.

I do love a well designed product. Great business model these guys have, wish I thought of it first. 

So I was able to do my first real laps in the SR1 today. Quite a different experience from the SRF. Temps were in the low 40's so it was really hard to get heat into the tires but I still had a good time. As predicted, it really doesn't like trail braking (two spins in low speed corners).  It will take me a while to figure out how to time the downshifts in braking zones, I was really upsetting the car by not doing it soon enough. And yeah it's fast. Primal dials the redline down 20% on their school cars and forgot to undo it before I took it over. Down on power and with me pushing probably 75% on cold tires, it was 2 full seconds faster than my best laps in the SRF.  There's another easy 2 seconds on the table once I figure out the brake zones, probably another 2 seconds when I stop over-braking into fast sweepers.  That's without even running at full power.

Somebody asked for engine bay photos:

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

I drove my F500 at autocross today and it was cold enough to make it pointless.

I think you'll find the balance of the car is quite different in warmer temps.

In reply to Tom1200 :

Yeah, my Locost did not like low grip situations. The chassis didn't start to work until you got some weight transfer.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

It pushed in rapid transitions and wanted snap spin in slow corners.

I'm sure the Radical did the same.