RADICAL VS ARIEL VS ULTIMA

[FRANSYL]

Hello, I'm a frenchie thinking that the best trackdays cars are british.
I have an Hommell,in the future I want one off these : ultima, radical or ariel So, to guide my choice : on a track, what is the best ? Radical SR3 ? because its weight, I suppose, but my really heart beat for the ultima because its looks like a real car . Your opinion in cost, pleasure, efficiency ... vs these 3 cars . THANKS

[RobC]

Depends on what you want from a trackday car

If you want to be the fastest - Radical

If you want to have a laugh at "sensible" speeds - Ariel (Honda)

If you want to stand out from the crowd and love the rush of a V8 then it has to be the Ultima.

The Ariel will be the cheapest to run by far, the Ultima will eat consumables and the Radical will blow up

Personally I don't enjoy the Radical at trackdays because it is so much quicker than most other cars out there its hard to get a clean lap. The best car I've owned for trackdaying is the original Elise. Even in 160bhp form it was so much fun to drive, when I upgraded to 200bhp was just as much fun but happened a bit quicker Of course the other car worth considering is the Caterham.

[FRANSYL]

The Radical will blow up ?? I am not understand very well, is that because its bike motor ?
May be you are right, the best choice for me is probably an Ariel but the Radical is really radical and I like that

[RobC]

Sorry, english humor not translating there

Bike engine + car = fragile

When you compare the other two vehicles on your list the Radical is the most likely car to have engine issues. However you'll have a lot of fun between them. At the end of the day I would see if you can get a drive in each on your list and decide from there.

[FRANSYL]

In France it's possible to have a Radical and an Ariel drive, but for the Ultima ...may be at Le Mans in june .Thank you ROB C

[La Ratatouille]

Hi there Fransyl

I can tell you now Radicals are far from fragile, the trackday beast to go for is a high down force 1300 SR3.

The standard 1300 Busa is very reliable especially on track days where stresses are greatly reduced compared to the 1500cc racing engines, the high downforce front diffuser is very robust and not only does it glue the car to the road like no other it also stands up very well to the odd trip across the grass :O)

You also have a Radical dealer in France now who you can contact using this link from the Radical website http://www.radicalsportscars.com/disties.php#franc...
or at their own website
http://www.sports-cars-unlimited.com/

TTFN

[AndrewD]

I'm genuinely puzzled by this "blow up" comment.

Does anybody have some statistics?

My only experience is my own and a friend's. We both owned 1500 SR3, him for about 2 years, me for 3. Nothing blew up. Of course, we were prepared to spend the right money on them keeping them maintained. Wonder if that's the reason...

[RobC]

AndrewD said:

Of course, we were prepared to spend the right money on them keeping them maintained. Wonder if that's the reason...

Nail on head there Andrew, they do require up keep.

[BertBert]

RobC said:

AndrewD said:

Of course, we were prepared to spend the right money on them keeping them maintained. Wonder if that's the reason...

Nail on head there Andrew, they do require up keep.

Possibly it depends on following the refresh regime. My CS went in the gbox dept and the engine was pretty tired. If you spread the maintenance cost of engine and gbox, it's prob quite a lot. If however you buy a newish one and sell it before it needs the refrresh, it'll be a lot cheaper!

Bert

[FRANSYL]

Thank you for your answers, in fact I made the same message on ultima, ariel and radical websites and only Radical owners answered ;
Note : I know the website "sports cars unlimited" and I project to go to see them

[AlistairCoker]

I have an SR3 (1363cc) and my brother runs a 450bhp 5.7v8 Ultima at trackdays. We have both just had expensive engine re-builds/repalcements. His cost £9000 for a rebuild and I had a new engine at £5500, both expensive!! In terms of performance, we were at Silverstone last week and as you know that is a fast track and you would expect his Ultima to get close to the Radical. Well it didn't, I reckon mine was probably 5sec per lap quicker. The Ultima is an awesome beast and it sounds fantastic (plus it's road legal) but if you want an "in-your-face adrenalin filled" track day car,,,,no contest, Radical every time !!

[dario]

i got my Radical SR3 1500 supersport in September 2006. it had just had a refresh! got the bill to prove it. first track day at Rockingham broke a drive shaft (looked like it was too old and had been stressed) then too it to Spa in October and on about the 25th lap the cam chain broke...... this was repaired for £4700 includeing removal and labour.

now i had the cam chain replaced with a "REAL CHAIN" and have not looked back since. it was one year full of fun and learning. the engin has just been refreshed again after 70 track day hours and i am ready for another season. the Refresh was £2003 + radicals bit to install it again and shake down.

if you want ultimate adrelin rush i doubt it can be beaten except by spending uber money on say an x racing GT2.... but then the repairs and consumables will be in a different league.

in the same year i also had a quaife unit bearing fail (should have realised that that needed refreshing) but the damage was only confined to a crown wheel and pinion, and a refresh kit.

if your not mechanically minded it will be taxing. you cannot put it away each time and expect it to be OK the next time you get it on track.