SR3 Turbo... what happened to it?

[edb49]

I remember Radical marketing an SR3 turbo some time ago, I think they set a Ring lap record in one too. What happened to it? Was it unreliable, or did they just want to get people buying the SR8 instead?

[DaveK-S1]

IIRC the SR3Turbo was an easy way to test the SR8 components with the extra power involved before the V8 was released

Dave

[edb49]

Did they have reliability issues with them or something? I just wonder why they're not still around...

[splitpin]

edb49 said:

Did they have reliability issues with them or something? I just wonder why they're not still around...

Mid engine positioned turbo heat generation issues aside, rather counterproductive to have one's top dollar model with a bespoke purpose developed engine put under some serious pressure by a humble non-stroker of half it's capacity enlivened by a puffer? I'm recollecting that at one time F1 cars were 'restricted' to 1500 Turbos and 'maximum wicked' put out near enough 1000 BHP, albeit with power delivery characteristics along the lines of an on/off switch?

It'd be interesting to see how quickly The Verge could put a turbo-ed 1340 in the latest version of the now hugely planted SR3 round the Ring, but obviously, it's not going to happen while the SR8 is still around. Coupled with a lower starting weight, I'd guess it would just be a question of how much boost it has to be given before it's the faster of the two. Would a four pot turbo be any more or less reliable than a V8? I doubt it, not if it's factory developed.

Who knows, may be the SR8's successor will eventually turn out to be exactly what we're talking about .......... stranger things have happened.

[DarcySmith]

We have a very nice SR3 RS Turbo that runs with us at Castle Combe

It was factory built

The car is not consistantly quick or reliable

Darcy

[splitpin]

DarcySmith said:

We have a very nice SR3 RS Turbo that runs with us at Castle Combe

It was factory built

The car is not consistantly quick or reliable

Darcy

Looks like I'm wrong again but as they say, "one swallow does not a summer make".

The latest RS clocking in at at least £60K with the vodka and tonic?

To which has been added the not insignificant cost of a pukka turbo installation (not some old turbo off something or other which a lot of so called turbo specialists do) and the various other bits which need strengthening up?

All built by Radical/Powertec?

If affirmative to all the above (surely that's got to be close on £80Ks worth), I'd be wanting my money back if it was neither consistently very very quick nor ultra reliable. It should be and I'd expect it to be ......... to get a genuine say 275-300rwhp (sufficent on something that weighs circa 550Kg and appreciably more than any 1585 has ever delivered?), you don't have to turn the wick up to stratospheric levels with a Turbo Busa. But as has been said before, turbos are not a cheap way of getting power - making power is the easy bit - making it long term reliable and easy to put down is the art - developing a output of not much more than 200rwhp per litre (which is far from earth shattering in turbo terms) should be a relative breeze for the likes of Powertec and the umpteen specialists they can call on - and yep, the dyno plot should be a smooth as a baby's bot.