Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) has once again made history, as its Mono supercar has become the fastest ever road-legal car to be tested by evo magazine at the Anglesey Coastal Circuit.
With evo’s Richard Meaden in the cockpit, the bespoke British supercar set a truly breath-taking lap time of 1:07.70 seconds to beat the race-specific and slick-shod McLaren P1 GTR’s previous best of 1:08.70 by exactly one second.
The P1 GTR hypercar hit the evo Leaderboard summit last month by toppling the Radical RXC Turbo 500’s time of 1:10.50, but even the most hardcore and focused interpretation of the P1 couldn’t compete with the Mono.
Sitting on Kumho’s Ecsta V70A tyres, the Mono simply surged around the 1.55-mile Coastal Circuit. Its street-legal rubber stuck to the tarmac like magnets, as Meaden gained confidence and relished the accessible nature of the Mono’s power and precision.
In the final flying lap on a new set of tyres, the Mono made history by going a full second better than the £1.98 million P1 GTR hypercar’s seemingly unbeatable time and becoming the new pace benchmark.
The second-generation Mono features a new 2.5-litre Ford Duractec four-cylinder engine tuned by Mountune to deliver 305bhp and 310Nm of torque. And as the supercar weighs just 580kg thanks to innovative, lightweight material used in its construction, its power-to-weight ratio is a staggering 525bhp per tonne.
Having set the fastest-ever Goodwood Festival of Speed Roadcar Hill Climb time last year and topped Top Gear’s Power Lap Leaderboard in 2013, the Mono is no stranger to track success, and its achievement in Anglesey is another example of its giant-killing ability – much like its Hungaroring lap time of 1:54.00, nine seconds faster than a 458 Speciale. It also sets the scene for more iconic circuit record attempts to come in 2017.
The evo Anglesey Coastal Circuit Leaderboard is a fiercely competed series that has seen the biggest supercar brands in the world touch down in Anglesey looking to showcase their speedy creations.
From the Ferrari 458 Speciale to the Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren 675LT, some of the fastest cars ever made have tried to scale evo’s Leaderboard, but BAC’s brilliance means they need to go back to the drawing board.
BAC co-founder and Design Director Ian Briggs said: “What an incredible feat this is for BAC. The Mono has proved time and time again that it can compete with the best in the business, and its remarkable lap at Anglesey has made it a true pace icon. It also proves that the Mono drives as good as it looks – this is a wonderful lap time from a wonderful car.”
Fellow founder and Director of Product Development Neill Briggs added: “We are incredibly proud of this achievement. To go a whole second better than the race-specific P1 GTR is a simply amazing feat and another impressive string to the Mono’s bow. Our talented team work tirelessly to make to Mono the ultimate driver’s car, and it certainly proved its worth with evo. We’re very much looking forward to even more success in 2017!”
Record-breaking driver Richard Meaden from evo said: “Driving the Mono is a quite amazing experience. From the way you climb in to the car to how connected you feel with the road in the single-seat position, you have to constantly remind yourself that you’re in a road car when behind the wheel. Every lap that went by in Anglesey, I got to grips with the hugely impressive Mono more and more. The record lap felt very quick, but even I was shocked by just how quick it was. Beating the McLaren P1 GTR by that big a margin is simply staggering.”
Issue 229 of evo is available to buy from Wednesday 2 November, with video content launching on Friday 11 November.
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