In last week’s column I reported on the launch of a new company – Radical New Zealand Ltd – and the goals of the man behind it, Greg Brinck; to import, sell and generally support the buyers of (initially anyway) two of bespoke open LMP-style British sports/racing car manufacturer Radical’s latest models, the 1.5 litre 4-cyl. Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle-powered SR3XX and a 2.3-litre turbocharged 4-cyl Ford EcoBoost-engined SR10.
As I (hope) I made very clear in that particular story, I can’t think of a person better qualified to represent a company like Radical here, Greg having excelled himself in a long and varied competition career on two and four wheels (as well as in power boats on water!) and enjoyed a long and equally successful parallel career in retail and customer service.
As part of a key ‘roll-out’ of his and Radical New Zealand’s official launch this month (Dec 2020) Greg put on a ‘media day’ for what passes as the ‘motorsport’ media here.
I scored the Talk Motorsport invite because……(no, not – sadly – because Greg or anyone else for that matter remembered my stunning drive from P14 on the grid to P4 at the line in the pouring rain in a Formula Vee at Manfeild in 1997, or my ‘pole-to-the-top-step-of-the-podium’ run at Levels a year (or so) later in the Fuelstar Mazda RX7) …..the venue was Hampton Downs and I live closer to the place than the bloke who runs ‘the show,’ Christchurch-based Talk Motorsport founder and editor Benjamin Carrell!
It’s not every day, of course that an email drops into your in-box inviting you to Hampton Downs to ‘try out’ a pukka sports racing car so it was with a genuine sense of excitement (OK, one tinged, I don’t mind admitting, with just a tad, a shadow – if you like – of apprehension) that I flicked back my acceptance and went looking for the new full-face helmet and HANS device I bought when Hampton Downs made the use of a head & neck restraint devices compulsory last year.
Fortunately the helmet and Stand 21 HANS device were tucked away safely in their appropriate soft, stretchy carry bags in my old Ogio motorcycle gear ‘Sled.’ However, I had to search high (literally) and low for my fire resistant 2-layer Alpinestars Nomex driving suit and matching Alpinestars driving boots.
Both eventual turned up, the driving suit in our master bedroom walk in wardrobe (having been hung there by my wife, not me!) and the boots – stuffed with old newspaper to try and help the drying process – tucked in behind the dirty clothes basket in our laundry.
Because most of the large capacity sportsbike launches I used to attend when I was the Editor of the motorcycle mag were held at circuits here and in Australia I’ve probably got a better idea than most of what is expected of a journo invited to ‘test’ a vehicle at a track – particularly when you are sharing the session with members of the public as we were..
The key thing to remember is the classic…’don’t be a dickhead,’ followed fairly closely by ‘don’t crash’ yet also ‘don’t be so slow as to be a mobile chicane’…and if you are, don’t whatever you do ‘write yourself up as a hero’ or some kind of ‘driving God’ when your yarn on the day and drive eventually sees the harsh light of day.
In saying all of this a new experience for me was having someone along for the ride with me – not just anyone either. In this case it was fellow bike-turned car wrangler Aaron Slight, a race winner and two-time runner-up in the World Superbike Championship, three-time winner of Japan’ famous Suzuka 8 Hour endurance race, as well as a two-season veteran of the British Touring Car Championship.
Aaron is a long-time friend of Greg’s and also pulls the odd shift as an advanced driving instructor for Tim Martin’s Downforce Driving events business.
Not being the biggest bloke in pit lane he also fitted right in to the second, smaller and angled jockey seat to the left of the driver’s fuller sized lay-down seat in the SR3XX cockpit.
Access is a la speedboat, albeit without the usual step up. I simply grabbed a handful of the rollbar’s sturdy sidebar with my left hand, lifted my left leg up and over the low-slung but still fairly wide scuttle before with one foot now planted on the seat, I simply rotated the other leg and foot, taking care not to place too much of my body weight of any of the fibreglass bodywork features..
Once with both feet in I simply pivoted 90 degrees, took a deep breath and let my feet, legs and torso slip waterslide-like down and down the lay-down driver’s seat until my feet touched the pedals.
Once in, Phil, my ‘valet for the day’ helped me dig out the crutch and lap & diagonal seat belts and once they were done up Phil proffered the cut-down, quick release F1-style steering wheel before clipping it effortlessly onto the steering shaft.
