Hello All- Just looking for some thoughts here regarding this conversion I have been thinking about.
I have an RXC Spyder, 3.0 V8. It is road registered so I can use it for street along with track days. I don't race it. Although the V8 is incredible, it is quite temperamental in that it needs to rev and the clutch is definitely an on/off switch. Not fun in traffic. I have been thinking of converting to the V6 TT/Hewland through Radical or one of their authorized centers here in the US. Current motor has 18 total hours (probably 12 on load) and 700 total miles on the chassis so there is value there. Any thoughts on doing this and costs? I'm thinking $50k or so with the value offset. Wondering if Radical would even consider it although they did convert car #6 in 2019.
Thanks for any insight.
@bill-snead I think the best advice would be to sell the existing car and find the one you want. If you were to bring it to my shop, that's what I'd encourage you to do. I don't know Radical's stance on such a swap, so it's worth asking the various dealers their thoughts.
If you really want to do this, and if you find getting into a Radical dealership difficult, (and you really really want to do this) you might consider seeing if Radical would sell you a new V6 powertrain, and find an independent shop that can do the actual swap. You would need the Radical ECU and engine loom as well, along with some loom documentation. There are many race shops that can do something like that, and you'd need some follow-up tuning to make sure all the systems work together over time.
Another possibility would be to hire a shop to procure equivalent equipment (get a Ford ECO-Boost V6 or an aftermarket Ford V6 TT and a Hewland TMT transaxle) and custom build the rest, with a MoTeC M1 ECU and Geartronics shift controller. I think that would be very cool, but I bet that would cost as much as a new RXC V6 from Radical, though you'd likely get some of that back from the V8 engine, etc.
Thanks John!
I agree with you. I have just spend a lot of time and effort on this car to get it where I want...fuel tank, level indicator, LED lights, etc... It was exceptionally clean from the start with such low miles I don't think I could find a replacement unless I ordered a new one! I wouldn't be comfortable with an independent on this conversion. I would want to stay with Radical as they know the details. I will reach out and see what they say!
@bill-snead, I did some calling around today to some of my friends at Radical dealers and they gave the same advice as John. You will be much better off financially to sell your car and buy one that better fits your needs. It would be a very expensive swap and you would never get your money back when you sold the car. Your estimate of $50k is likely low for the work that needs to be done. Anthony at Radical Northwest does a lot of work with RXCs and could likely make you a good deal to trade in your car and get another one.
Thanks Charlie- yes the more I'm looking into this the less I think it would be cost effective to do a swap instead of just getting a different one.
