The Radical Sportscar Registry is pleased to present a new feature series called “Ask Phil”. Phil Abbott co-founded Radical Sportscars in 1997 and was instrumental in the design and production of the Radical model range. Phil has a tremendous passion about Race cars and the Racing community and he has agreed to share his 40+ years of experience with the Radical community.
Additionally, readers have the opportunity to submit questions to “Ask Phil”
Registry Spotlight
This section highlights some of the special cars found in the Registry
Nurbrgring Lap record 6:48- SR8LM chassis number SR800073
Radical SR8LM chassis number 73 is the car that broke the Nürburgring Nordschleife track record with a time of 6 minutes 48 seconds driven by Michael Vergers. Remarkably, the record lap was done on the same set of tires that were used to drive the car from factory in England to the track in Germany. After the record lap, Phil Abbott (co-funder of Radical) said “Hey Michael , we have only used one set of tyres total, for shake down, testing, driving over from England on the road, and then doing a 6:48 ? Lap – we have another fresh set – Michael grabbed my arm and looked straight in my eyes and said , Phil – this car is not going faster today! ” The car is powered by a 460hp 2.8L V8 engine.
Take a look at this link to the Radical Registry to see more information about this unique car.
The first Radical built and sold to the public is a Clubsport and is identified as chassis number 0001. According to Phil Abbott (Co-Founder of Radical) chassis number 1 has a unique construction compared to other Clubsports. Chassis number 1 was built buy a Spyder Engineering, who had built many chassis for early Lotus cars. The initial chassis design used 3″ deep by 1″ wide sections on the lower rails and “top hat” folded sections on the floor to attach the skins. This design was, to use Phil’s words “an awful idea”, then after a mishap in the fabrication of Chassis number 2, all of the following Radical chassis have been built by Radical. The Radical built chassis use an improved design that uses 1″ by 1″ sections.
Take a look at this link to the Radical Registry to see more information about this unique car.
Colin McRae’s personal SR3-LM was recently added to the Radical Sportscar Registry. There are two major things that make this car unique. First, it was owned by the great World Rally Champion Collin McRae who purchased the car directly from the Radical Factory. The second thing that makes this car unique is that it is one of the very rare street registered SR3-LMs and he used the car regularly on the streets near his home in Spain.
Take a look at this link to the Radical Registry to see more information about this unique car.
Chassis Number 644 is fully optioned 2011 SR3 with the rare “Lightweight Carbon-composite Body. This car was originally purchased in the UK and competed in the 2011 European Open series by Darcy Smith, with a Carbon and Green livery. In 2012 the car was purchased by the second owner from the Radical Factory in the UK and the car was Shipped to the United States sporting it’s new Carbon and Red Livery. In late 2012 the car was sold to professional driver Nelson Canache (Daytona 24 hour, American Le Mans, etc) who changed the livery to Carbon, Red, yellow and blue . Take a look at this link to the Radical Registry to see more information about this unique car.
