Radical man!

Having celebrated its 25th birthday, Radical is in rude health - with no plans to go electric, as sales and marketing director Dan Redpath explains

- JOHN BARKER

BACK IN 2005, A VAST NEW SWATHE OF car enthusiasts became aware of the Radical brand for the first time when the firm's SR8, driven by Michael Vergers, set a new Nürburgring Nordschleife production car lap record of just 6min 55sec. Four years later, with evo's own Roger Green riding shotgun, Vergers drove a 460bhp SR8LM from Radical's factory in Peterborough to the Ring and lowered that time to 6min 48sec, a record that would stand for eight years (evo 136). It was a contentious record because the SR8LM - and the SR8 before it - were road-registered via the UK's single vehicle approval process rather than being fully type-approved production cars. But as a means of promoting the Radical name, it worked a treat.

Formed in 1997 by two enthusiasts, Mick Hyde and Phil Abbott, Radical is still tucked away on the same industrial estate in the north of Peterborough in the East Midlands, but these days it's a different business. 'Our customer base has changed from the early days,' says Dan Redpath, sales and marketing director, who joined from Aston Martin at the start of 2020. 'Back then it was a lad-and-dad type of product with the car in a Brian James trailer behind a Discovery, with them doing the spannering. Nowadays our customers are high net worth individuals, turning up at the track in their road cars - McLarens, Ferraris and expensive classics - while the race team brings the prepared Radical, so it's a much more turn-key affair!