Brit firm's new road-legal racer

[AVANTI R5]

A fledgling British sports car maker has announced a lightweight, single-seat road racer designed to rival models from Ariel and Caterham.
The Briggs Automotive Company’s ‘Mono’ is powered by a Cosworth-sourced, 2.3-litre engine producing 280bhp at 7700rpm and 207lb ft of torque at 6000rpm. The power is transferred to the road through the rear wheels via an F3-spec six-speed sequential gearbox.

Weight has been kept down to an impressive 540kg, giving the Mono a power-to-weight ratio of 520bhp per tonne. This translates to a 0-60mph sprint time of just 2.8sec and a top speed of 170mph, according to the firm.

For use on track or road, the car features fully adjustable pushrod suspension and 295mm ventilated brake discs.

Director Neill Briggs – former engineering manager of the Mk1 Ford Focus RS - told Autocar he is aiming to produce 50 units this year, and between 100 and 200 cars per year thereafter.

The Mono is currently available for the UK market only. Briggs said, “Export is on our radar. We’re working on selling to overseas markets, hopefully towards the end of 2012.” Emissions regulations overseas mean that revisions will need to be made to the current engine for it to be sold outside the UK.

Prices start from £66,625 plus local taxes - £79,950 here - and BAC says the car will offer buyers “an alternative purchase decision” compared with rivals. “We’ve already had Ariel Atom customers approach us about it and the interest has been huge,” said Briggs.

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[HipToBeSquare]

Maybe if THAT is what the FFR WRX-powered roofless car looked like...

That is pretty darn hot, right there... and not just another Ariel Atom clone.

[White out]

That is insane looking. I really like the design.

Nick

[SilverSubaab]

They had me at Cosworth........and that looks like a dream.

[PlanB]

As the Brits like to say, that thing is PROPER MENTAL!

[Mechie3]

Originally Posted by HipToBeSquare

Maybe if THAT is what the FFR WRX-powered roofless car looked like...

That is pretty darn hot, right there... and not just another Ariel Atom clone.

H2BS posts something less than 3 paragraphs...and I agree with all of it!

:head explode:



Imagine fleets of those things as commuter cars. That would be impressive.

[HipToBeSquare]

It would need at least a canopy for commuting, and enough stowage for a brief case or other small cargo.


I was giving some more thought to the FFR 818 concept over the last couple of days, and this car fits, too...

If ever there was a platform for a rotary engine... with as impractical and thirsty as they are, as well as their space-efficiency per power output, it would seem that roofless sports/race cars with limited use profiles would be it.

I love boxer engines. I like rotaries, though, too. They have some big technical plusses, and some big minuses for daily use... but a rotary would be awesome for this use profile.

Even more compact. Even lighter, possibly even lower than a boxer. Simpler with fewer moving parts. More volumetric efficiency in terms of power output, and a wider RPM range.

The drawbacks of drinking a bit of oil with it's gas, and not great for emissions and fuel efficiency (who cares on a sports/race car that you only occasionally drive?), and the reliability problems for a slogged rotary engine that isn't revved like it needs to be, like some RX7 and RX8 owners find out, are less meaningful, or not incurred if the car is driven as a sports or track car.

A 13B, or a REW engine, maybe even a 3 or 4 rotor, maybe with forced-induction, would be a natural application for this sort of car, if there is a lateral-output transaxle that is well suited for it. It would have to have the right gearset, though, for such a high-revving, and rev-loving engine.

I would pick a boxer piston engine for a car driven in traffic every day, though... in a heart-beat.

[justincredible]

I look forward to Clarkson sayng it's brilliant and rubbish in less than 3 minutes.

[KoalaSlim]

Originally Posted by HipToBeSquare

It would need at least a canopy for commuting, and enough stowage for a brief case or other small cargo.


I was giving some more thought to the FFR 818 concept over the last couple of days, and this car fits, too...

If ever there was a platform for a rotary engine... with as impractical and thirsty as they are, as well as their space-efficiency per power output, it would seem that roofless sports/race cars with limited use profiles would be it.

I love boxer engines. I like rotaries, though, too. They have some big technical plusses, and some big minuses for daily use... but a rotary would be awesome for this use profile.

Even more compact. Even lighter, possibly even lower than a boxer. Simpler with fewer moving parts. More volumetric efficiency in terms of power output, and a wider RPM range.

The drawbacks of drinking a bit of oil with it's gas, and not great for emissions and fuel efficiency (who cares on a sports/race car that you only occasionally drive?), and the reliability problems for a slogged rotary engine that isn't revved like it needs to be, like some RX7 and RX8 owners find out, are less meaningful, or not incurred if the car is driven as a sports or track car.

