Radical SR3 Still The Stig's Fastest Car
2nd September 2010
With Ben Collins unmasked yesterday as Top Gear’s The Stig, we are reminded of the SR3’s incredible lap time around the Top Gear Test track, set right back in 2002, soon after the SR3's launch.
A road-legal SR3 1300 set the incredible time of 1m15s, still the fastest-ever time around the Dunsfold circuit. Radical co-founder Mick Hyde picks up the story:
“We were invited by Top Gear to set a time, with the then-Stig, Perry McCarthy at the wheel; however, the weather was far too wet to set a lap time on the day. We returned the next day to set a time, but McCarthy was unavailable, so part-time Stig Julian Bailey was drafted in, and promptly set a 1m19 lap time, the fastest lap at that point, against rival machinery (see the lap here.) Once McCarthy heard that his fastest lap had been beaten, he asked us to return to the circuit a couple of weeks later to have a go, resulting in the incredible 1m15 lap, still the fastest road-legal car time eight years later!”
At the same time, the SR3 was pitted against an aircraft around the 1.75-mile circuit; click here to view the challenge. With the SR3 evolving into the 1500cc SR3 RS, with its improved chassis, aerodynamics and power, Hyde is confident that a sub 1m10s lap could be achieved, even less for the Nordschleife Production Car Lap Record Champion, the SR8 LM. Top Gear, if you’re listening, perhaps Stig #4 might like to give it a go?