Advice please - which bike powered race car to choose?
Discussion
Hi Everyone,
I would really appreciate some advice please.
I race a Radical SR3 in the New Zealand Sports Car Championship, where I won the under 2 litre class last year with by 1300cc 'Busa, and it is looking good for a repeat with a win in this year's series, this time with a 1441cc 'Busa. So why am I looking for a car when I'm winning a series you say?
The SR3 is a great all around car, and has been very reliable for me, competing in endurance and sprint racing here in NZ (it is the ex-Monster Energy livery car bought from fellow Pistonheader Noel). My wins have come from consistency; not a bad way to do it.
My problem is the rest of the guys have moved onto some very nice and sticky 13" rubber, and the Radical compound tires just are not up to the challenge. There just isn't a soft enough option that I can get my hands on. Bolting on a set of soft Hankook or Michelins has taken up to 5 seconds a lap off my competition's times, so just as I've gone faster with my new engine, they have jumped further ahead with tires.
My ideal solution would to be to buy a well sorted car that I can drop my nice 1441 'Busa package into, but where to go? The Reynard Inverter is the fastest of the bike engined cars here; and I'd love to get my hands on one if there is another one out there for sale (I'm not sure I'm good enough to build one).
But what else should I look at? Is there something as good in aero as the Inverter, that can run 13" tires out there? There just isn't that many cars out here to compare in the flesh, so if you have some experiance and can offer some advice I'd really appreciate your thoughts.
If you want to see some Kiwi sport car racing in action, check out www.youtube.com/richard7k and www.sportscarracing.co.nz. There's everything from Juno's, Nemesis, T5, and Mallocks through to a couple of very nice McLaren CanAm cars on track.
Thanks
Rich
I would really appreciate some advice please.
I race a Radical SR3 in the New Zealand Sports Car Championship, where I won the under 2 litre class last year with by 1300cc 'Busa, and it is looking good for a repeat with a win in this year's series, this time with a 1441cc 'Busa. So why am I looking for a car when I'm winning a series you say?
The SR3 is a great all around car, and has been very reliable for me, competing in endurance and sprint racing here in NZ (it is the ex-Monster Energy livery car bought from fellow Pistonheader Noel). My wins have come from consistency; not a bad way to do it.
My problem is the rest of the guys have moved onto some very nice and sticky 13" rubber, and the Radical compound tires just are not up to the challenge. There just isn't a soft enough option that I can get my hands on. Bolting on a set of soft Hankook or Michelins has taken up to 5 seconds a lap off my competition's times, so just as I've gone faster with my new engine, they have jumped further ahead with tires.
My ideal solution would to be to buy a well sorted car that I can drop my nice 1441 'Busa package into, but where to go? The Reynard Inverter is the fastest of the bike engined cars here; and I'd love to get my hands on one if there is another one out there for sale (I'm not sure I'm good enough to build one).
But what else should I look at? Is there something as good in aero as the Inverter, that can run 13" tires out there? There just isn't that many cars out here to compare in the flesh, so if you have some experiance and can offer some advice I'd really appreciate your thoughts.
If you want to see some Kiwi sport car racing in action, check out www.youtube.com/richard7k and www.sportscarracing.co.nz. There's everything from Juno's, Nemesis, T5, and Mallocks through to a couple of very nice McLaren CanAm cars on track.
Thanks
Rich
Just a thought ..............A Radical Prosport or PR6 runs on 13" wheels. With your 1441cc engine in one it would be a very potent machine, allow you to use the same tyres as your competition have moved to and I would expect offer lower laps times than an equivalent powered SR3 due to lighter weight (albeit potentially slightly less aero).
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff