Autocar Magazine - " The Wild Bunch"

BRASS-MONKEY GROUP TEST EXTREME MACHINES

Take six of the rawest, most impractical cars money can buy - an Ariel, a Caterham, a Grinnall, a Jag JP1,a Radical and a Westfield - and head north on one of the rawest days of the year… and pray for snow.

Steve Cropley explains why

In freezing fog, rain, wind, sleet and snow, cars proved adept and great fun, if not too comfortable, like a bunch of slightly threatening polar explorers, clad as we were from head to toe in black wet weather gear kindly provided by Alpinestars (the motorcycle clothing people) after a silver-tongued request from Bill. Everyone was clutching a Nitro helmet, too, because you can't drive these cars anywhere without decent eye and head protection. In summer without a screen your eyes will water at speeds over 50mph and airborne bugs will queue up to whack you in the eyeballs. In winter, you'd never withstand the icy blast, or the handfuls of grit thrown up by traffic around you.

There's an old saying to the effect that there's no such thing as bad winter weather, just bad winter clothing. We were already finding this out. In static temperatures only a rung above zero, and with the wind-chill in our exposed cockpits shaving at least 20 degrees off that, we'd never have got this far without decent wet-and-cold gear. Yet even on this first leg - 80 miles or so - we'd all been a bit surprised how comfortable you can be in cars like these, though 6ft 3in A1 Clements, who had driven from London in the ultra-exposed Atom, was complaining about what 85mph of freezing wind-pressure was doing to his neck. So we put him in the Grinnall, which had the nearest thing to a proper screen, and drove on.

It's surprising how quickly you can get used to sitting at the same eye level as an artic's whirling wheelnuts. We tried travelling in convoy, but soon discovered that such exercises draw undue attention from other road users, not to mention the police. In any case, cars like these are easily booted into gaps in the traffic, and such antics began to scatter us. I discovered Clements' wind-pressure problem in the Atom, but found I could relieve it by resting one of my hands atop the little chamois-covered wheel as a windbreak. For the next 120 miles it was a toss-up: sore neck or freezing right hand…

Out of the blue, Harris got booked for speeding. A couple of perfectly pleasant coppers in a Volvo estate plucked him out of the line and did him for 89mph, which is the speed the entire body of traffic was doing. It was a fair cop, but a disappointment for him because since last November, he's had no licence points at all, a decent achievement for someone who spends so much of his time around high-performance cars. In the Ariel, I'd seen them coming. Ditto Chilton in the R500. But the prototype Westfield's mirrors vibrated a fair bit above 80mph and its standard rear wing didn't help. There was a bit of delay while the police did a vehicle check on the Westie and came up with nothing. It had only been registered the previous day. Then we got going again - at around 89mph because it made no sense to travel slower than the rest of the traffic. We kept a sharper lookout, though, and had no more law trouble.

We were off the motorway by mid-afternoon, heading north-east on the A168, then due east on the A170 into Helmsley, our base for so many previous fast-car exploits. But only five cars made it; the Radical's engine management module went out to lunch near Thirsk and couldn't be revived. Help was requested (and rapidly despatched) from Radical's HQ near Leicester. The other cars headed north from Helmsley onto snowy moorland.

Even in January, the five still felt very special. Using their racecar agility and stability, plus their huge poke, we found we could stroke them gently along at speeds which would have severely taxed normal cars. You just had to be sure not to exceed the limit of grip on the way into the wet corners we sometimes encountered, even though the sun was shining. Passing is never a problem in these cars: see the space and press the pedal. And, without screens or pillars, they offer superb visibility, provided your visor is clean. Another advantage is braking: light cars with huge discs stop beautifully.

Each of the cars had far more cornering grip than we could realistically deploy on public roads; they hardly displayed any oversteer or understeer, just staying stable and neutral. We did photo shoots on the moors and, as the light was failing, we headed back down to the A1 and the village of Pickhill and a pub called the Nag's Head, where Sutcliffe had previously stayed while racing at Croft. It was friendly, warm and comfortable, and Edward, the publican, knew a back-route to the circuit for the morning. We covered the cars and then, well fed and watered, slept.

