Forget about the rest.. go Radical !!
drove the Radical SR3 on the Grand Prix Nürburgring track last Friday.
guys, it's a blast!!! and that's just an euphemism...
it was a standard SR 3, 1.3 liter Hayabusa engine, 205 hp, 500kg.
the seating position is like in my race-gokart, you sit on the floor, but quite comfortably, two adults fit well (i'm 1.87 tall), but u need to take the steering wheel off to get in. steering wheel is small and handy, and the shift stick is about 5cm away from it on the same height.
off we go, the engine roars and and i get on the racetrack; its amazing, I see the Enzo in front of me from below!! acceleration is very fast, but not furious, but gearchanges are amazing! you dont have to press the clutch, just blip with the throttle and the gears go in so quickly, I realized in that instant how ridiculously slow the gearchanges in my turbo feel. and you dont even have to take the hand off the steering wheel to shift, it's grand!!
the corner comes, i brake and actually need to release the brake again to get to the bend!! dang, this car brakes so brutally, it's unbelievable. I had a drive with the instructor who showed where the braking points were, and its just amazing... you could outgun every other car on the brakes, i guess the gt3 cups on the track were only faster in the bends cause of the slicks and because of the fact that i didnt have the guts/skill to go all the way. there were a couple of brutally fast cars on the track, including 962, silk cut jag and a mclaren. these cars just drove past me on the straight and in the bends !! what an unbelievable athmosphere...
the grip of the radical is immense, it was with a street setup and street tires, but still better than that of all other sportscars out there, including the ferrari challenge stradale.
the moral of the story is that i got infected by that racecar virus and the consequences are pretty dire:
I realized that having a gt3 to drive around the racetrack is quite useless if a radical shows up behind you and you've gotta give way... and I also very unfortunately realized that driving around with my turbo (i did 700 km nonstop from milan to frankfurt on sunday) is not really that satisfying in the end: you are and feel never as quick as in the radical (if you know the film le mans you know what I mean, cause thats how i felt that day!!) and if you wanna drive a long stretch fast and comfortably its no comparison against an rs6 or even my x5.
guess I'll get myself a 997 convertible or an old targa.... so if you look for a good and cheap turbo send me a PM! and dont forget to try a Radical whenever you get a chance to...
cheers