Do you have a lot of money and a bunch of friends who you’d like to bring on a drive with you? Yes to money, but no to friends? Perfect. I have the car for you.

The BAC Mono takes the “motorsport theater” stuff I like to throw around to talk about Porsche’s RS cars and tosses the “theater” portion right out the window. This is a race car, through and through. There aren’t really even “keys.” The steering wheel is the key, and you take it with you when you park, along with your helmet, which both the law of the land and the laws of physics, say you need.

The Mono is insanely fast, and on any given day, could set a street-legal record on any race track in the country. But it operates on mechanical grip, not downforce, which means you really have to get some temperature in the tires. But because of its diminutive weight, that means five or six laps of warmup until things are ready to start going quick.

It’s a racing engine, bolted directly to the chassis and sending vibrations through everything. The six-speed sequential gearbox operates without a clutch once moving, but slams the powertrain hard, upsetting the chassis and even locking the rear tires on downshifts if you aren’t braking with enough force. The learning curve is steep and sharp, and it doesn’t like going slow very much.

There are people who absolutely love open-wheel racing and open-wheel race cars. At 6’3” and 265 pounds, I am not one of them. I can’t fit in these things (although BAC says it would mold an entire car around me if I wanted one) and I can’t move comfortably enough to react at the speed I’d like.

Consequently, I actually preferred the experience of driving the Mono on the street, well within the limits, and just appreciating the incredible view forward from the cockpit and out to the world, totally unobstructed. That, friends, was one of my favorite 45 minutes of driving ever.

The utter disregard for practicality, the casting off of any semblance of refinement, and the audacity of a full-on race car that can be driven on the road are totally unique in the space. And if you can’t, or won’t ride a sport bike, the BAC Mono is the automotive sensory assault that says “game over.” And that’s why it’s nominated for the 2024 Performance Car of the Year.

-Editor at large Matt Farah