Radical wins battle of Brits

Cholmondeley Pageant of Power showdown for Radical, Ariel, Caterham and BAC (updated with video!)

A few weeks back we drove three of the contenders for fastest time at the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power as a preview for what turned out to be a fairly tasty battle for course honours among the British-built talent. The car missing from our preview drive was last year's official winner, the the BAC Mono.

Scott Mansell couldn't quite catch the Radical

It did, however, include the Radical SR8 RX - the very same SR8 RX that smashed the course record at the Pageant of Power this weekend with a time of 55.29 seconds. In the process it beat last year's unofficial winner, the Caterham SP/300.R, which managed 55.53 seconds, and our third contender the Ariel Atom 3.5. The Atom's 61.18 left the BAC Mono fractionally behind in fourth place with a 62.15.

Suffice to say, all drivers were pushing on and setting some seriously rapid times, evidenced by the fact that Scott Mansell's 61.89 last year in the Caterham was good enough for overall honours. How hard was Radical driver Robbie Kerr pushing to take over six seconds out of that? Considerably harder than we were, given by how much air he got over the first bridge after the startline compared with what we managed. Which is to say, none. Check out Robbie's onboard vid here in case you were in any doubt ... gulp!

Ariel's 2013 time would have taken win last year

Suffice to say, this little battle between the hardcore British lightweights is shaping up into a nice little annual ding-dong and a signature scrap on Cholmondeley's challenging little sprint track. Fair play to all involved and we'll see who comes out on top next year...

For the full results click here.