Thursday 20th August 2009

Radical Smashes Nordschleife Record

Road-legal Radical SR8LM posts scintillating Nurburgring lap time

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Preparing for the off

Radical has once again beaten the Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record for a production car.

The tiny maker of diminutive sports cars from Peterborough drove a road-legal Radical SR8LM all the way from 'Blighty to the famous circuit in the Eiffel mountains, before last night posting a lap time of 6m 48s.

The new time beats the previous record - also set by Radical in a Supersport back in 2005 - by a not inconsiderable seven seconds.

Cloudless skies and warm temperatures meant perfect conditions for the Radical, although the SR8LM initially struggled with the Nordschleife's bumps vicous kerbs. But once driver Michael Vergers found the right set-up, the lap times started to come.

On course for the record

"The car was great, I could push really hard and it felt clearly faster than the previous SR8 in 2005," said Vergers. "It's fantastic that we've beaten the record; hopefully I'll get an opportunity to return with Radical in the future."

Radical co-founder Mick Hyde said: "We've proved that the SR8LM is not only the world's best track day car, but it's also practical enough to drive to and from the circuit. It is a genuine production sports car, with genuine performance credentials, as we've shown today."

We say: congratulations to all involved. The bar for production car lap records at the Nurburgring has now been set ridiculously high for the current crop of supercars chasing the record, such as the Gumpert Apollo and Devon GTX. Although no doubt there's a sports car or supercar maker somewhere out there with a dream, a 1000bhp engine and a

Well-deserved celebrations

very brave test driver...

[ACW]

Is there any in-car footage yet, does the author know?

[cusimar9]

Can't wait to see the video! Incredible achievement, and quite a challenge for the Caparo to beat

[Jackal2k9]

would love to see you go shopping in that

[chuntington101]

Fooking HELL!!!!!

[soad]

Well done chaps

[Stu_00]

soad said:

Well done chaps

+1 nice to see some state of art British Engineering winning !

[Sevenman]

Good stuff. Am sure a video will be out some time soon, that should look just like the last one, but finish 7 seconds earlier.

Impressed they could drive it from the UK. That must have been lots of fun and very relaxing. It does give slightly more weight to the road-car statement.

[bales]

Stu_00 said:

soad said:

Well done chaps

+1 nice to see some state of art British Engineering winning !

I'm not one to put companies down or decry any achivements, but its isn't really state of the art engineering and it is basically a race car with numberplates.

It is hugely impressive but its not (in all honesty) a road car really is it, and as a race car it isn't a hugely impressive time in itself....

[UltimaCH]

Great news for Radical but would be nice to see an Ultima GTR involved. Come on Factory, pleaseeeeeeeee

[UncappedTag]

said:

Radical co-founder Mick Hyde said: "We've proved that the SR8LM is not only the world's best track day car, but it's also practical enough to drive to and from the circuit......

Unless it rains

[BoRED S2upid]

Id have been more impressed to learn about the drive to and from the circuit the poor guy must have been in bits, its a long drive.

[PascalBuyens]

Does the SR8LM have the EU CoC? If not, I don't think that the record will be taken into account, just like the 2005 record...

Read somewhere yesterday about the Gumpert setting the 7:11 record that it beat the "2005 7:14 record of the Donkervoort RS270", according to a Dutch site, but that record was discarded too, due to the fact some racing elements where used on the record setting car. Radical claiming they set the record in 2005 at 6:55, Dutchies saying it was "only" at 7:14, Corvette, with their 7:26, years later making a hype about beating the GTR... Shows how different people all think about the Ring record, I guess.

[liamsp]

Looking forward to the video the last one with commentary was awesome very brave man most of the corner speeds looked terrifying!

[JamesAsh]

When you consider this is only 37 seconds shy of the outright lap record, on road tyres and having been driven across Europe to get there it is incredible! And when you consider the lap record is held by a Group C racer with slicks and ground-effects, it's all the more impressive.
Stick that in your Gumpert and smoke it!

[jontysafe]

Incredible driving commitment from Michael Vergers to get that time, he must have balls of steel (or carbonfibre more likely). Yes it is a road car in the "stretchiest" sense of the term. Congratulations to Radical. This won`t be beaten by a more road orientated beast as they just don`t have the downforce/lightweight, its not just about power.

[ViperDave]

Does it still need a laptop to start the engine?

[UltimaCH]

Are the front canards road legal?? Don't think so even in the UK...

[MiniMan64]

Love that they actually drove it from the UK.

It should be a rule of setting the Ring record that the car in question must complete a certain distance on the road before hand and then head out on the circuit.

Good work though lads!

[SpunkyM]

Yeh, whatever. I got a 6min 35sec last month in my 335D with tuning box - but don't want to brag about it.

[Altrezia]

Still not a 'production sports car' in my eyes. Great car - sure, but not exactly on the same level as things with roofs!