Single-minded: the very fast BAC Mono is now even faster

You probably know the BAC Mono. A track special with just the one seat, nothing superfluous like doors or windows, and a 2.3-litre Cosworth engine sending 280bhp to its rear wheels, it’s flipping fast.

Or should we say was flipping fast. For this is the new Mono. It may look the same as before, but there’s a new engine. Made by Mountune and a little bigger, at 2.5 litres, it cranks out 305bhp.

The Mono’s 580kg kerbweight – half a Fiesta, or thereabouts – is unchanged, so the power-to-weight ratio, a reliable barometer for how fast and exciting a car actually feels, climbs notably to 526bhp-per-tonne.

BAC hasn’t divulged any other performance figures just yet, but expect an improvement on the already bonkers 2.8-second 0-62mph time and 170mph top speed of before. Also expect it to be even more of a handful on ice.

What BAC has told us is that the car completed several runs up the hill at last week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, all below 50 seconds. If the Mono had competed in officially timed runs, its 47.5-second best would have placed it top of the pack, nearly four seconds ahead of the victorious Noble M600. The BAC's pre-production status stopped it from doing so.

Other new stuff?  A new drive-by-wire throttle and increased bespoke treatment for buyers, their seat and steering wheel custom-made for them. That should help make the hefty price tag – likely to be no smaller than the outgoing Mono’s £124,255 – mildly more palatable.

It coincides with a new BAC factory in Liverpool to help crank out the handful of new orders taken at Goodwood, while the firm wants to take the Mono global. Is there cash put aside in your daydream lottery fund for one?