I Drove A Radical SR3 RS In The Wet And It Blew My Mind

Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts. An all-expenses paid trip to Legoland. Simon Cowell's phone number. These are all things you should never turn down if offered. Ever. So when I received an email asking whether I wanted to spend half a day piloting a 161mph Radical SR3 RS round the home of British motorsport - Silverstone - I decided to feign my immense excitement and casually accept the offer;

“Sure, I don’t think I’m busy. But let me check my calendar.”

Images - Nick from Unique Track Days

Having breezed up the M40 in my new long-termer Peugeot 208 GTi, of course making sure to warm up my brain by attacking the greasy B-roads with as much venom as a cobra on Nytol, I arrived at Silverstone excited and ready to breeze through Becketts. Unfortunately, Britain's weather had decided to do an absolute job on Middle Earth England, and a quick look at the track confirmed my worst fears; Silverstone had become one giant swimming pool. Balls.

Having been introduced to the Radical crew and warmly welcomed by the Experience Mad team, which included British GT Champion Bradley Ellis, I hurried into the marshal's office to attend a safety briefing. Cue the following phrases used overzealously:

"It's wet, so don't forget to take it easy." "Don't forget, it's wet". "Did I mention it's, like, totally wet out there?"

In the 20-minute lecture, I learned I would be sharing Silverstone with fellow novice (read: n00b) drivers and some more gifted track veterans. A quick walk around the paddock confirmed this as I spotted some interesting and bloody expensive cars I'd be lapping Northamptonshire's finest with. No pressure then...

Porsche's V10 Carrera GT has aged remarkably well

Spot the GT3 beauty

My own lightweight track car for the day would be the slightly-less-expensive Radical SR3 RS. You should need no formal introduction: the Radical weighs in at just 570kg and in 1340cc guise can smash 60mph in 3.1sec.

Time for your humble author to take control and lay down some laptimes

Starting up the car is a pretty simple job with the press of an ignition button. The Radical purrs into life and a quick prod of the throttle produces a sound from the rear you'd normally smirk about. In my case, I was more terrified about the prospect of sliding this car off the track and into one of Silverstone's famous sidewalls on the start-finish straight. No time to prepare for the worst though, as I depress the heavy clutch, find the high biting-point, and flick the paddle behind the steering wheel into first.

In the pits, the car is subdued and raw. Even though I'm wearing a full-face helmet and have an in-ear intercom system connected to Bradley (who's thankfully sitting beside me), I can still hear and feel every burble and crackle. Pass through the pits, through the right-hander and it's time to mash the loud pedal.

Another racer flying past the start-finish on a drying track

ROOAAAAR. The SR3 RS builds speed like you wouldn't believe, and I barely have time to glance at the LCD digital readout which already reads 100mph. The feeling is sensational; brutal acceleration followed by hard braking (although I'm not nearly using the full power of the four-pot callipers in this torrential downpour).

Cornering is a mind-blowing proposition. Maggotts-Becketts - the one complex we all know having watched F1 - passes by in a blur of pinned throttle, gentle steering movements and use of all the track to maintain speed. Then it's the long straight past Chapel where you can hit the Radical's top speed (due to track gearing) before slamming on the anchors in time for Stowe.

In no time at all, 30 minutes had passed, and it was time for me to return to the pits, with some vital Silverstone laps under my belt and a mahoosive smile on my face. With a drying track, we had time to change the Radical's shoes from wets to slicks, and for me to get taken on an exhilarating passenger ride chasing down an Aston Martin GT car. What a day, indeed.

Imagine seeing this Aston in your rearview...

Thanks to Experience Mad for inviting me down to play around with their Radicals at Silverstone. If you'd like to have a mad experience (see what I did there), then visit their website. But note, the package is a wallet-shuddering £1650 per group of 1-6 people. Would I recommend it? For special occasions and gifts... hell to the yeah.