BAC Mono Now Comes With Carbon Composite Wheels; Run!

In case you were wondering what on earth was the BAC Mono missing to make it go even faster, here’s your answer.

We’re talking about a single-seater, road-legal sports car, developed by BAC together with engineers from Cosworth, Hewland, Sachs, AP and Kumho Tires. The car uses carbon fiber composite construction over a steel chassis, inspired by DTM racecars, with FIA compliant rollover structure.

Basically, the entire rig is purely engineered to go around the track as fast as its 285hp 2.3-litre four-cylinder Cosworth engine lets it. But even in this cradle of engineering perfection, BAC reckons there’s room for improvement, and that’s why the British car maker is now offering innovative carbon-composite wheels for the Mono.

BAC’s co-founder and Design Director Ian Briggs led the design of the wheel, which was created to perfectly complement and enhance the car’s looks. However, BAC put the performance very much at the forefront, as the design was led by the function of the wheel.

As part of its quest to use British suppliers whenever possible, BAC has teamed up with wheel brand Dymag, and came up with a carbon composite 17-inch model which features soft curved corners to aid strength.

The whole idea about the wheels was to reduce unsprung weight and rotational mass, in order to improve the car’s handling and performance. Thanks to the front 7.5X17 wheels, which weigh 5.7 kg each, the total weight on the front axle was improved by 23.5%. The 9-inch-wide rear wheels, each weighing 6.0 kg amount to an overall 22.9% weight reduction on the axle. Even the bolts used to secure them are made from titanium, amounting to 212.5g saving per wheel.

Moreover, by using five pairs of spokes, BAC has achieved the clean look of a five-spoke rim, but with the structural and weight saving benefits of a 10-spoke wheel.

But all this weight shedding comes at a cost, as spec’ing a new Mono with the wheels will require £9950 ($14,740) of your hard earned cash. Nonetheless, they’re much cheaper this way, as fitting them to existing cars will cost you £12,500 ($18,517). You could get a S2000 for that money.