Autoblog

If for no other reason, love these cars for the utter straightforward simplicity of their name – they are exactly what they're called: Radical. While many sports car manufacturers claim the mantle as their own, few follow the creed of "racing car for the road" quite so faithfully as Radical, the small British outfit that produces track-day specials like the SR8. They may be certified for road use, but few concessions have been made towards comfort or usability. These cars are meant to be driven to the track and back home again.

As if its previous offerings weren't fast enough, Radical has now unveiled its latest race car for the road: the SR8LM. The LM designation should give you a clue in case the picture doesn't say it all. It's built to offer Le Mans prototype levels of performance to anyone with the means. While the "ordinary" SR8 is powered by a 360-hp Powertec-modified superbike engine from the Suzuki Hayabusa, bored out from 1.3-liters to 2.8 and designated RPA, the SR8LM gets the revised RPB powerplant pumping out a whopping 455 horses and revving to an atmospheric 10,500-rpm redline. The engine is mated to Radical's paddle-operated Powertec P-tec transaxle and PS1 pneumatic shifter that have been engineered for foot-to-the-floor upshifts and automatically blips the throttle on the way back down.

While we don't have performance stats just yet, Radical claims the new £89,000 SR8LM will keep pace with actual Le Mans prototype race cars. That's quite a claim, but considering that the previous 360hp SR8 already holds the record for fastest street-legal car to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife at 6' 55", that may not be so far-fetched.

(Press release after the jump.)

[Source: Radical]

While their first year in LMP2 hasn't produced a win yet, the performance of the SR9 has been impressive, and Radical has announced plans to step up to LMP1 when the series moves to its new closed cockpit cars in 2010. Ruling body ACO recently adopted a new framework for P1 cars that will have the cars looking more like "road cars" with closed tops, sleeker bodies with not as many obvious cooling ducts, and smaller rear wings. Rather than go it alone, it seems Radical is trying to attract a major manufacturer that would want to go head-to-head with Audi and newcomer Peugeot in the European series. Quotes and another photo-illustration after the jump.

[Source: Radical]