The Extreme BAC Mono R Wasn't Made For Us
The shockingly pretty new De Tomaso P72 isn't the only strictly limited edition performance car introduced at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend. BAC, the team responsible for the most extreme road-going single seater also felt the need to dial their game up a little, resulting in a Mono that's lighter, more powerful, and was sold out long before its debut.
The most prominent upgrade is the Mono R's side-mounted ram-air intake, which could easily be mistaken for a medium-sized rocket louncher. It forces air to a high-flow cylinder head design with a new throttle body, while on the bottom side, Mountune massaged the 2.5-liter four-cylinder further by increasing the cylinder bore size and reducing stroke with a new billet crankshaft, raising max engine speed from 7800rpm to 8800rpm. The result is 35 extra horsepower at 340, and a zero-to-sixty rush in 2.5 seconds.
The Mono R is also 55 lbs. lighter than the regular model, sitting 0.78 in. closer to the ground for a top speed of 170 miles per hour. And to make it stand out even more when standing, BAC threw in 44 new carbon fibert exterior parts, lengthening the body by almost an inch.
All the air blades got thinner, as the nose of the Mono got pointier than ever. The front arches and side pods have been optimized to improve cooling, the mirrors now sit on twin struts, while the rear wing provides more downforce to compensate for the weight loss.
Made mostly of graphene-enhanced carbon fiber, magnesium and titanium (for the exhaust), the Mono R weighs 1223 lbs. while packing a naturally-aspirated four-cylinder with the currently highest specific output, at 136hp per liter. To compare, a Ferrari 458 Speciale's V-8 produces 132.7-horsepower per liter.
Unsprung mass has been further reduced by 5.6 lbs. per corner, thanks to the standard carbon-ceramic brake rotors and the lightweight AP Racing calipers. But if all this makes you wonder about some track time with the Mono R, please note that BAC sold all thirty in advance to existing Mono customers. Yet with rumors of an electric Mono and a three-seater supercar, there's more to come from the Briggs Automotive Company.
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