A 13B, or a REW engine, maybe even a 3 or 4 rotor, maybe with forced-induction, would be a natural application for this sort of car, if there is a lateral-output transaxle that is well suited for it. It would have to have the right gearset, though, for such a high-revving, and rev-loving engine.

I would pick a boxer piston engine for a car driven in traffic every day, though... in a heart-beat.

Dude...

You obviously chose the wrong profession... Why didn't you become a automotive engineer/designer?

Also, I like your posts, but can you please edit them down a little? Too long winded. Not referring to this post, just in general.

[E. Nick]

I love that it is a single-seater. Mine! All mine!

[nhat]

Originally Posted by Mechie3

H2BS posts something less than 3 paragraphs...and I agree with all of it!

you just had to call him out didn't you?

[HipToBeSquare]

That wasn't very long.

[Mechie3]

Originally Posted by HipToBeSquare

If ever there was a platform for a rotary engine... with as impractical and thirsty as they are, as well as their space-efficiency per power output, it would seem that roofless sports/race cars with limited use profiles would be it.

Star Mazda. 1800 lb car, stock RX8 Renesis engine @ 250hp.

Shown here with his car is Conor Daly after his win at the oval at Oreilly Raceway Park, 2010 Star Mazda Champion, Daily drives a peanut eye STI. I'm in the back wearing a hat off to the left. ~80% of the guys in the pic are from they Indy suby club.

Originally Posted by KoalaSlim

Also, I like your posts, but can you please edit them down a little? Too long winded. Not referring to this post, just in general.

This, I read the first few paragraphs then skim.

Originally Posted by nhat

you just had to call him out didn't you?

My bad.

[AVANTI R5]

What is it?

The BAC Mono is built by the Cheshire based Briggs Automotive Company, and it’s the first serious attempt to produce a single-seater driving experience for the public road. Quite some attempt it is, too.

Costing £79,950 and with styling said to have been ‘heavily influenced’ by the Bjork video ‘All is full of love’ with a bit of F-22 Raptor jet fighter thrown in for god measure, the BAC Mono is one of the most extreme road cars we’ve yet come across. But the team behind it is convinced there’s a small but perfectly formed market for such a machine.

Watch our video review of the BAC Mono
The fact that this year’s build allocation of 16 cars is already sold out and there’s a queue of people wanting to buy next year’s run of 50 cars would suggest that the team knows precisely what it is doing. As would the knowledge that Neill Briggs was the main consulting engineer on the original Focus RS and has been involved in the development of ‘quite a few Stuttgart-based cars’ in recent years.

Power comes from a 280bhp/206lb ft version of the four-cylinder, 2.3-litre Cosworth engine that’s also used by Caterham in the Seven CSR, amongst others. This is attached to a six-speed Hewland gearbox that’s lifted straight out of an F3 car, with paddle-operated hydraulic shifts. So although there are three perfectly placed pedals down in the surprisingly roomy footwell – just as you’d find in any car with a conventional manual gearbox – changing gear merely requires a gentle flick on one of the carbon fibre paddles, right to change up, left to change down.

A big green neutral button on the removable steering wheel enhances the ‘F1 car for the road’ impression, as does the fully adjustable pushrod suspension and a set of Kumho tyres that have been developed specifically for the car.
What’s it like?

Completely and utterly fantastic, quite frankly, but also a lot less scary, a lot better sorted and a whole heap more usable as a road car than you’d ever anticipate. There’s even a small but beautifully trimmed boot in the nose for heaven’s sake, alongside a tiny little tonneau cover in case it rains – although having said that this is not the world’s most practical road car.
Merely climbing into it is an event that requires a certain degree of dexterity, but once you’re ensconced the lack of compromise of the single seat design becomes immediately apparent. You press a centrally mounted button on the steering wheel and the digital screen comes to life – and from that moment onwards the driving experience has a strong whiff of F1 about it.

You wonder if it’s actually legal to begin with, so obvious is the connection to the competition world, right down to the fact that you have to wear a crash helmet, like it or not, seeing as there’s no windscreen whatsoever. Yet once you get going in it, the intimacy of the Mono’s driving experience and the immediacy of its response – be that via the steering wheel, the gearshift paddles, the brakes or the accelerator – is such that you become totally immersed in the business of driving it. Which makes it unique as far as road cars are concerned.

And, amazingly, the suspension isn’t in the least bit skateboard-like on the road, as you’d surely half expect it to be. There’s a real maturity in the way the Mono deals with poor surfaces. I’d say it rides better than a Lotus Elise for much of the time, which is little short of incredible given how much grip there is through any given corner, and how incisive the suspension feels at all times.

