After driving street cars to the track and just letting some air out of the tires for the past 6 years, I took the plunge today and bought a 2022 SR3XX 1340 from Team Stradale. My preliminary plan is to drive the SR3 the first time/get some instruction at Winterfest at Sebring in mid-January. I’ve never driven a car on slicks, let alone a high downforce car on slicks, so this will be quite the change…but a change I’m really looking forward to. So, if any of you are planning to be there, stop by and say hi. And if you see me out on the track, exercise extreme caution 😉. I’ve attached a picture of my car so you’ll know what to look out for!
Hi Mike (@blacksr3xx), congratulations on getting your new SR3, it is a great looking car! You will have a lot of fun learning the car. Take your time getting up to speed and use the color map data to see how many G’s you are pulling. This is a great way to recalibrate your brain to driving a downforce car. There are three very important things to know when driving these cars: 1) they are very sensitive to front / rear balance when turning. When you are learning to get the feel of this you will likely spin… more than once. Once you get the feel it won’t be a problem. 2). When you spin it is essential to get both feet (clutch and brake) to the floor immediately. These cars have motorcycle based engines which are not designed to roll backwards, so if the rear tires start to roll backwards while spinning it wall cause the starter to engage with the flywheel which causes the starter to over-speed and self destruct. This typically ends your day at the track. 3) the clutch pedal and throttle pedal are very close together in these cars and it is easy to mistakenly have part of your foot touching the throttle when you are trying to brake. When this happens you will notice that while trying to brake the car will not slow down as you are expecting, or it may actually accelerate. If this happens briefly let up on the pedals and move your foot further onto the brake and try it again. If you are not aware that this happens your brain doesn’t have time to figure it out before you are off of the track. If you know it can happen you can adjust.
have fun with the new car!
Thanks for the helpful advice, and thanks for the other advice you and others provided on the forum, including your buyer’s guide. I benefited a lot from lurking on the forum before deciding on the SR3.
I’m going to get an instructor from Team Stradale for a day or two to help teach me, and I’m pretty sure a few spins and maybe a couple new starters are in my future. I’ll definitely ease into it and pay a lot of attention to front and rear balance through the turns. I’ll probably flat spot some tires along the way as well. I’m looking forward to developing my driving skills through such a different car than I’ve ever experienced.
I noticed my car, chassis 1526, is in the registry. I’m the new owner, and it will be stored in Sebring for the time being in case you want to keep an up to date record on its location.
Welcome, Mike. Team Stradale is working on building a Florida Radical dealership, so it's good to hear you've made that connection. I'm in Orlando with an older SR8, and having a Florida dealer is really needed. I'm trying to work out getting on track for Winterfest as well. Maybe I'll see you there.
John
Congrats on the new Radical! Exciting times!
