Another day, another supercar that strives for the Ringmeister crown. Currently, the Radical SR8 LM holds the best time for street-legal cars, clocking in at 6 minutes and 48 seconds. (Note that the race-only Pagani Zonda R is only half a second faster, at this time) But do you think they’re satisfied with just holding the top laptime? Of course not. They know that at all times, someone else is trying to find a way to snatch the record away from them (after all, the Porsche 918 Spyder also dropped below a 7 minute laptime—the only other street-legal car to do so thus far). So what is Radical doing now?
Attempting to develop a car-engine combo that could beat their own record before someone else does. The new track-ready supercar they currently have in production takes an engine similar to the one found in the Ford F150 and dropping it into their RXC Turbo model.
Funny thing is, Radical already holds the top two current laptime records, with their Radical SR8 and SR8 LM models. If they succeed in creating yet another winner, they’ll be in the enviable position of having the top three records, putting up rather stiff competition.
So what makes the Ford F150 engine and the RXC Turbo such a potential top match? The engine itself is the 3.5 L EcoBoost V6, offering 365 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque (when installed in the Ford F150). Already impressive enough; but when it gets placed in the RXC Turbo, it bumps up to 454 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. All this, and it weighs right at 2,000 lbs.
Now the RXC Turbo differs from the SR8 by being a closed-cockpit model and has improved aerodynamic design. Plenty of critics are quick to point out that both the SR8 and RXC Turbo are obviously designed for racing, and only are considered street-legal on minimal technical points. That’s why you won’t see their times noted on some Nürburgring laptime records.
However, none of that might matter if you realize that it will only take knocking off a couple more seconds to make the RXC Turbo the fastest car to ever lap the Nürburgring. It is listed as having a 2.6 seconds 0-60 acceleration and tops out at a speed of 185 miles per hour.
Comments