PH Blog: BAC Mono, now with added traffic

This time we've got video - and there are even other cars in it!

Perhaps it was because I was a little over-awed by getting to drive the BAC Mono on the road the other day, but I am a little conscious that I didn't really describe the experience (the road and traffic-negotiating bit of it) in all that much depth. A couple of you even felt moved to mention it in the ensuing thread. Nor did we manage to get many decent photos of it surrounded by chugging lorries, buses and the everyday transport of Joe Public.

Well, here is my chance to atone, because although we didn't get much in the way of on-road pics, we did take a video. Now, the combination of Riggers and camera is never going to win any Oscars, but it does at least give you a sense of what it's like to drive such an apparently extreme track car on the road.

I say 'apparently extreme' for a reason, too, because as I alluded to in our original article, the Mono really is a bit of a pussycat out on the road. Sure, at low speeds you can hear the pneumatic actuators popping and farting as you shift gears, but provided you're gentle with the clutch it's quite a smooth process.

Likewise the power delivery makes for easy in-town progress, with decent torque all the way through the rev range and the power not kicking in until the engine is spinning faster and more loudly than seems appropriate in an urban environment (you really don't get a massive wallop until about 5,000rpm).

Out on more open roads the Mono reveals itself to be frankly ballistic, with oodles of traction and grip and, once that engine is screaming and you're banging through the gears without need for the clutch pedal, huge cross-country pace.

I didn't really plumb the depths of the Mono's point-to-point ability - on relatively busy public roads you simply can't - but not once did it feel skittish or indeed anything other than totally planted and controlled. And for a car with one seat, an F3 gearbox and a steering wheel that would make Lewis Hamilton feel at home, that's quite an achievement.

Riggers