The ‘wheel’ really is a piece of work, and is part of the AIM data acquisition system which sets the new XX version apart from the one it replaces.
Like those you see in F1 cars the SR3XX ‘wheel’ is covered in buttons and digital screens and things including a large gear indicator slap bang in the middle of the display and a digital block rev counter which runs from left to right along the flat ‘top’ of the wheel’s centre section.
Like anything there is a ritual to get the fires burning, and I probably didn’t help things by giving the throttle pedal a good prod when I thought I heard the engine ‘catch.’
Eventually Phil got the engine fired up and running smoothly, however, and I got my fit big surprise.
‘Forget about the clutch Aaron and Phil said at almost exactly the same time.
And so, once the engine was nicely warmed up and ready all I had to do was select first gear with the left-hand flappy paddle behind the steering wheel, ease my right foot down on the throttle and ease out of the pit garage and down pit lane.
Out on the track I spent the first lap-and-a-bit of my 20-or-so minute stint familiarising myself with the engine, gearbox & drivetrain and the (non-power-assisted) steering…repeat after me, right hand paddle to change up, left hand one to change down,’ ‘use your mirrors and don’t pass anyone under brakes, only pass on a straight’ (Track Day rules remember), and….’don’t be a dickhead.’
Other random thoughts from the session included…. The long-stroke 1.5-litre version of the 1340cc Hayabusa engine proved incredibly tourqey and amazingly tractable but at same time not half as lively (Or a better word might be ‘angry’) as I was expecting; suggesting to me that the wee SR3XX was running its highest (Spa-Francorchamps or Silverstone) gearing at a circuit better suited to something more akin to Brands Hatch (a lot lower).
The four-wheel disc/four-pot caliper front and rear brakes, of course were sublime. OK even with Aaron and I on board they were still only hauling up just 800kgs each time they were applied.
In saying that it took no time at all for me to get used to their more linear non-servo ‘feel’ and within a lap I was testing my ability (and Aaron’s resolve) by waiting until the 50-metre board before getting out of the gas and onto the brake pedal on one or two corners per lap.
So quickly in fact, did I become confident of pushing the limits of the wee SR3XX that the rear end snapped out on me as we were accelerating (hard) out of the uphill Turn 3 hairpin on my second to last lap.
For an instant all I could see was the concrete wall on the inside of the circuit, but I have drifted into, through and out of Turn 3 so many times in the past 10 years I knew that all I had to do was get out of the gas and let the forward momentum I had already built up as well as the grip sill present in the hot slick tyres slingshot the car back onto its original course.
Aaron, I think it’s fair to say was still not wholly convinced, when I tried to explain the physics of it to him later, but that is exactly what happened (in drift terms I think of it as a ‘half switch’) and we continued on at barely reduced pace for another al and a half.
So (you know, in overall terms) what did I/do I think about these new Radicals arriving here?
Simply put I think Greg Brinck is on to a winner.
While there are already enough Radicals of various ages and stages already here to effectively rejuvenate the New Zealand Sports Car Championship Greg sees the real opportunity to grow a long-term, sustainable business – for models like the SR3XX and SR10 – at Track Days rather than race days.
It’s a model already up and running in the US -where Radical is doing good business with the what it calls the ‘Country Club’ model.
Rather than (or for many that should probably read ‘as well as’) paying a big sub every year to belong to an exclusive golf or racquet sports club, some ‘car guys’ belong to clubs which own private circuits and store/run/buy & sell etc cars for their ‘ultra-high net worth individual’ members.
Here Hampton Downs and Highlands already offer similar clubs and services, and Greg is offering to pay the one-off joining fee with every new Radical ordered through him in 2020.
‘I see it as an investment,’ he says. “A lot of these guys already have a nice high-end luxury or sports car but once they have got on top of driving it at the track what do they do, buy another one?
Or, do they keep their original Supercar and buy a dedicated track car like the SR3XX which can help take their driving to a whole new level.”
And so, if this all sounds like a ‘bit of you’ get out your cell phone and give Greg a call on 021 443 517 or fire him off an email to [email protected]
He’d love to hear from you and – even better- if you tell him you read about his ‘Radical plans’ here on the Talk Motorsport website first – seriously – that’ll make my day!
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