'Ring Record - Track & Race Car Magazine, February 2006

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Nürburgring Nordschleife Lap Record Smashed
Michael Vergers during his 6:55 lap!
Since 1998 Radical Sports Cars has built its reputation on being the quickest. Ever since the days of the Prosport, it rightly claimed to offer the fastest single sports car racing package anywhere in the world and as each year goes by, the competition get closer, it simply ups the game another notch.

Take the SR3 for instance, it wasn’t enough for the Peterborough concern to sell it as the quickest track day machine around, the company had to bolt a turbo on to it and blow the competition into the weeds. It had big plans for the SR3 turbo. The car just wasn’t going to take on the best in the UK but the rest of the world too. In 2003 Radical took its black and gold machine to the Nürburgring Nordschleife and took the production car lap record with a time of seven minutes 19 seconds, way faster than any road-legal car had ever lapped before.

Touring and sports car ace Phil Bennett was in the hot seat and only had a single lap to set the time, yet even he would say there was more to come but, back then, no more was needed; the point had been proven. That was until earlier this year when the Dutch Donkervoort squad sole in with a lap that shaved a second off Radical’s time.

Its official, if you want to be the fastest around the ‘Ring, you need a British Supercar.Plans were rapidly hatched to not only grab the record back but to obliterate it, so no-one would even bother to try and go faster. What Radical wanted was the first ever sub-seven minute tour and felt that now it had the car to do the job. The SR8, which made its debut on the UK Racing scene back in March, had proved to be considerably faster than the SR3 Turbo and it’s not difficult to see why. Peak power was similar, with the SR8 delivering360bhp, but the new in-house 2.6 litre V8 had a more linear delivery and a wider power band. Revised aerodynamics developed two and a half times the SR3’s downforce and sophisticated Intrax dampers tied everything down and increased mechanical grip.

The car has proved itself already this year in race trim, all it needed to do now was to ensure the Dunlop Direnza road tyres could contain it all. Radical’s test driver and SCSA champ, Michael Vergers was to be entrusted with setting the record and he warmed up by racing in the VLN series at the ‘Ring, where he finished third in a GT3 Cup car which was shared with Bennett and Juan Barazi. He also managed a couple of practice runs in the public sessions. While unable to complete a full lap the team was able to analyse the data, which revealed he was inside the SR3 Turbo’s lap.

On day two he would get two runs where he could complete a full lap. Vergers would enter the track at the public ticket booth, warm the tyres up on the run to the old pit straight, where he would go for it, complete the lap and return to the pits. An independent GPS data-logger, courtesy of the German magazine sport auto would record the official time, while Radical’s own Stack DataPro recorder would make interesting detailed reading.

Record-breaking car & team
Record-breaking car & team
The first run was a record breaker, a 7 minute 1 second, impressively rapid and the team was pleased, but the champagne remained on ice. Radical Director Mick Hyde and the boys wanted more, and Vergers was sure he could deliver. On this run he had to pass several cars and was sure a clear lap was all he needed. What he didn’t need was rain and as dark clouds were beginning to gather around the Eifel Mountains it was clear it was now or never.

He disappeared off once more and as he returned the man from Sport Auto broke the news everyone had been waiting for – a lap of the Nordschleife had taken Vergers just six minutes fifty six seconds! Once the data had been downloaded it was possible to see how it was done (and how brave Vergers had been).

Taking a look at the graph it takes a moment to work it out, such is the length of the lap. The first thing to note is the timing along the bottom, which begins at the one0minute marker due to the first part of the run having been deleted, this was when Vergers was warming up the tyres. The top graph shows wheel speed, while the bottom displays engine speed. The graphs begin on the run to Hatzenbach, the downhill right-hander which required a small brake (the tyres were still not quite up to full operating temperature) but he still managed to reach 130mph before breaking for the very bumpy Hatzenbach section itself.

Vergers was using second gear through here as very long ratios had been fitted into the Hewland gearbox. On the run up to Flugplatz he accelerates up to fifth gear before dabbing the brakes after the crest and dropping down to fourth. The run from here is one of the fastest on the lap, with Vergers peaking at 158mph, before knocking things down to 138mph for the very tricky Schwedenkreuz, taken in fifth. Aremberg requires heavy breaking and is completed at 70mph in second.

Down into the Foxhole now and the steep descent allows speed to build unbelievably quickly, the graph is almost vertical and Vergers nearly achieves his V-Max here at 160mph. Considering this section of track includes a curving depression at the bottom of the hill on a narrow track with Armco lining, its seriously impressive. A fast left, a slow right and the very slow 55mph Adenauer Forst section follows before Metzgesfld. Here Vergers brakes from 140mph to 120mph over a vicious bump that wants to throw the SR8 into the barriers. After surviving that he goes down another gear for the following left before dropping to second for Kallenhardt.

We’re now on the drop down to the Adenau bridge, but first is a fast ‘S’-bend. Vergers takes it in fourth gear with a slight lift on the way in, however a huge bump at the apex sends the car understeering towards the barriers and he has to lift again, which is shown on the graph. Next is some heavy downhill braking into Wehrseifen, the slowest corner on the track with a 50mph minimum speed. The revs here also drop to their lowest point, 5592rpm in second, demonstrating the wide power band available, peak revs being 10,700rpm. Speed ramps up quickly to 120mph before the anchors are brought into play for Ardenau.

The Lauda Kink rattles by flat out at 130mph and next up is Bergwerk, one of the most important corners on the circuit which leads on to a very long flat-out uphill section. The steepness of the climb can be seen on the graph as the acceleration flattens out at 148mph. Vergers ran all this section in fifth gear trying to squeeze every last bit of power out of the Powertec engine. A lift for the corner before Klosertal shows the plunge and then our man lifts briefly for Klosertal itself, Vergers later explained that he felt he could’ve taken it flat.

More braking follows for the right hander before the climb to Karussell. The concrete Karussell is the second slowest corner and gives Vergers and the SR8 a rough ride as it bumps the car about. There is also a brief data spike here that should be ignored. Climbing again now to Hohe Acht, a section that Vergers describes as his favourite, and includes a flat left-hander. Through the Wippermann, Vergers keeps off the kerbs and this series of decreasing peaks are taken in third. Brunchen and Eis Kurve are taken in second.

The next large peak is the run to Pflanzgarten One, where the car becomes briefly airborne in the braking zone. Pflangarten Two is hairy, with the car going light and sideways over the crest in fifth gear at 140mph! The mini Karussell is a 65mph hop but at this stage Vergers was worrying about the only car he came across on the lap that had just come into view. He would catch it at Galgenkopf, the last corner before the long straight. The extra lift he made, to drive around the outside of it, can be seen on the graph.

Down the Dottinger-Hohe straight Vergers moves into sixth at 155mph but the acceleration rate slows as the car climbs, peaking at a max 160.1mph where he takes Teirgarten completely flat-out. Heavy braking is now required for the final few bends and Vergers keeps it all tidy in second gear. He crosses the line less than seven minutes since he was last there, covering the 12.9 miles at an average speed of 109.5mph. Just imagine what he could have done on slicks...

Words: Roger Green | Photos: Oliver Read


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