RE: New 380hp Radical coupe revealed
Discussion
pthelazyjourno said:
Aero has got f
k all to do with how high the roof is.
Make the roof lower, give the screen a greater rake, and it's not suddenly going to be considerably worse. So that's bks for a start.
The "naysayers" are coming out because it's fking ugly, it has nothing to do with the fact it's a British company.
You are of course correct. The height of the roof doesn't have a lot to do with aero, but if the rest of the car has, and it has generated a certain size of car, you then need to put a roof on it high enough to fit a person, a helmet and a cage underneath.k all to do with how high the roof is. Make the roof lower, give the screen a greater rake, and it's not suddenly going to be considerably worse. So that's b
ks for a start. The "naysayers" are coming out because it's f
king ugly, it has nothing to do with the fact it's a British company. Megaflow said:
You are of course correct. The height of the roof doesn't have a lot to do with aero, but if the rest of the car has, and it has generated a certain size of car, you then need to put a roof on it high enough to fit a person, a helmet and a cage underneath.
True. The rest of the car isn't just dictated by aero though - packaging, legislation, lots of other things come into play. I was just hoping for a longer, wider, lower car. The shape of the cabin itself would make a massive difference to the looks IMO. Suppose it's tricky, but I'm disappointed in the end result.
What a collection of vain pussys.
Practicality, comfort, compromised, ugly?
Is it fashion week?
Radical have got it spot on!
This IS a race car for the road and not a pussy mobile for poseur numptys.
I wish these pussyfied whiners would just sod off and buy your beloved BMW/Audi/who cares WTF it is, crappy Eurobox. Then your 'choice' is easy, just get 'the' one that suits your 'Lifestyle choices' and conveys your 'importance'.
You can get your teeth whitened again and another fake tan with the savings.
Practicality, comfort, compromised, ugly?
Is it fashion week?
Radical have got it spot on!
This IS a race car for the road and not a pussy mobile for poseur numptys.
I wish these pussyfied whiners would just sod off and buy your beloved BMW/Audi/who cares WTF it is, crappy Eurobox. Then your 'choice' is easy, just get 'the' one that suits your 'Lifestyle choices' and conveys your 'importance'.
You can get your teeth whitened again and another fake tan with the savings.
Pistonwot said:
What a collection of vain pussys.
Practicality, comfort, compromised, ugly?
Is it fashion week?
Radical have got it spot on!
This IS a race car for the road and not a pussy mobile for poseur numptys.
I wish these pussyfied whiners would just sod off and buy your beloved BMW/Audi/who cares WTF it is, crappy Eurobox. Then your 'choice' is easy, just get 'the' one that suits your 'Lifestyle choices' and conveys your 'importance'.
You can get your teeth whitened again and another fake tan with the savings.
Could you try and fit the word "pussy" in there a bit more? Practicality, comfort, compromised, ugly?
Is it fashion week?
Radical have got it spot on!
This IS a race car for the road and not a pussy mobile for poseur numptys.
I wish these pussyfied whiners would just sod off and buy your beloved BMW/Audi/who cares WTF it is, crappy Eurobox. Then your 'choice' is easy, just get 'the' one that suits your 'Lifestyle choices' and conveys your 'importance'.
You can get your teeth whitened again and another fake tan with the savings.
A hardcore track car and being f
king ugly aren't mutually exclusive. You're happy to drive round in a car that looks like a pig's arse, good for you. It doesn't mean everybody else is. What other people think of it doesn't come into the equation, I wouldn't want an ugly car because of what *I* think about it. Edited by pthelazyjourno on Thursday 13th December 13:52
I'll reserve judgement on the aesthetics until I see one in the flesh but a couple of things have struck me...
The door apertures are tiny. This was a concept pioneered by Peugeot on the 905 Group C programme. They subsequently re-visited the idea on the 908 LMP1. To do that shows a serious commitment to the aero over the body as it will make ingress/egress really quite tricky for bulky folk.
The roof section is quite high but if you're marketing this as a road/race car for normal folk then you need to accommodate normal folk. That means guys who are 6'4" tall and the rest when a helmet is on. I realise that somewhat contradicts the above...
The windscreen is tall and drops down below the level of the scuttle. This should ensure superb visibility, particularly of the front wheels. It's not often discussed but one of the finest design aspects of the Elise (and derivatives) is the amazing ease of placing the car with total confidence. You sit low but the view of the front gives total confidence. I think that will make an amazing difference in how the Radical is to drive on the road.
Personally I am not too fussed about 'racing cars for the road'. My own car is as far as I would be prepared to go down that road simply because it's on the borderline of acceptability for regular - though not everyday - use on the road and track readiness.
However, this brings Radical more in line with the current trends in sports prototype racing generally and that will appeal to a lot of customers. I'm awaiting more details on which championships it is homologated for but I imagine it will be an astounding racing car. Watching the SR3/8s around somewhere like Oulton Park is never less than a remarkable experience. Good luck to Radical - they were first to the party and I admire their approach very much.
The door apertures are tiny. This was a concept pioneered by Peugeot on the 905 Group C programme. They subsequently re-visited the idea on the 908 LMP1. To do that shows a serious commitment to the aero over the body as it will make ingress/egress really quite tricky for bulky folk.