There should have been a hard frost in the small hours. The weathermen had sworn it was coming. But once again, it failed to front. Weather chaos had struck Scotland, the radio said, but it was slow reaching North Yorkshire. We counted our luck, stepped into the cockpits, coaxed the cars into life (the Caterham needed a push-start) and drove off to Croft in clouds of exhaust vapour. Sutcliffe and Thomas went to pick up the repaired Radical, fretting a bit about the time lost, but in the event it didn't matter at all. The circuit was so thoroughly coated with sheet ice; you couldn't stand up on the starting grid. Warren Pole, ace bike tester and TV pundit from our sister magazine TWO, had arrived with his Suzuki GSX-R 750 to teach our race-reps a thing or two. But it made no sense even to unload. Chilton discovered he could actually skate bodily on the ice.

As the circuit ice thawed slowly, we started rating the cars in our heads. No need for any argument about power: each one of these is in Pagani Zonda territory for power to weight.

Wildest in look and concept is the Radical SR3 with its racing body shape, its superb, reclined driving position, its competition-oriented digital instrument pod and its 500kg jockey weight. The 1300cc, 250bhp Suzuki Hayabusa engine (which seems practically devoid of a flywheel) has the quickest zap-response to a pedal blip I've ever experienced in a car. This was a flexible engine, but for proper action you must be somewhere north of 4500rpm, in the right gear. That still leaves 5000-plus to play with (maximum power happens at 9500rpm) and there's a straight-line shift and a shallow-dip clutch which helps you effect near-instantaneous changes. The yowl from the exhaust is a thing of beauty; I tried driving without a helmet to hear it better, but after 200 yards I thought my ears were going to fall off.

Unlike any of the rest, the Radical is a proper, proven racing car. Cars just like it will be seen on British circuits most weekends this summer. Which is one reason why our test car's front splitter, even with the car raised a bit to road-going guise, was no more than 30mm off the road. The JP1 and Westfield had similarly limited frontal ground clearance, too, but we were all surprised how rarely - provided we took care - bits of bodywork hit the road.

The JP1 is a real racer, too. At idle and low speed its F3-spec Hewland gearbox chatters like a Salvation Army tambourine. It's bigger, roomier and nearly 200kg heavier than an SR3 - as befits a specially engineered PalmerSport school car - but the engine's torque easily covers that. The 3.0-litre Jag V6 is standard, but for a free-flowing exhaust spec and a compensating tweak to its engine management. The mill is ridiculously flexible in such a light package, but it'll also rev beyond 7000rpm, while smoothly delivering almighty wallop from below 3000rpm. On the road, it's a guided missile.

The Westfield XTR4 seemed compact after the pair above, especially since you sit higher in its enveloping body, and its 620kg weight fits squarely between them. The 4's 225bhp Audi engine - standard but for the exhaust - gives it the same kind of creamy power as the JP1. You could call it creamier, actually, because the turbo thrust seems exaggerated in such a light package and the exhaust noise is very subdued. Just for good measure, the Westfield has a very compliant ride for a car of its type, but its imprecise gearchange still needs work.

We've written about the Ariel before. It's unique: a very light, very powerful extremely quick and no-frills machine with hardly any bodywork. It has an all-independent, all-wishbone suspension now sorted by the best experts in the business (who must be nameless, even though you've heard plenty about them) and its 220bhp VTEC engine is among the very best. It's a draughty car, no argument, but brilliant fun and a genuine alternative to a Caterham.

The Caterham R500 is the only car in this bunch, which comes with a heater. Footwell warmth is a bi-product of the 230bhp Rover XPower engine mounted in its nose. It flows warm air over your toes a treat, but like the rest it lacks a screen. Even today, there is still nothing like a Seven. You know where you are with it. That low, long-bonneted, body-hugging appeal is still powerful. But in this company, it may lose on engine durability. You really have to rev a K-series. Though injected and engine managed, this one did all its best work above 5000rpm and was often at 8000 where the power chimes in. Brilliant engine, but you do hear stories about the need for frequent rebuilds if they're driven hard.