It also sounds and accelerates – and stops – in a way that no Elise driver could even dream about. To begin with the acceleration doesn’t somehow feel that nuts, considering there’s 520bhp per tonne and 0-60mph in 2.8sec on offer. Yet you soon realise that the scenery is disappearing at a rather ridiculous rate when you put your foot down, and that the engine seems to be on the rev limiter after no more than a couple of seconds after each upshift.
But it’s only when you start to lean on it through a fast corner that the genius of the Mono’s chassis become truly apparent. The balance it displays mid bend is absolutely epic, the steering precision near-perfect; and the way you can play with the tail end on entry provides the last and final piece of evidence about just how good, no, about how incredible this car actually is to drive.

Should I buy one?

If you have the money, the imagination and the desire to drive one of, if not THE most involving road cars that has ever been built, then why not? Who needs friends in life anyway…

[SilverSubaab]

Well, that is simply awesome.......

[SCRAPPYDO]

wow, the concept of the Atom, but waaay Evolved...

[Derbagger]

Design started with Bjork??? WTH???

I'd rather the KTM:


Austrian/German engineers > British Sheds I'm sorry to say.

[HipToBeSquare]

The main british auto industry may be almost completely outsourced now, but the british cottage auto industry, kits, home-builds, and niche vehicles, are second to none.

The Mono is also much better looking than the X-Bow, for as similar as they are.

I would love a Mono with a mid-mounted rotary engine, and a compact automated-clutch F-1 style paddle-shift gearbox, and electronic torque-biasing and limited slip differential.

That car just screams for a compact peripheral-port screamer, 2, 3, or even 4 rotors.

[warpath]

Originally Posted by HipToBeSquare

The main british auto industry may be almost completely outsourced now, but the british cottage auto industry, kits, home-builds, and niche vehicles, are second to none.

The Mono is also much better looking than the X-Bow, for as similar as they are.

I would love a Mono with a mid-mounted rotary engine, and a compact automated-clutch F-1 style paddle-shift gearbox, and electronic torque-biasing and limited slip differential.

That car just screams for a compact peripheral-port screamer, 2, 3, or even 4 rotors.

Is there nothing thats just good enough for you......

[SCRAPPYDO]

Just to be different I suppose. It is easy to wish for things you will never get. Most of us just keep those thoughts in side. Hip is missing that filter that stops every meandering thought from spilling out onto the keyboard.

We all wish for things. AT times it is just to be different, but other times, we actually have something useful to say.

I am not sure which Hip is. But there are definitely times, where I think he just likes to try to impress everybody with how much random technology he can talk about, whether it is feasible, or better or worse, is irrelevant.

I mean Hip, old buddy, you really did not need to say peripheral port, but superlative adjectives seem to be a specialty of yours. I know you enjoy saying it, but most of the time, it does not come across as brilliant and knowledgeable, but rather verbose, and sometimes it tiring. It is your style, and while it can be very tiring and annoying at times, it is better to be known for having a style than not.. so I would not change you man!

Now you may say something horrible about the way I post. It is a free country.

[shikataganai]

Originally Posted by SCRAPPYDO

Most of us just keep those thoughts in side. Hip is missing that filter that stops every meandering thought from spilling out onto the keyboard.

Bingo.

(I am missing that filter, too. Sometimes. But not ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME. heh.)

[tino]

very nice alternative to the atom and being single seater gives more of that F1 feel..

[Turn in Concepts]

Originally Posted by Mechie3

Star Mazda. 1800 lb car, stock RX8 Renesis engine @ 250hp.

Shown here with his car is Conor Daly after his win at the oval at Oreilly Raceway Park, 2010 Star Mazda Champion, Daily drives a peanut eye STI. I'm in the back wearing a hat off to the left. ~80% of the guys in the pic are from they Indy suby club.






This, I read the first few paragraphs then skim.



My bad.

I recognize some people in that pic. Conor brings his car in to us to have work done. He's a good guy.

Tony

[SilverSubaab]

Originally Posted by SCRAPPYDO

.

I am not sure which Hip is. But there are definitely times, where I think he just likes to try to impress everybody with how much random technology he can talk about, whether it is feasible, or better or worse, is irrelevant.

^This.......soo very much this. I winced reading the post.

It is not like this is a econobox that they jammed performance into or a compromised luxo-sedan-sport-thingy........It is essentially a freaking F1 car for the street that would probably have half the people here pass out in while driving from sheer joy/excitement/nirvana. Even as someone myself who seems to complain about just about everything, some times you need to just say something is awesome when it is, leave it at that, and move on.

[Snowphun]

Originally Posted by SCRAPPYDO

Just to be different I suppose. It is easy to wish for things you will never get. Most of us just keep those thoughts in side. Hip is missing that filter that stops every meandering thought from spilling out onto the keyboard.

We all wish for things. AT times it is just to be different, but other times, we actually have something useful to say.

+1, dude needs to tone it down tenfold. As if suggesting that the $15k FFR car should look like this is even remotely possibly shows how ungrounded and absurd the posts are.