The roof section is quite high but if you're marketing this as a road/race car for normal folk then you need to accommodate normal folk. That means guys who are 6'4" tall and the rest when a helmet is on. I realise that somewhat contradicts the above...
The windscreen is tall and drops down below the level of the scuttle. This should ensure superb visibility, particularly of the front wheels. It's not often discussed but one of the finest design aspects of the Elise (and derivatives) is the amazing ease of placing the car with total confidence. You sit low but the view of the front gives total confidence. I think that will make an amazing difference in how the Radical is to drive on the road.
Personally I am not too fussed about 'racing cars for the road'. My own car is as far as I would be prepared to go down that road simply because it's on the borderline of acceptability for regular - though not everyday - use on the road and track readiness.
However, this brings Radical more in line with the current trends in sports prototype racing generally and that will appeal to a lot of customers. I'm awaiting more details on which championships it is homologated for but I imagine it will be an astounding racing car. Watching the SR3/8s around somewhere like Oulton Park is never less than a remarkable experience. Good luck to Radical - they were first to the party and I admire their approach very much.
Beretta1 said:
The Ultima isn’t exactly a slow car.
1min9.9secs around the top gear track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoigMFX2ivM
Ultima GTR720- 720bhp/625ftlbs torque and 950kgs
Radical RXC- 380bhp/320ftlbs torque and 900kgs
Go figure………….
Er... go figure what exactly?
1min9.9secs around the top gear track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoigMFX2ivM
Ultima GTR720- 720bhp/625ftlbs torque and 950kgs
Radical RXC- 380bhp/320ftlbs torque and 900kgs
Go figure………….
Er... go figure what exactly?
Edited by Beretta1 on Thursday 13th December 13:04
kambites said:
Quite. Someone releases a racing car which is just about road legal and people complain about... the styling. 
Heaven forbid people should like the look of the cars they buy. What it is or isn't capable of is irrelevant. Everything else in life has an aesthetic value, and this is especially true for cars. Just because it more trackday biased than for the road doesn't mean people will suddenly be happy to drive round in something ugly.
Why is that so difficult to comprehend? It's no different from any other car in that respect.
pthelazyjourno said:
kambites said:
Quite. Someone releases a racing car which is just about road legal and people complain about... the styling.
Heaven forbid people should like the look of the cars they buy. What it is or isn't capable of is irrelevant. Everything else in life has an aesthetic value, and this is especially true for cars. Just because it more trackday biased than for the road doesn't mean people will suddenly be happy to drive round in something ugly.
Why is that so difficult to comprehend? It's no different from any other car in that respect.
Nothing wrong with wanting a pretty car; there's not even anything wrong with wanting a pretty track car. But this isn't aimed at that type of person. Complaining that this isn't pretty is like complaining that it can't carry five adults in comfort.
Edited by kambites on Thursday 13th December 14:35
pthelazyjourno said:
kambites said:
Quite. Someone releases a racing car which is just about road legal and people complain about... the styling.
Heaven forbid people should like the look of the cars they buy. What it is or isn't capable of is irrelevant. Everything else in life has an aesthetic value, and this is especially true for cars. Just because it more trackday biased than for the road doesn't mean people will suddenly be happy to drive round in something ugly.
Why is that so difficult to comprehend? It's no different from any other car in that respect.
People comparing it to an Ultima or a GD T70 are also missing the point I think. This is a proper down-force generating racing car and, I think, will utterly monster those two.
kambites said:
It's not just "track-day biased", though; people call a Caterham that. This thing will probably be completely and utterly horrific to drive on the road.
So that makes it OK to abandon aesthetic values, because it happens to be a pig to drive as well?I couldn't give a damn if it's 100 per cent driven on the track, and never touches the public road, I still don't want to drive an ugly car.
I'm not in the minority here - there's a reason everything is designed by a stylist and not an engineer. The aero guys would have had a big say in the design of this car, but it still would have been finished off by the pen of a design team. Why?
Have you missed the thousands of threads on the internet about the most beautiful racing cars? The most beautiful cars full stop? All the dribbling over recent cars like the P4/5 because they look gorgeous?
Perhaps you're in the minority and genuinely don't place any value on what things look like, but a lot of my interest in cars stems from design. There are other factors: what it drives like, what it sounds like etc, but to completely dismiss one huge factor simply because it's *it's a track car* is blinkered.
It doesn't have to be ugly because it's designed for speed. Plenty of racing cars aren't.
hairykrishna said:
I'd think that the market for this cares far more about how quick it will go rather than how it looks. This isn't going to be a machine for trundling around London posing in. Making it uglier for more aerodynamic efficiency therefore makes sense as a trade off.
People comparing it to an Ultima or a GD T70 are also missing the point I think. This is a proper down-force generating racing car and, I think, will utterly monster those two.
I get that - but the reason it's ugly isn't because of aero, and won't make it any quicker. It's ugly because of the proportions of the cabin - and I'm not saying there aren't reasons for this, but outright speed certainly isn't one of them. People comparing it to an Ultima or a GD T70 are also missing the point I think. This is a proper down-force generating racing car and, I think, will utterly monster those two.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff