Monday 8th February 2016

Radical RXC Turbo approved for GT3 racing

Fancy playing plucky underdog in international GT racing? Now's your chance

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GT racing has experienced something of a renaissance over recent years, with more manufacturers homologating their sports cars for competition. Think of how diverse a GT field of cars is now: V6 GT-Rs race against V10 R8s, turbocharged Bentleys race naturally aspirated AMGs and the racing is superb.

Watch out Bentley, BMW, Mercedes et al

Now though there's another contender in the GT3 arena, pitched as "the most cost-effective yet competitive route into international GT racing. It's the Radical RXC Turbo, the motorsport version of the RXC Turbo 500 and available to order from Radical now.

It uses the same Ford Ecoboost V6 as the road car, with power said to be "over 500bhp", but with a final output set to be confirmed in line with the Balance of Performance regulations.

Currently the RXC Turbo is approved for racing in the International GT Open, the NARRA USA GT, Britcar, the Endurance Racing Series and the Supercar Challenge. Radical says more championships the car is eligible for will be announced over the coming weeks. It can of course race in the Radical European Masters too.

Ecoboost V6 should make around 500hp

As standard you get a seven-speed straight-cut Quaife gearbox, pushrod suspension with four-way adjustable Intrax dampers, Dunlop SP Sport slick and wet tyres, an FIA-compliant HANS seat and a 100-litre fuel cell too. Ready to race out of the box! On the options list are air-con (£3,000), a £1,450 reversing camera, a carbon body detail kit (£1,900) and even a Radical-branded race suit if you wish.

You may well want to splash out on the options in fact, as the Radical looks conspicuously affordable as GT3 racing cars go. The list price is £197,400, which compares very favourably with the c. £300K most cars like this cost. See here for the full breakdown of costs and colour choices. We'll have ours in Speed Green with an orange smiley please Radical.

[N.B Images are of Radical's prototype that has been testing through 2015 in the International GT Open at GT3 mechanical spec with an older livery. There will be pics of the full GT3 car once it's been on circuit!]

[RobC]

Good news for another British manufacturer but I do feel that its not really in the spirit of GT3 which has always been race derived versions of production cars rather than purpose built race cars with number plates.

[jimiE55]

I like the radicals, i think they are great. However i don't think is right at all, for them to race in Gt racing against racing versions of road cars. I have been to watch Gt3 racing, and Gt1 when it was still going, they are a great race series, seeing how all the manufacturer sports/racing cars compete against each other. The radical, however they try to balance the performance is always going to be at an advantage, being designed from the start, as a track/race car. Its like they have slipped an lmp2 lemans car into the sports car field.

[stephen300o]

That is not a GT car.

[Scuffers]

plucky underdog?

who writes this st?

it's NOT A GT CAR.

[redroadster]

This is exactly not what's required it's not a normal road car it's a purpose made race car which may get driven on the road ,it will ruin this class if it wipes the floor with them.

[Baryonyx]

It's a sneaky play to make a 'prototype racer' style road car and then race it in GT classes. There is an advantage conferred in it's design. I wonder how the other manufacturers running traditional silhouette racers feel about this.

[Scuffers]

Baryonyx said:

It's a sneaky play to make a 'prototype racer' style road car and then race it in GT classes. There is an advantage conferred in it's design. I wonder how the other manufacturers running traditional silhouette racers feel about this.

as somebody that got banned from Btir GT for having the temerity to enter a prosport, this really is funny.

[_Marvin]

jimiE55 said:

I like the radicals, i think they are great. However i don't think is right at all, for them to race in Gt racing against racing versions of road cars. I have been to watch Gt3 racing, and Gt1 when it was still going, they are a great race series, seeing how all the manufacturer sports/racing cars compete against each other. The radical, however they try to balance the performance is always going to be at an advantage, being designed from the start, as a track/race car. Its like they have slipped an lmp2 lemans car into the sports car field.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Cars like this Radical are much lighter than traditional GTx cars, and have far superior aero. As KTM found with their X-Bow GT4, the BoP meant that they had a restrictor in which limited power by a considerable margin due to its cornering prowess. As a result, they were passed by everything else on the straights as they were so down on power, and of course passing on the straights is far easier than passing in corners.

For the forthcoming season, KTM is deliberately making the car slower through the bends so they can have some straight line speed back.

I don't disagree with the sentiment though, it's a mini LMP not a GT car and misses the spirit of the concept in my view.

[saxy]

lol this is so unfair. If I were radical, I'd put huge slabs of tungsten in the very bottom center of the car, claim the car weighs just as much as a Bentley gt3. Then they'd be able to keep the 500hp but absolutely murder everyone in the cornering speeds.

[Baryonyx]

Scuffers said:

as somebody that got banned from Btir GT for having the temerity to enter a prosport, this really is funny.

Those Prosport cars look class. I wish I could get my hands on a little race car like that.

[Scuffers]

saxy said:

lol this is so unfair. If I were radical, I'd put huge slabs of tungsten in the very bottom center of the car, claim the car weighs just as much as a Bentley gt3. Then they'd be able to keep the 500hp but absolutely murder everyone in the cornering speeds.

that's not how GT3/4 works.

a proper GT3 car has to be homologated by the FIA, they take a view on the car (based on the homologated road going production model), and allow a certain amount of modification, this then had to be documented and lodged with the FIA.

The radical fails at the first hurdle in that it's not a fully type approved homologated car, however, exceptions have been made for national GT championships, hence the Mosler, KTM, etc etc. when the grids are sparse.

Part of this process is the cars are 'tested' with a 'std' driver against existing lap times, and will be adjusted to ensure they are in the right laptime bracket, be that by weight changes, ride height, etc etc.

I am/was a huge fan of GT racing, but ever since the introduction of GT3 then GT4, it's basically died on it's arse, specifically the national championships where there simply is not the money to maintain quality grids, hence the intro of GT4 and then cars like the radical.

GT3 was introduced to reduce costs, with so called showroom race cars costing ~£100K, problem is they are now 5X that and the costs of updates, running costs, etc are silly money.

this is fine at FIA GT level as the sponsorship money is there, at national level, it's another story.

[GroundEffect]

The smacks of FIA GT1 regs in the late 90s where we went from:




Justified road-racers to these:




in 3 years. It killed the series.

[chuntington101]

Has anyone else noticed that Radical seem to have ditched the twin charge coolers and gone to what I guess is intercoolers.