One of the superpowers that you can get from writing about cars for a living is an ability to identify vehicles in traffic without much thought. Ok, it’s not that great of a superpower, I mean, most of the time you register a Ford F-150, another F-150, a Ram 1500, a Chevrolet Silverado, a Toyota Camry, or maybe a Corvette. Even after writing about and seeing so many different cars, it’s exciting to see something you have no idea about. For us today, that car was what looks like Batman’s preferred track car.
Friend of the show T.Mike spotted a black racecar getting hauled on a trailer and didn’t know what it was. As friends of car people do, T.Mike reached out to Jason, who also didn’t know what the heck the vehicle was. To my eye, it looks like a Radical SR8, but it’s not. It’s almost like a Radical out of Star Trek‘s mirror universe.
Well, thanks to eagle-eyed reader and COTD winner Katt_WEC, we have the answer:
Revolution 427 by the looks. Co-founder of Radical went off and founded their own company.
Our reader is right on the money. What you’re looking at is a Revolution 427 or its more powerful sibling, the Revolution 500SC. Its automaker, Abbott Automotive Ltd. doing business as Revolution Race Cars, was created by the co-founder of Radical. The latter was founded by Mick Hyde and Phil Abbott in 1997. Radical is a British manufacturer creating lightweight racers with huge downforce and healthy power. Its most popular model is the SR3, which Abbott had a hand in developing. It’s an open cockpit track car with a carbon-steel spaceframe, polyester bodywork and is powered by a 1340cc or 1500cc four-cylinder hand-built RPE racing spec engine.
Abbott felt that after nearly 20 years on the market, the SR3 needed a successor. He started another company and created the Revolution. The company says this about the track car:
The Revolution is a lightweight, 820kg sportscar that packs a punch up to 500bhp from its dry-sump 3.7-litre Ford V6 engine. Proven reliability is a key component within this package, its performance is matched with some of the lowest running costs, with up to 10,000km or 100 hours between rebuilds.
Fitted with a unique exhaust system and fine engine tuning it also comes with ultra-sharp throttle response and a brilliant soundtrack. It is mated to a 3MO 6-speed gearbox utilising WRC technology to again provide reliability and ease of use.
It’s easy-to-maintain, cost-effective to run and has accessible handling and performance. It can be enjoyed and exploited by all levels of driver, from those wishing to enjoy track-days, to those on a career path to Le Mans.
So there you have it, Batman’s track weapon of choice!
Honorable mention goes to Brian Ash, who reveals that Jason has a doppelganger:
OT… there’s another Jason Torchinsky in this world? His name is in this article a lot, snippet below, laughed every time his name popped up in this article.
When there’s official paperwork that has to get to Citizens for Responsible Solar, it goes through a firm created by a lawyer named Jason Torchinsky. The same firm has been the registered agent for at least two dozen conservative organizations based in Virginia. One of them was a voter-focused group headed by Leonard Leo, who helped remake the federal judiciary through the Federalist Society. NPR and Floodlight haven’t verified whether any of the conservative groups that use Torchinsky’s firm as a registered agent have ties to Citizens for Responsible Solar.
Have a great evening everyone!
I have new respect for my humble 3.6L 185hp engine that does not need to be rebuild every 6000 miles or 100 hours.
Well, WE know which one is the evil twin
“When there’s official paperwork that has to get to Citizens for Responsible Solar, it goes through a firm created by a lawyer named Jason Torchinsky”
Torch: “*grumble grumble* no-talent assclown…”
Autopian staff: “Why don’t you just go by Jay?”
Torch: “Why should I change?? He’s the one who sucks!”