After many laps of being ‘blown into the weeds’ by all four of the factory radicals, one of which was driven by Michael Vergers who took the Nurburgring record last year, I bumped into one of the test drivers at lunch , who offered me a couple of laps in the brand new factory demonstrator.
As you step over the wide sill, and pour yourself into the very matey cockpit, making sure you don’t set the fire-system off in the footwell, you can feel the adrenaline start to flow. The Radical pit crew strap you in a lot tighter than I would in a 7, and you find out about two corners later why as your body tries to make a bid for freedom under extreme braking into Druids !
As we pulled out of the pits you could feel the power, but as we emerged on track the sudden feeling that this thing had a whole lot more power on top of what you thought, hit you. As we rounded into Paddock on our initial lap, an involuntary sharp intake of breath preceded my pupils widening so far I thought they’d never dilate again as the speed increased rapidly. The ferocious pace continued as we climbed the hill into Druids, then my body slammed into the harness as I hung weightless with Rob brutally braking into Druids followed by another neck-snapping onslaught into the next corner. As we rounded McLaren, at speed, annihilating everything on-track in the process, and onto the Pit Straight, the air-pressure inside my helmet increased as the airflow desperately tried to rip my head off (my motorcycle lid was no good for this !). I glanced across to the instruments as we braked from 150MPH into Paddock.
The physics-defying performance of this machine have to be experienced to be believed. Now I understand why F1 drivers never really have any interest for ‘extreme’ road cars. After this they are very tame ! Getting up the day after my neck feels like I just had my head pulled off – might have to put a claim into the insurers for whiplash !
....and and the SR8 is HALF the performance of a current F1 car. Incredible !
Thanks to everyone at Radical for the hospitality (and great coffee !), and to Ian Flux and Rob Weldon for showing a ‘mere mortal’ how it’s done !