Running costs of Radical vs Atom and caterham, for road use.
Discussion
Excuse lack of knowledge on a Radicals here, but after owning an Ariel Atom and now on 2nd Caterham, looking at next potential weekend hoon car.
Always admired the radicals, but was put off by stories of 40 hrs use before engine rebuilds etc. However a friend advised me today that this only relates to 1500cc engine cars, where as 1300cc cars are more reasonable,
Any advice welcome on which car / model to look at, with associated maintenance costs, with budget around £20k and 5k miles pa road use ?
Thanks in advance , Dave
Always admired the radicals, but was put off by stories of 40 hrs use before engine rebuilds etc. However a friend advised me today that this only relates to 1500cc engine cars, where as 1300cc cars are more reasonable,
Any advice welcome on which car / model to look at, with associated maintenance costs, with budget around £20k and 5k miles pa road use ?
Thanks in advance , Dave
If you race your Radical and need 100% reliability while revving it to its maximum performance on every outing the 40 hours refresh makes sense. If you predominately go to track days you are most likely save to do 60-80 hours, in particular with the 1300 engine. I am refreshing my 1500 engine after 80 hours right now. Naturally the longer you leave it the chance of a catastrophic failure increases resulting in a very expensive refresh.
What seems to fail earlier requiring engine removal is gearbox failure.
The Radical is an uncompromising race car while the Arial or Catarham are extreme road cars. A race car requires more preparation when coming to the track, during the track day and a thorough shake downs after the track day. For your own safety you better have the funds for someone else to look after it or if you are mechanically inclined do it yourself.If you already had an Arial and Caterham the Radical SR3 is the natural progression (and you will love it).
Do not forget the Radical will need a special trailer or very very long ramps.
What seems to fail earlier requiring engine removal is gearbox failure.
The Radical is an uncompromising race car while the Arial or Catarham are extreme road cars. A race car requires more preparation when coming to the track, during the track day and a thorough shake downs after the track day. For your own safety you better have the funds for someone else to look after it or if you are mechanically inclined do it yourself.If you already had an Arial and Caterham the Radical SR3 is the natural progression (and you will love it).
Do not forget the Radical will need a special trailer or very very long ramps.
mnrvortxf20c said:
its a tough one this. if your gonna do 5k a year a radical is not for you. imho! they are nothing like a caterham.(ive had both. id purchase a track car and trailer and give it some track time. i can guarentee its unlike anything youve driven before!
Appreciate how special they are on track, but not my thing. Re your comment re road use, is it that e car is too compromised for road use. Appreciate it's somewhat wasted unless on a track, but it's the drama of the look of the car in addition to performance that attracts me. A more refrained option might be a Lotus 2-11, but I would like to explore the option of a Radical first.BioBa said:
If you race your Radical and need 100% reliability while revving it to its maximum performance on every outing the 40 hours refresh makes sense. If you predominately go to track days you are most likely save to do 60-80 hours, in particular with the 1300 engine. I am refreshing my 1500 engine after 80 hours right now. Naturally the longer you leave it the chance of a catastrophic failure increases resulting in a very expensive refresh.
What seems to fail earlier requiring engine removal is gearbox failure.
The Radical is an uncompromising race car while the Arial or Catarham are extreme road cars. A race car requires more preparation when coming to the track, during the track day and a thorough shake downs after the track day. For your own safety you better have the funds for someone else to look after it or if you are mechanically inclined do it yourself.If you already had an Arial and Caterham the Radical SR3 is the natural progression (and you will love it).
Do not forget the Radical will need a special trailer or very very long ramps.
Hours make sense for a race car and agree re track use. However for fast road use has anybody experience of realistic time periods between engine rebuilds ? Appreciate car is a lot heavier than the bike these engines come from, but you don't see these bikes needing engine rebuilds , so was hoping there is a halfway house between the two ?What seems to fail earlier requiring engine removal is gearbox failure.