The Grinnall Scorpion 4, even this first prototype, instantly shows that it deserves to play in this field. With help from Northampton-based Cosworth Technology, Mark Grinnall reckons he can extract 280bhp from this engine without internal mods, and the car we drove had more like 325bhp. Even more is possible; performance is never going to be a problem. The Scorpion 4 differs from the others by having a suspension which is independent by trailing arms. The front, like the rest, is a race-bred double wishbones system with coil springs. Our test car was in road-going spec, the result of careful development by suspension consultant Roddy Harvey-Bailey. It had an amazingly compliant, well-damped ride, better than any of the others on the roads of Yorkshire. A tauter version is coming for track-day specialists.

At Croft, the sun kept beating down. The Radical arrived, renewed. The circuit defrosted enough for us to do some ultra-slow joined-up laps, but nearly every corner was still covered in ice fragments and swimming in water. I found it ridiculous fun to blip the Ariel's throttle for a second and poke its tail a mile into oversteer at 30mph.

We tried some cornering shots. And to understand something of the cars' on-limit handling. Not much was possible, but here's what struck me.

Caterham:
Neutral, but an easy power-oversteerer, easy to control while sliding because of driver's unique position right over rear contact patch. Brilliant control, brilliant steering.

Ariel Atom:
Great grip from wide-tracked chassis and super-soft tyres, but a quick transition from faint natural understeer to power oversteer which could trap the unwary. Well developed car; few faults.

Westfield XTR4:
Near-neutral car with zero body roll, happiest when driven without attitude, but quite easy to push into oversteer because of sturdy mid-range torque. Sweet steering and ride, but poor gearchange.

Radical SR3 LM:
Amazingly well planted, especially at higher speeds. Like Westfield, reluctant to slide. Easy to place precisely on road or track, and zero body roll. True racer-on-the-road.

Grinnall Scorpion 4:
Odd car out because of long legs, huge, quiet power, ridiculously comfortable ride on bad roads. Merest hint of body roll because of lower suspension rates.

Palmer-Jaguar JP1:
Bigger car than the others, best on smooth circuits at higher speeds. Agile, still, but nowhere near as easy to slide, power-on as the Caterham.

The sun was sinking fast. It was getting colder, too, and the much-delayed snow was getting close. After one more photographic detour (and one more Radical ECU glitch, which we fixed) we dived back to the A1 to begin the long haul south to London. Cars like these cause quite a stir wherever they stop. At one refill several people asked us the same question: 'Why are you doing this?' We were asking ourselves a different question, though: 'Why had we enjoyed this so much?'

I'll tell you why. We enjoyed it because it felt intrepid, a proper automotive and venture. We enjoyed it because the cars felt so special, night-and-day better than ordinary road-going models in the way they steered and gripped and stopped and, yes, even in the way they rode. Some of the six were surprisingly comfortable. Two had never been driven by anyone before. All were long-legged and fantastically fast. And all were robust, well made and a credit to their makers.

Next morning, snow came to London. We stared from the office window down on a sextet of white-covered cars. From Yorkshire and the Midlands, where we'd been just a few hours before, there were reports of proper, heart-of-winter chaos. This, I have to admit, just made the whole thing better.

DESTINATION CROFT: OUR ED AND THE BUNCH GO FIGURE SKATING

THE THING about stories like this is that you need a destination, somewhere to aim at, if only to provide the occasion with some focus. So having hatched the hugely bright idea of group testing the coldest, most impractical road cars money can buy during the coldest, most impractical week of the year, we decided to then aim them at Croft race track, just a few miles south of Newcastle, in order to go full circle on the act of masochism.

Sadly, though, our idea got the better of us, because the moment we drove through the gates, it was obvious we had a problem - it wasn't just cold, it was icy. Right round the entire circuit. Which meant our idea of recording lap times on the cars would remain just that, an idea. In the end it thawed enough to allow us to perform some mild yobbery for the cameras on one corner.

