500 HP, 1,500 Pounds of Downforce

like a sports car Corvette Z06 It’s become a formidable all-purpose tool that can easily segue from street to track. But no matter how good a street-legal vehicle becomes, they remain. all season tires Declining Track Performance: A compromise on both sides, hampered by extra weight, creature comforts, safety and emissions regulations. That recognition leads some serious drivers, including amateur he-racers with big dreams and bigger budgets, to purpose-built track cars like the Revolution A-One.

Me drive a lot of trams — the biggest perk of the job — and Revolution gave me 500 hp and 1,870 lbs of attitude adjustment. It’s a reminder of what fast driving should feel like. Raw and unfiltered, just the speed you can extract from the quivering steering wheel and chassis and brakes.Ten times his in a racing kart, just a few ticks Le Mans prototypeis less intimidating for ambitious amateurs.

The A-One is a natural next step for respected engineer and co-founder of Radical, Phil Abbott. Instead of the last Radical’s tube frame, the A-One uses a carbon fiber monocoque. McLaren-inspired resin transfer molding (RFM) process Save time, money and energy and get full FIA safety approval. Extensive computational fluid dynamics work gives this flapping beast massive yet predictable downforce. At 110 mph, the A-One produces more than his 1,500 pounds of downforce. for context, 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RSwhich looks silly in the name of downforce, just generates 900 lbs at 124 mph — far beyond the best aerodynamic grip a road-legal production car can produce, which is more than three times that of a standard GT3.

Next, Abbott and his son James — the company’s engineer and lead development driver who attended our driving events — transform the average person. 3.7 liter Ford Cyclone V6 crate engineThey cut 3 inches off the bottom and installed a dry sump refueling system to mount the engine as low on the chassis as possible. They added individual throttle bodies, higher compression pistons and new cams, and on the $193,000 A-One he makes 427 horsepower.

It still wasn’t good enough for some North American tastes, so Abbott was strapped to a gear-driven centrifugal supercharger in the 500-horsepower version I’m driving at New Jersey Motorsports Park. The suction power, feathery curb weight, and open cockpit feel make the Revolution an all-day endorphin dispenser, but it’s also the ideal training tool for Track Day enthusiasts and Sports Prototype Series competitors.

I clambered over the A-One’s carbon fiber body and F1-style halo fairing. This recently proved his mettle during his F1 support his race at Monza when he landed one aerial Revolution on top of another. Both drivers left unharmed.like me HANS device With arm restraints installed, you’ll come across a surprisingly spacious two-seater cockpit. This is perfect for the owner and his coach driving (or friends who want to scare). The cut-down removable steering wheel Overwhelming number of switches found in F1, sticks to what you need, like a speed limiter in the pitlane and a simple screen display. There is a clutch pedal just to start rolling from a stop. From there, it’s as easy as driving a Mercedes, clicking his six-speed paddle shift his transmission on his 3MO of France, known for its World Rally Car gearbox.

The sturdy Tilton Pedal Box is perfect for left foot braking. The driving position is relatively upright, unlike the Pilates stretch on some race cars. It all makes the acclimation period easier. The A-One’s supercharged V6 screech hits my nose at 108 decibels. (For my next stint, I’ll definitely be wearing earplugs.) Downforce-powered braking is heroic and recalibrates the concept of street-based braking points. Abbott pulls on-board data from the car to indicate that he might pedal harder to get a lap time.

Double wishbone suspension with inboard mounted dampers features an adjustable third element for easy tuning on individual circuits. Multi-setting traction control on the steering wheel helps the driver steadily pick up speed as he gains experience. Oversteer is definitely lurking in drivers who misjudge their input (or their skill level), but the Revolution feels so balanced and dependable that the driver feels the racing line, visibility and smoothness. You can focus on what’s important, like getting in and out of the car. The car is trying to kill them.

And the A-One’s accessible performance bandwidth, combined with state-of-the-art safety, makes it the most attractive prospective buyer, including team owners and drivers of sports prototype series around the world. There is a possibility. At tracks such as Monza and Portimao, Revolution’s top-hit pilot is only a second or 1.5 seconds behind him in setting lap times. Full LMP3 carThis is a headache for a car that costs around $218,000 in 500hp trim, including a carbon fiber halo, extra wheels and other mechanical spares, lighter bodywork and beefed up dampers. . Drivers other than Verstappen have to keep an eye on track budgets, so the A-One also strives for low running his costs. Racing at $12 a gallon, compared to his machine, it can run 93 octane pump gas and be a blast on the track. Approximately 6,200 miles or 100 hours before major service is required.

Now, 200 grand might sound like a lot for a car you don’t want to brag about. – You can’t show it off at Cars and Coffee unless you put it on a trailer. (Again, anyone who can afford a Revolution and can afford all the costs of competing with it will bring a Porsche or Ferrari to Sunday’s meetup.) And the Corvette Z06 driver They better give Revolution a point buy when they first show up at Track Day.