Radical does it again

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''Yesterday we reported on the Gumpert Apollo Speed’s record time of 7.11.5 seconds round the infamous Nurburgring in Germany. Today, we hear that the Radical SR8LM has smashed this time with a 6.48 minute lap. At the hands of Michael Vergers, the SR8LM was driven from the factory to the ‘ring and back to the factory again on the same set of Dunlop track tires.

Yesterday’s ‘record’ wasn’t so much of a record for all production cars as a record for hardtop production cars. The SR8LM is more of an open top LeMans racer than a traditional road car, yet it is able to be road registered and therefore qualifies as a production car. It’s this technical detail that Gumpert were getting at yesterday when they failed to mention that the SR8 had already set a faster time of 6.55 minutes.

In our minds, the fact that the Radical was driven from the factory to the track and back again without changing tires makes it credible as the fastest production car to ever lap the ‘ring.

The SR8LM is available at an affordable price of £89,000. It features a 2.8 litre, 455bhp Powertec RPB V8. The time was witnessed and verified by German Magazine Sport Auto and UK Magazine EVO.''

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indeed. but it's bit redundant to run a trackday special on track,m because it will naturally do better than the actual roadcars like Porsche GT3, GT2 etc..
 
It is an actual road car.

...the Radical was driven from the factory to the track and back again without changing tires makes it credible as the fastest production car to ever lap the ‘ring.
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Will it make it over a Sleeping Policeman? Perhaps that should be the test.

Go all Top Gear on it...I mean, the Radical was DQ'd on the TG test track for that reason...

Meh, All I know is, It's gonna be bicker, bicker, bicker in here. That, and it's British, so anyone and everyone British is gonna brag about it...
 
Fact is, people on these forums tend to stand by their oppinions and refuse to change. Debating it is useless, there will be no winner, just 3 pages of flame. Instead maybe people should focus on the record itself and what an astounding achievement it is.
 
Point.

At least it's not more than Fifty pages thereof, like a Certain Japanese Sports Car...and a German Gallardo.
 
Jim Prower
Will it make it over a Sleeping Policeman? Perhaps that should be the test.
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Yes it will.

Jim Prower
Go all Top Gear on it...I mean, the Radical was DQ'd on the TG test track for that reason...

Meh, All I know is, It's gonna be bicker, bicker, bicker in here. That, and it's British, so anyone and everyone British is gonna brag about it...
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Actually, I can't abide the car and the 'Ring lap record is kinda pointless to me. But nice way to ascribe bias to me.
 
dancardesigner
Fact is, people on these forums tend to stand by their oppinions and refuse to change. Debating it is useless, there will be no winner, just 3 pages of flame. Instead maybe people should focus on the record itself and what an astounding achievement it is.
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That would make for a very dull thread now wouldn't it.

Jim Prower
Will it make it over a Sleeping Policeman? Perhaps that should be the test.
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Just to ad fuel to the fire....

will this make it over a sleeping policeman?

 
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the meaning of "road car", but I really think anything that is legally able to drive down the road is a road car.

But new Radical...whooo. I'm not that excited about it.
 
Jim Prower
Will it make it over a Sleeping Policeman? Perhaps that should be the test.

Go all Top Gear on it...I mean, the Radical was DQ'd on the TG test track for that reason...

Meh, All I know is, It's gonna be bicker, bicker, bicker in here. That, and it's British, so anyone and everyone British is gonna brag about it...
Click to expand...

UKworld.png


Sorry, just had to:p
 
Jim Prower
Meh, All I know is, It's gonna be bicker, bicker, bicker in here. That, and it's British, so anyone and everyone British is gonna brag about it...
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...Because that never happens with other nationalities, does it?...
 
Toronado
I'm gonna chime in here: Who cares?
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+2

Honestly, who cares... both the Radical and the Grumpet might technically qualify as road cars, but in reality how many of them actually ever see a public road. Plus they are built in tiny numbers.

The entire 'fastest round the 'Ring' thing is just getting silly - if it's going to mean anything then it needs to be policed properly. The cars need to be completely standard and on 'control' tyres. Track day or race cars (which is what the Radical is in reality) lightly modified to make them temporarily road legal should be classed differently to 'series production road cars'. Perhaps there needs to be a minimum production run (say 500 cars over 2 years, and they must all be registered for road use).
 
Which rules out the McLaren F1, Bugatti Veyron, every Aston, Lamborghini and Pagani ever made, and in fact everything down as far as the Cadillac CTS-V at 7'59 (though I'm not sure if more than 500 Z06s have been sold in the last two years - so maybe that as well).
 
Famine
Which rules out the McLaren F1, Bugatti Veyron, every Aston, Lamborghini and Pagani ever made, and in fact everything down as far as the Cadillac CTS-V at 7'59 (though I'm not sure if more than 500 Z06s have been sold in the last two years - so maybe that as well).
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Although you have a point, i would imagine a lot more than 500 Astons, and Lambos have been sold in 2 years.
 
In total, yes (just). But no individual model will crest that - I suspect the DBS and V12 Vantage will beat that, but they aren't 2 years old yet...

Edit: In 2008 Lamborghini sold 2,430 cars. Currently they offer 5 different types of Murcielago and 8 different types of Gallardo. Assuming an even spread of sales, that'd be 374 of each over two years - but there's unlikely to be an even spread so the most popular one/s would probably qualify.

Edit: I think Aston sold 7,000-odd in 2008 spread over 10 variants so probably most of them would qualify (though the entire line-up is now under 4 years old, with only the DB9 older than 2 years). I imagine the specialist performance variants - DBRS9, N24, N400 - won't.
 
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We can take this a step further and say that many sports cars that have been further tuned for a track aren't able to make it over a speed bump either...
 
Well that was an epic time. Wish their was a video of the run.
 
Jim Prower
Meh, All I know is, It's gonna be bicker, bicker, bicker in here. That, and it's British, so anyone and everyone British is gonna brag about it...
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1. Coming from a USA citizen, Because you guys never brag about anything, do you :rolleyes:
2. Luckily for Vergers, he has an LMS race a the Nurburg GP circuit this weekend, how conveniently times :lol:
 
Eric.
We can take this a step further and say that many sports cars that have been further tuned for a track aren't able to make it over a speed bump either...
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Which is why I thought that whole Gumpert vs. Radical argument was useless. Sure the Gumpert has a roof, but look at how low it is.
 
500 was just a suggestion... could be 200, 300, 400, whatever... it's more the principal that very limited run 'track cars' aren't 'series production cars' IMO, and therefore there should be a minimum number of road registered cars to qualify as a road car.
 
There's a set number to qualify as a production car. One.
 

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