Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Radical SR9 News and Speculation
When the Radical SR9 was first introduced it was hailed as possibly one of the best LMP2 cars out there, and having a real shot at winning championships. Well things didn't quite turn out that way as Radical had hoped. It has hardly been the championship winning car, and it has been outclassed by the other LMP2 cars. Waddle has decided to try and find out what has become of this car and what its future looks like. Here in the ALMS it looks like it will be just Van der Steur Racing with one car, and probably just a few rounds if any. Things are better over in the LMS, but not much better. Since Embassy Racing dropped its Radicals and decided to make its own car things are going to be a lot worse next year than this year. Embassy was probably the best of the Radical teams, so this is a major blow to Radical. They are building their own prototype that is similar to the Radical SR9 so this could lure most customers away from buying a new SR9. This leaves Bruichladdich Radical, Damax, and Melchester with plans to race the SR9 next season. Bruichladdich Radical is kind of like a factory team (the owner of the team is a top man at Radical) so they will probably bring their SR9 to most of the rounds. Damax and Melchester have both announced intentions to race Radicals next season in the LMS. Waddle is not sure if their program will happen, but even if it does it will probably not have any real success as they will just be using second hand cars from Embassy andRollcentre. Waddle has learned that Radical hasn't sold any new car, despite offering them at bargain prices, so don't expect to see any teams with new cars. Maybe it is about time for Radical to start work on a new LMP2 or LMP1, because the SR9 is going nowhere fast.
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2 comments:
I'm very disappointed that the Radical hasn't caught on, but I'm not totally surprised. It always seemed that Radical overestimated the number of individuals with the resolve and funds to run a prototype sports car. But it's tough to blame them since this is the same dream that so many of us who follow the sport want to believe in too. So it's with much pain that I think Radical got into the game too soon.
My only other question is did the introduction for the Porsche RS Spyder take away any potential buyers?
Thank you for your comment and question. Yes, I do think that in a small way the Porsche RS Spyder took away potential buyers. The direct way is that the Porsche RS Spyder is a much better car than the SR9 and buyers like Horag Racing and Equipe Verschuur may have looked into buying a SR9, but decided not to and go with the RS Spyder. This is probably unlikely. The indirect way that the RS Spyder affected the sales of the SR9, is that with so many RS Spyders on the track next year, you need a much more competitive car than the Radical. The indirect way has effected the sales of the SR9 much more than the direct, but other cars have probably effected it more than the RS Spyder.
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