WHAT'S THE BEST CAR YOU'VE EVER W driven? It's the question every automotive journalist gets asked the most. I've never come up with a good answer: like everything in life, it's all relative. But the most fun car I've ever driven, that one's easy. In 2016 I raced a season in a Radical SR1, the Peterborough track car company's entry-level racing car. It felt as if it spliced the genes of a kart with a three-quarter-scale prototype racer. I've never experienced another car so immediate, so controllable and so thrilling.
That was the original SR1, launched in 2012. It was comprehensively updated in 2017 and now this is its third generation, the Radical SRI XXR, introduced halfway through 2023 with fresh electronics, revised aerodynamics (including an LMP-style central dorsal fin) and the fifth generation of Radical's 1340cc engine. As before, it's based on Suzuki's Hayabusa motorcycle engine but rebuilt by Radical's RPE engine division. Compared with the older SRI's unit, the Gen 5 engine is designed to last longer (with 80 hours between rebuilds) and features a new engine management system, drive-bywire electronics and revised cooling.
To my eyes it's a more attractive car than before. The original SR1 was adapted from the Radical SR4 released in the mid-noughties, with styling inspired by the Bentley Speed 8 Le Mans car. The redesigned bodywork is more contemporary in style and looks great in this car's Porsche 917 Can Am-aping livery. It's still tiny, less than 3.9m long and just over 1m high.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2024-Ausgabe von Evo UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2024-Ausgabe von Evo UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
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