For the record, the Caterham was easily the sweetest sideways tool (lots of low-down poke, plenty of steering lock to play with and an engine up front, where it should be), while the JP1 was probably the most senior car to drift neatly.

Biggest moment of the day was had by newly appointed road test editor, Chris Chilton, when he crossed the start-finish line backwards, on his stomach. Sadly the ice also meant that dep ed Bill Thomas, who claims to be one of the fastest drivers in the world, was unable to display his talents behind the wheel. Next time, William. Next time….

A RADICAL NEED Steve Sutcliffe

I WANT A Radical. Badly. There is no other car on sale quite like it. It feels exactly what it is; a racing car. A really pure racing car. It feels far more like a racing car, in fact, than many racing cars I've driven. And yet, so long as you're prepared to wrap up a bit - no more than you would to ride a motorbike - you really can use it on the road. The first time you change up without using the clutch at 10.500rpm, you don't believe how clean and fluid and efficient the process is. Then you just keep on doing it because the sensation is so intoxicating. Oh yes, and by the way, with this engine the Radical is way quicker than the JP1. We drove them side by side down a dual carriageway and nailed them through the gears from 30mph. The Radical just disappeared. I want one.

STIFF UPPER LIPS Bill Thomas

IT'S MY PLEASURE to humbly announce that the idea for this was mine. People blamed me more than once, as we struggled through Arctic gales, wind chill freezing eyebrows solid and turning noses to liquid, but it didn't amount to more than good-humoured sarcasm. I think…

As a barometer of Autocar office spirit, it will never be beaten. The more intelligent people in the office (Bremner, Oliver, Hallett) slipped away into the night, some with better excuses than others, but the idiots went ahead with gusto, spurred on by the grand master himself, Cropley.

We were rewarded with a fantastic and unforgettable, if slightly surreal, experience. If one were to ask whether we'd do it again, most would say 'yes' without hesitation. Or… maybe with a slight hesitation.

COLD, COMFORT Chris Chilton

I DON'T OWN a motorbike or a licence to ride one and the last time I mounted a knobbly tyred stroker I fell off backwards before getting out of second gear. But like many petrol-heads I still passionately want a bike - how can you argue with something that offers the visceral thrills of our collected gaggle for mere supermini outlay? Maybe I'll actually get round to it if I can stop buying old cars for long enough to find the time and money, but hammering down the M1 on the way back to London in the R500, the appeal diminished radically. With no screen, doors or roof, it didn't take long to get cold and when I reached the services it took me 20 minutes to unwrap my clothing and thaw out. The Atom was even worse, but the Radical's cockpit, in contrast, was a paragon of warmth and tranquillity.

ALTERED STATES Alastair Clements

THERE'S NO getting away from the hint of insanity, but if you wouldn't be willing to swap places with any one of us, then chances are you're reading the wrong magazine (I think you'll find Which Pipe & Slippers? a couple of shelves down). After a while these machines begin to alter your perception of reality and feel almost normal. You start thinking how luxurious the JP1 feels after the Atom, or how roomy the Radical is compared to the Caterham.

Doing the trip in convoy builds a tremendous sense of camaraderie - no wonder Caterham owners and the like seem to travel in packs. Stepping into the warmth of the RX-8 support car for the final leg of the journey I felt like I was letting the side down, not to mention a twinge of jealousy as Bill and Steve vanished in the Radical and Atom.

FACTFILE

RADICAL SR3
True Race-Car Experience
No Chance To Relax

Price/On Sale	£35,250/Now
Engine	4 cyls in line, 1300cc 250bhp at 10500rpm, 147lb ft at 7000rpm
Gearbox	6-Speed sequential manual
Anti-lock	No
Weight	500kg
Bhp/Tonne	410bhp per tonne
Brakes	260mm vented discs (f & r)
Tyres	195/55 r15 (f) 225/45 r16 (r)