RADICAL EXPANDS INTO PHILIPPINES WITH THE MOTUL RADICAL CHALLENGE

Philippine car fans can now experience what it feels like to strap yourself into a Radical and experience the unique thrills of the British-built road and track cars. The Motul Radical Challenge gives motorsport lovers a chance to put their skills to the test on track and demonstrate the awesome power of the Suzuki Hayabusa-powered cars. It’s billed as the fastest racing series in the Philippines, and the first event was part of the Petron Philippine Motorsports Championship at the Clark International Speedway.

The exhibition races are a great way to show off the amazing prowess of the track-focused Radicals. Radical Cars Philippines in partnership with Motul came up with the idea for the Motul Radical Challenge. Five Radical SR3s and SR1s took to the track, a mix of amateur and professional drivers, with some owner cars, too.

A little while ago, professional driver Marlin Stockinger set the fastest lap time ever recorded at the Clark International Speedway in a Radical SR3, bringing the car over the line in just one minute, 53 seconds.

Motul is the official lubricant partner of Radical Cars, supplying a wide range of oils and products for Radical’s range of track and road cars. Radical’s technical development manager James Scott, said of the partnership with Motul: “Motul’s lubricants are great. We use everything from the brake fluid, clutch, gearbox and engine lubricants. The durability and performance have been no issue at all. When we started out with Motul it was at the same time as we brought in a new engine. For a high compression, direct-injection engines, we need to use a special oil, and we found that right away with Motul. For us, the global availability is another huge benefit of using Motul. We’re selling cars all across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. So, to have global dealerships where our dealers can stock a really good quality lubricant is key for us.”

“It goes back to engineering. We think their product works really well with our product. And about half of our product range are Suzuki Hayabusa-based engines. So, the relationship between Motul and Suzuki certainly was part of the entry point. The other half of our range is powered by Ford Ecoboost engines. They’re Radical Performance Engines, that’s our brand, and they’re heavily modified versions of their Ford and Suzuki engines. So, our partnership with Motul is technical. We like the fact that the guys are very motorsport-oriented. Our product is ultimately a motorsport product. So, we’re all operating in the same world.”

As well as the Motul Radical Challenge, there’s a Philippines Radical Racing Academy where aspiring racing drivers can learn how to pilot a Radical properly, using its lightweight and prodigious downforce to your advantage out on the track. To date, Radical Philippines has sold nine cars – five SR1s and three SR3s.

To give you an idea of just how quick a Radical is, the company’s marketing director Mark Ryhorski added. “To give you some context, an SR3 1500 will lap faster than a BTCC Touring Car. And these are all amateur gentlemen drivers. In the hands of a pro driver, they’re much quicker. And then the SR10 is even quicker by several seconds.”

© Pictures: Radical