Thanks to Goldtrack, I was at Silverstone yesterday for yet another off-season track day in my road Boxster and I ran in to Richard Sykes who was there with one of his Radical SR8s. Richard left our Porsche series to compete in the UAE Radical Winter Cup which takes place between October and March with 14 races over 7 events. He and co-driver Charlie Kemp won the second round just last weekend. He was kind enough to give me a few passenger laps in this magnificent race car – it made a change for me to be quicker than absolutely anything on circuit, including Caterhams, Porsches, Ferraris, and Gallardos.

The top of the Radical range SR8 RX has a 2.7 litre V8 engine producing 430bhp in a body that weighs just 680kg – about half of a race Boxster. It sprints from 0-60mph in a mere 2.7 seconds! I believe it can lap the GP circuit in under 2:02 – where 2:30 is a decent time for the Porsche series. Obviously the acceleration is rip-your-face-off quick but what really impressed my was the braking – his braking points and distances were about the same as mine but from twice the speed – and the car is completely stable. The track was slippery all day (black ice in the morning) and I didn’t manage to match any of my times, but with the Dunlop slicks and considerable downforce, Richard was able to really fly and it looked like he had to fight the car far less than he does the Boxster in the wet.