Exterior and Interior
Styled and built to look like a true-to-its-roots racer despite being a street-legal vehicle, the SR3 SL weighs in at just 675kg – and that comes with full body aerodynamics, including the same core chassis and a compliant suspension. The new Radical sports car also has an F1-style paddle-shift gear change with an auto blipper, a fly-by-wire throttle, and a set of street-ready wheels and tires.
Performance
Like any modern-day track racer, the Radical SR3 SL has loads of power hiding underneath that racer exterior. It’s powered by a 2.0-liter Ford EcoBoost four-cylinder engine that produces 247 horsepower with an additional 53 ponies tacked to it courtesy of Life Racing, rounding up the total output of the SR3 SL to 300 horsepower and 340 lb/ft of torque. The SR3 SL hits a 0-60 mph time of just three seconds with a top speed of 165 mph. The newest Radical to come out of the block also has a brand-new turbocharged unit with Twin-Independent Variable Cam Timing and state-of-the-art, high-pressure Direct Injection, transmitting power through a six-speed sequential gearbox.
Radical is also offering a Race Pack for the SR3 SL that comes with added features, including an engine calibration map selection that provides ‘road’, ‘wet’, and ‘racetrack’ suitable maps, a racing bi-plane rear wing, racing tire options, and an FIA-approved fuel cell.
Then there’s the matter of the European Small Series Type Approval, which the SR2 SL was given, making a registered racer in a lot of European countries.
Pricing
The Radical SR3 SL has been given a price tag of £67,750, or about $107,000 based on current exchange rates. It’s not cheap by any account, but the price of owning one of these vehicles should justify the exorbitant price tag attached to it.
Competition
The Autosport International Show witnessed the unveiling of another vehicle that could give the Radical SR3 SL a serious run for its money.
That vehicle is the Caterham SP/300.R, which comes with a 2.0-liter Ford Duratec Supercharged engine that delivers 301 horsepower at 7,500 RPM with a maximum torque of 290 Nm at 7,500 RPM and a Lola Formula 3 derived gearbox mounted rear suspension system. According to Caterham, the SP/300.R can run north-to-60 in just 2.8 seconds with a top speed of 180mph.
Compare that to the numbers posted by the SR3 SL and you’ve got two racers that should end up staring each other down in the near future.
Best-looking Radical sports car we’ve seen
European Small Series Type Approval makes us giddy
Lightweight means ’go faster!’
SP/300.R has a marginal numbers edge
North of six digits price tag will punch a hole in our wallets
Limited stock will hurt our chances of getting one
gallery: 2011 Radical SR3 SL
