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LIFE CHANGING

Most of us won’t be winning X-Factor anytime soon, neither will we strike an oil well in our back garden or produce the next Einstein off-spring but we might cross paths with a Radical SR4

Rare though sightings are of Radical’s latest road-going SR4 Clubsport prepare for a cataclysmic effect when you do spot one. Unlike the decision to buy a new Rolex, convert your loft space or open a 30-year old bottle of Bourbon, buying a track car is sure to be life changing. How could owning a car that can lap Brands Hatch in 47 seconds and rev up to 11,000rpm not alter the wiring of your brain? Just try walking around feeling hard done by and despondent after a weekend of thrashing one of these around. It doesn’t happen. Instead of your finickity obsessions about time and stress and deadlines, the house you missed out on at auction, the obnoxious area manager and the unrequited affections of the waitress that serves you every Tuesday – you’ll have a satisfying sense of apathy for everything but improving your track prowess in the Radical.

Your whole social life will revolve around the track and you’ll be pouring over enthusiasts forums like they were comics for grown-ups. You’ll start meditating to recall each curve of the circuit, each engine note as the 1200cc Kawasaki unit gets fiercer and faster. When Monday comes they’ll be blisters on your hands and a wild, distant glint in your eyes. Your desk drawer will be full of diet soups so that you don’t jeopardise the Radical’s 450kg weight advantage and you’ll adopt a whole new risk-taking attitude.

Discovering that track cars are a whole new breed of insane, intangible pleasure, driving a sports car to your girlfriend’s place in the country will seem pretty hum-drum in comparison. Not that you’d be without the prestige and pampering that a Porsche gives you for long but turning this premise on its head has benefits of its own. Rarely when you’re cruising through Mayfair in your 911 GT3 do you feel pangs of inadequacies, blinding fear and seething frustration. Yes I know that doesn’t sound like fun but it is these raw emotions that push you out of your comfort zone and in to a place where you’re ready to learn to better yourself. Turning the mirror inwards rather than reflecting insubstantial ‘I ams’ is therefore a valuable exercise.

Of course when you do get things right in a Radical, you’ve felt like you’ve really earned it and therefore the satisfaction is ten-fold what it would be. All the time there’ll be progress and breakthroughs and the accuracy of your racing lines and your entry and exit speeds will be ever more closer to the peers you’ve been coached by. There’ll be the hairpins that baffle you and the gear changes that sound like you’ve broken off parts of the drive-train but clarity will prevail with perseverance. You certainly can’t fail to be in awe of what this machine is capable of and this in itself will drive you to succeed.

Simplicity is key and even with the legal road additions in place, you don’t get much more purist than a Radical. With its tubular chassis, bike engine and chain driven belt it sounds like something your dad could knock together in his tiny garage. However the formula is such that nothing else can match it out on track and so in context a sum of £29,500 doesn’t sound that radical – providing you spend every waking minute out on that track, that is!

Verdict

FOR: Second to none around the track
AGAINST: There’s not enough to go around
CONCLUSION: Bugatti Veyron drivers will stop and chat at the petrol pumps, kids will wave at you like you’ve just arrived from the planet Gallactic and women will get all star struck as if you’re the next Lewis Hamilton.

Spec

ENGINE: 4cylinder 1200cc
POWER: 190bhp @ 11000rpm
TORQUE (lb/ft): 104 lb ft at 7000 rpm
0-60mph (sec): 3.5
TOP SPEED: 150
SUSPENSION: Double wishbones all round
WEIGHT: 450kg
PRICE: £29,500
RIVALS: Ariel Atom, Caterham CSR, Lotus 2-Eleven