AUTOSPORT races a Radical and tries F4

I have spent four of the past 11 days at Snetterton, so I'm now pretty sick of travelling up and down the roads that link London to Norfolk. But that's a small price to pay for the driving experiences I've enjoyed during the past week or so.

First up was the inaugural event for the Radical SR3 Challenge.

Radical is one of the UK's most successful racing car manufacturers, selling variations of its bike-engined sports-prototypes all over the world.

The SR3 iteration is the most popular of the models produced by the Peterborough firm. It has sold in the hundreds since launching in 2002.

The 570kg racers are powered by 1500cc Suzuki bike engines. These are modified for purpose by Radical Performance Engines (Radical's in-house engine department).

The SR3 has previously raced alongside its bigger V8-engined sister, the SR8, in Radical's own UK championship. But following a successful trial at the end of last season (in which I also competed), marque boss Phil Abbott decided to relaunch the Radical UK Cup as a single-model series for the SR3.

The result was an 18-car grid for the opening round at Snetterton on April 6-7.

Normally, two drivers will share a car for Radical races, but I received a rare opportunity to drive solo in this event, which meant plenty of track time on Snetterton's challenging '300 Circuit'.

When I first drove Radicals, I decided the SR3 was the pussycat and the SR8 the big snarling tiger.

That's because the SR3 is so accessible, while the SR8 tears down the straights so fast you feel your brain will never catch up.

But familiarity breeds greater understanding, and once you race an SR3 against a field of quality drivers you realise it's far more difficult to get the ultimate lap time from them.

The extra weight and positioning of the gearbox on the SR8 limits its cornering potential, making it reminiscent of a GT car, whereas the SR3's greater poise makes it feel more like a single-seater.

After pounding around for hours during Friday testing, and making limited progress, the car started to make more sense to me in Saturday's second (pro driver) qualifying session.

It's a well-worn truth that cars with significant downforce require the driver to trust they will stick if he just goes faster. But it is difficult to see how to unlock that extra speed and grip without knowing what it feels like to have it in the first place.

The fourth-gear turns at Palmer, Hamilton and Williams reveal the answer.

If you pick up the throttle too early in a car without downforce, the transference of weight to the rear pushes you into understeer. In the SR3, you feel the rear squat, but simultaneously dig further into the asphalt and drive through the corner.

So, if you counter-intuitively go for the throttle harder and earlier, you find extra grip you would not ordinarily get with conventional cars. It actually makes the corner simpler to drive, as well as faster!

But that's easier said than done, and requires bravery, feel and precision. SR3s are proper little racing cars - like Formula 3 with a sportscar body. GP2 ace Luca Filippi rented one and said it was the best coaching tool he'd ever used to train young drivers.

For the record, I managed a fourth and fifth in my two races, but was two seconds (at best) off the pace of runaway winner Bradley Smith.

I threw away a possible podium in race one by running too deep into the Montreal Hairpin while being chased down by Le Mans Series racer Alex Kapadia.

I still managed to keep reigning UK Cup Masters Class champion James Littlejohn behind me, but couldn't keep pace with the pros at the start of race two.

Pinching a place from Kapadia's co-driver Tom Jordan on the last lap was a small consolation.

There are some excellent teams and drivers in the SR3 Challenge. That, plus the driving challenge presented by the cars, makes it one of the toughest championships in the UK in my opinion.

Sportscar legend Andy Wallace rocked up to make his debut at Snett. He never got within three seconds of the pace all weekend...

Three days later I was back in Norfolk to try the new BRDC Formula 4 single-seater.

There is a lot of hype surrounding the MSV F4-013, a brand new slicks-and-wings car built by legendary Formula Ford constructor Ralph Firman.

Series boss Jonathan Palmer hopes the Duratec-powered machine will reinvigorate a junior single-seater market battered by the death of Formula Renault UK, and the subsequent decimation of British F3.

My original run at the series' media day at Brands Hatch in March was spoiled by rain.

That actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because my re-arranged outing at Snetterton replaced a short 15-minute session with a full day's running on a semi-exclusive test day!

There were inevitable teething problems getting comfortable in the car, but I completed around 50 laps (despite a wild spin trying to take Bomb Hole flat on my third try, and one or two grassy excursions heading onto the back straight!).

My final run (on new Yokohama tyres) was spoiled by a hydraulic air leak, but I did manage to battle my way down to a 1m54.9s best (1m51-53s was the pace on new tyres, 1m53s-55s on old).

The car is stiff and strong and has a very positive front end (sometimes a little too positive in the high-speed turns).

It works well at low-speed, and the brakes feel excellent, but the engine has a narrow power band, so you have to be very precise with your sequential paddle-operated upshifts.

The open differential also requires discipline from the driver's right foot in order to maintain traction at low speed.

It does feel underpowered, but then it's a 500kg car with 185bhp.

The lap time comes from the driver getting the most from the chassis, so it will be excellent training for drivers looking to move into F3.

The car will make its race debut at Silverstone on April 27-28, and series insiders are expecting a full grid of 24 cars (18 drivers have signed up so far).

It looks as though we'll have an even bigger entry at Brands Hatch, where I'll (finally) be taking part in the first round of the UK Formula Vee championship.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Ben Anderson's 2013 AUTOSPORT racing blogs:

On the pace in Formula Ford

AUTOSPORT gets Formula Ford race chance

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