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The BAC Mono isn't much like normal cars.
It aims to provide the sensations of a racing car but
in a road-legal package.
It wants to be a fast track car, but also something crowd
pleasers can wing down the Kings Road.
It costs around 90,000 pounds, and it should ideally be
driven on sultry, sunny days, not at Rockingham in the
lashing rain.
You could stand and look at this car for hours.
The thing is littered with fascinating little details.
But if you can drag your eyeballs away from the
push-rod front suspension and look at the whole car, you'll
see that it's exceptionally beautiful and well
proportioned.
The structure is tubular steel with double
wishbones at each end.
All of the body work is carbon fiber, which acts as an
incentive to keep it out of the tile walls.
The claimed curb weight is 540 kilograms.
That gives 520 BHP per ton.
Let's start with the engine.
A 2.3 liter Ford Duratec lavished with some of
Cosworth's fanciest internals.
Forged rods and pistons, 280 horse power at 7,700 RPM and
its dry sumped.
It works through a Hewland FTR gearbox.
And the shift action is pneumatic for that
real racing car feel.
The suspension is pure racing car too.
Maybach springs, and Sachs RDS two-way adjustable dampers.
The cabin is plain beautiful.
The seat is fixed but, with some effort,
the pedal box moves.
The steering wheel is littered with colored buttons and has a
central display for all vehicle data just like, you've
guessed it, a racing car.
Now seeing as this is a quasi racing car with number
plates-- or you can have number plates if you want--
you'd expect it to drive just like a racing car on the
track, right?
Jagged, spiky, always trying to spit you into the gravel.
Well you, like me, would be wrong.
One of the problems with this job is the order in
which you do things.
You might have noticed that I went out, first of all, to
record the pieces to camera because that was convenient
for our equipment.
I was a bit tentative, and I had to find my
way around the circuit.
This is quite an intimidating-looking car.
Turns out it's one of the best cars I've ever
driven in the wet.
It's got immense stability.
You choose your angle on the corner.
It's so much fun.
The engine's got loads of torque, but it's
also not too severe.
So you've got balance, and you got lots of steering lock.
I had a riot.
You could see how much fun I was having.
I really like this thing.
It feels spectacular inside sitting down.
Pretend you're a racing driver.
It's spot on.
The quality and the trim is absolutely perfect.
OK, so it should be for 80,000 pounds.
But, to me, a spectacular item.
It's another great little British car, isn't it?
They say they've sold a lot, and I can see why.