The Radical is an uncompromising race car while the Arial or Catarham are extreme road cars. A race car requires more preparation when coming to the track, during the track day and a thorough shake downs after the track day. For your own safety you better have the funds for someone else to look after it or if you are mechanically inclined do it yourself.If you already had an Arial and Caterham the Radical SR3 is the natural progression (and you will love it).
Do not forget the Radical will need a special trailer or very very long ramps.
Never understood why anybody wants to drive a SR3 on the road. Sure you get lots of looks but I guess you would also get them running naked through the shopping centre. It is a horrible car to drive on the road. That's why there are plenty of good ROAD cars available.
The SR3 is a race car not a street car.
The SR3 is a race car not a street car.
BioBa said:
Never understood why anybody wants to drive a SR3 on the road. Sure you get lots of looks but I guess you would also get them running naked through the shopping centre. It is a horrible car to drive on the road. That's why there are plenty of good ROAD cars available.
The SR3 is a race car not a street car.
Lol, definitely a cheaper way to get looks. If the honest opinion is these cars are no good on the road, then I'll move on the search to 2-11's . Thanks for honest views The SR3 is a race car not a street car.
Cheers Dave
I know a couple of the people above know a lot about Radicals but none of the nay sayers drive one on the road. I do about 2000 miles a year and love it. There's another thread on this not that old that might be worth a read.
A race set up on the road would be daft, very uncomfortable and ineffective. I'm guessing you didn't have stiff springs and damping on your caterhams?
And personally I think you're right about the 1300 engines. They are well built and just don't get stressed on the road in the same way they would on track.
Good luck with the shopping. :-)
A race set up on the road would be daft, very uncomfortable and ineffective. I'm guessing you didn't have stiff springs and damping on your caterhams?
And personally I think you're right about the 1300 engines. They are well built and just don't get stressed on the road in the same way they would on track.
Good luck with the shopping. :-)
I probably started one of the other topics on this..shortly before buying my road legal 2003 plate SR3 (with 1500 engine). I've driven it twice on the road now, not had chance to drive it more sadly so my views are somewhat limited!
If you want looks (with your clothes on), nothing will match a Radical. If you want performance, again nothing will match a Radical but on the road it's not exactly at home. I can honestly say it's like no car I've owned to date, the closest thing I've driven was an F1 car a few years back...on the road you simply can't use it, the aero, the brakes etc. If you can put up with the fact it's a race car, I say go for it. You'll need a track though to learn how to use it (my first is booked for January).
I looked at the XBow, the 2-11 (Lotus dealer about 3 miles from home) and the Radical...the choice was simple
If you're in Surrey, come round for a cuppa.
If you want looks (with your clothes on), nothing will match a Radical. If you want performance, again nothing will match a Radical but on the road it's not exactly at home. I can honestly say it's like no car I've owned to date, the closest thing I've driven was an F1 car a few years back...on the road you simply can't use it, the aero, the brakes etc. If you can put up with the fact it's a race car, I say go for it. You'll need a track though to learn how to use it (my first is booked for January).
I looked at the XBow, the 2-11 (Lotus dealer about 3 miles from home) and the Radical...the choice was simple
If you're in Surrey, come round for a cuppa.
nightSpirit said:
If you're in Surrey, come round for a cuppa.
Now that's very generous of you and dangerous for my wallet 
. Someone did the same thing with an Atom when I was looking and within a month I had bought one !Did you try the 2-11 ?
Never liked the look of the x-bow
Cheers Dave
DJWuk said:
nightSpirit said:
If you're in Surrey, come round for a cuppa.
Now that's very generous of you and dangerous for my wallet . Someone did the same thing with an Atom when I was looking and within a month I had bought one !Did you try the 2-11 ?
Never liked the look of the x-bow
Cheers Dave
The offer stands, always happy to waffle about cars with a fellow petrol head.
To me, the Radical is cheaper, more focused, faster (by a long long way) and better looking. The XBow and 2-11 are just as impractical but closer to the civility etc of a road car. I just couldn't justify the cost of the 2-11...sorry to any Lotus fans but they're just not worth the money to me. I looked at a few but was already thinking of what I would want to change if I bought one!
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