► Radical sells 60 SR10s in nine months
► New record for British sportscar maker
► Developed in lockdown, now winning races
We already know the new Radical SR10 is fast: 0-60mph in 2.4sec and cornering forces of 2.3 lateral g are not small beer. But it’s also just become the fastest-selling car in the company’s quarter-century history.
The British sports racing car manufacturer has built 50 SR10s in the nine months since December 2020, and sold a further ten. That’s a record in terms of volumes for the Peterborough-based company, which celebrates its 25thanniversary in 2022.
A triumph over adversity story
Radical had a busy lockdown. While some of us (this author, at least) still haven’t put up that set of shelves they were planning to get around to, Radical developed the SR10 in its entirety against the backdrop of the pandemic. The first customer SR10 was produced in December 2020.
Just before that, CAR got behind the wheel of one of the first prototypes. You can read Adam Binnie’s review of the Radical SR10 in full here.
Radical SR10: the basics
The SR10 isn’t road-legal, and is designed purely for racing or trackday use, with performance exceeding GT3 racing cars.
Power comes from an engine that started life as Ford’s 2.3-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost unit but which has been thoroughly reengineered by Radical Performance Engines (RPE). Even the block is modified. Peak power output is 425bhp, and 380lb ft goes to the rear wheels via a GT3-spec gearbox and Formula 2-spec transaxle developed with Hewland.
The SR10 is a bigger brother to the rapid SR8, a car which became famous partly for its in-house developed V8 engine and partly for holding a longstanding lap record at the Nurburgring Nordschleife (watch the somewhat legendary on-board video here).
The lower-revving engine in the SR10 has been designed to last longer and offer lower running costs to owners, and the car has been designed to meet a variety of race regulations around the world to make it a global product. The SR10 has won the opening rounds of the North American Radical Cup, with USA becoming one of its strongest markets.
To put the rapidity of the SR10’s sales and manufacture into context, it took four years for SR8 production to hit the 50-car mark.
A production rate of 50 cars in nine months might not be in line with Wolfsburg or Fremont but for the handbuilt, borderline-Le Mans-level SR10 created amid the turmoil of 2020, it's a big achievement by the small but talented engineering and manufacturing teams at Radical.
Click here to read CAR’s account of racing in 2016 Radical SR1 Cup