BAC Mono R Sets 1:15.03 Lap Time @ Goodwood Circuit
“The 343bhp, 555kg supercar lapped the 2.4-mile track in an astonishing 1:15.03 on fully road-legal Pirelli P Zero tyres – averaging a remarkable 115mph during the run. British racing driver Oliver Webb was at the wheel for the lap during an official track day.”
Lap times and car manufacturers boasting about in what lap time their cars can put down have been a thing ever since motorsports was born. Usually only tenths of seconds are nibbled away from previous lap records, a testimony to how hard it is to progress. But once in a while, seconds gets ripped of those times and the machines doing so are usually not your average road-going car. One of those cars has been the BAC Mono, so with anticipation we’ve been awaiting lap times of their limited Mono R. Finally, last week the English-based BAC posted the following: “Mono R has lived up to its billing and set “The New Reference” for a lap time at the iconic Goodwood Motor Circuit. With Oliver Webb at the wheel, the 343bhp, 555kg supercar lapped the 2.4-mile track in an astonishing 1:15.03 – averaging a remarkable 115mph during the run.”
You can watch the impressive feat in the Youtube video down below, but we also want to point out that the brand has been entering new, competitive turf. The Podcast world that is. Their Podcast, plainly called named The BAC Podcast, gives an insight into their past, present and into many other details that make this company what it is. You can find the link to their show here. We thought we’d tag along into pertaining them by showing you a gallery from when we first visited the factory in Liverpool. A gallery accompanied by some words too, you’ll find it below the video.
Factory tour and Mono R showcase
Being invited for a display of the BAC Mono R? That was a small dream for us, we had to pinch ourselves a bit. But the e-mail from the PR guy, Stuart really was an invitation. Beau and I were like two school kids heading toward a candy shop that day, a feeling that didn’t really stop when we arrived. Although the outside on the BAC-HQ is low key, the moment you peer trough the first window that changes. Their main entrance displayed a freshly build Mono, the PR manager later explaining that they display vehicles there often. He seemed to breathe the BAC spirit: relaxed, yet extremely precise on the details.
He pointed out the rich media history the brand has been granted in this short period of time. Prizes, prints and many other relics can be found in the main hall. All quotes unanimously note that there’s nothing else like the Mono. We could only agree as we sipped our tea and listened to Stuart. He talked us through the afternoon, and that we’d have time with the Mono R and with their senior designer Guy Harvey who’s been with BAC since 2007.
Behind the main entrance there’s a door that leads to the nursery of the company. Monos grow here, but it’s also where maintenance was done back then. Everything concentrated in one building. Until then that is, as their neighbors moved out they obtained that building to effectively make it their development center.
Tubular frames were stacked in sequence that revealed how the assembly works. With more than a 100 units now on the road, their complexity and construction manner revealed why the car is so rare. Completely hand-built, the Mono embryos grew with each step in the production process. First the tubes, then the wiring and the heat shields. Thousands of parts are mounted on those frames, the majority developed by BAC themselves, others sourced from partners within the UK. That’s British built for ya!
We were baffled by the information we were given. Mechanics took their time explaining to use how the assembly worked, how the cars keep evolving. Because almost everything is designed and engineered by them, it allows for them to fine-tune continuously.
Their senior designer Guy talked us through the design, its origins and how experience from track time and customer feedback shapes the future for them. In the before mentioned podcast the design of the Mono (and stories worth of the Sun tabloid headliner) is extensively talked about, which will give an insight in just why we love this brand so much. And with great pleasure, Guy showed us all the funny BAC stickers he designed, other ideas he had (like Briggs Boat Company) and old molds that decorated the walls of the main hall.
We ended our day in their recently opened development center, as this was 2019 they were only just getting themselves set up there. We spend what seemed like hours there being talked through the Mono R and it’s countless pieces which evolved. You can find that article here. We can’t wait to get back after the lockdowns have ended and I hope you now understand why.
