The Mono’s central driving position makes the
driver an integral part of the car, creating an
uncompromising connection between them. To
facilitate this connection each customer is fitted
with his or her own unique seat, pedal reach and
preferred driving position and they even get a
custom bespoke, steering wheel moulded to their
grip.
There isn’t much of an interior to the Mono,
but what little there is has been immaculately
executed. This is not a typical British lightweight
special where parts are borrowed from all sorts of
vehicles: this is an immaculate piece of automotive
design, every component, weld and join is finished
with meticulous attention to detail.
The suede-style cabin lining is weather resistant.
There’s actually room in the footwell for both feet,
and enough space in the front boot for a helmet
and a few travelling essentials.
Unlike most elite series formula cars, the Mono
is designed to accommodate real people with a
normal range of body shapes and sizes, not just
the lightweight jockey types you see wandering
around an F1 paddock.
With the architecture defined as a formula car for
the road, the next challenge was to create the
brand aesthetic to establish its position in the
‘racecar for the road’ market.
This is where the brothers’ design consultancy
background came to the fore. The basic premise
was to establish a unique identity and try to avoid
“it’s a bit like XYZ…..” comments.
Surprisingly, the main inspiration for the
branding came from the robot in the Björk - All
is Full of Love music video, which is now in the
Guggenheim Museum. The mixture of exposed
mechanicals and essential cladding, much like
a superbike or Moto GP bike, is the essence of
the brand. The exposed front forks of the bike
correspond to the exposed dampers on the BAC
Mono and as you move backwards more of the
mechanicals are on show.
The objective is to strive for engineering perfection
and put it on show rather than cover it up and
only put bodywork where it’s needed from an
aerodynamic point of view, in a classic form
following function kind of way. If the ultimate goal
is to save weight – why wrap up the engineering
when you don't have to?
This branding exercise was so successful that
BAC created the Art Car with Autodesk - its
technical software partner - where the car is
adorned with artwork that reflects the Mono’s
airflow simulation. The Art Car is painted jet black
with hints of blue and green CFD streamline
tracers at the front and with combinations of red
and yellow tracers at the back.
The relationship with Autodesk came from
relationships with the City of Liverpool and the
University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre.
Arising from this relationship with Autodesk
there is an interesting development which they
are calling Generative Design. This is a bit like
Knowledge Based Engineering of old, where
components are developed with knowledge
of their purpose and position. In addition,
the detailed manufacturing process can be
included, so that when the changes are ‘rung’
it’s possible to examine their impacts. Its most
important function is to examine the financial
impact of geometric changes, so that parts can
be developed for the optimum engineering and
financial efficiency.
BAC’s business goal is to take hi-tech concepts,
materials and processes from racing and
productise them in such a way that they are
affordable in the mainstream. The second and
probably more important goal is to have an
all British and local supply chain. This is fairly
easy to achieve given the prominence of British
companies in the racing industry. Currently 50% of
their Bill of Materials is regionally based, with 98%
coming from the UK as a whole.
BAC is a low-volume, fairly high-ticket price
car builder, so low-volume, high-quality racing
suppliers have a significant place in their supply
chain.
This kind of outright performance and engineering
quality doesn’t come cheaply. The base price
is £165,000. Some could argue that its natural
stable mates are Ariel Atoms and Caterham
Super Lights – which do cost significantly less,
but their performance is dull in comparison. In
truth, Mono has no direct competition, which is
reinforced by its “One of a Kind” tag. The Mono
is a hand crafted custom vehicle that does not
share the parts bin of any other car. So you pays
your money and you takes your choice. It has
hyper-car performance for a fraction of the cost.
The engine and gearbox are tried and tested,
and its fuel economy is reasonable. Once you’ve
taken it around a racetrack a few times the smile
it brings to your face, every time you press the
loud pedal, will erase any financial considerations
for ever.
Mono is the fastest accelerating rear wheel drive
road car in the world and it demolishes super and
hyper car opposition by several seconds round
the track. But it is friendly enough to be driven by
enthusiastic, well-schooled weekend warriors. And
such is the rate of development and the efforts to
‘add lightness’ that it is only going to get quicker.
Most of the BAC customer base has one or more
stripped out track cars. A one-make race series
is also under consideration – the car has GT3 lap
time pace, but it costs a lot less to buy and run.
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