Twelve single seater road cars that are perfect for social distancing

[King_of_lion]

In these challenging times, staying at home, maintaining good personal hygiene and self-isolating if you are unfortunate enough to have become unwell have rapidly become the ‘new normal.’ As we all know by now, keeping a safe distance of at least two metres from other people from not within your own household is also a crucial preventive measure from spreading the coronavirus. Tickets now available for the Goodwood RevivalBOOK NOW As well as respecting the Government’s ‘social distancing’ policy and lockdown, keeping travel to a minimum for essential purposes only is a must too in order to help protect yourself and others from the threat of this invisible enemy. Whilst the vast majority of us Brits are being suitably sensible by staying at home and keeping off the roads, thankfully as yet no restrictions have been placed on the number of occupants allowed to share space in the same vehicle, unlike countries such as Spain where strict limits have been implemented to allow only one person (the driver) per vehicle with no passengers permitted. After decades of being considered frivolous, weird and selfish niche modes of transport, the recent social distancing advice and restrictions are now making road-legal single seater cars more relevant. Single-seat motorised vehicles are almost as old as the automobile itself, with solo cars usually restricted to either strongly-focused performance machines, such as the BAC Mono, or laughable economy microcars like the infamous Peel P50. Beyond the world of motor racing, cars with just one seat that can legally be driven on public highways have always been a rare breed, for understandable reasons. Road-legal cars with tandem seating (with room for a passenger behind the driver), such as the distinctive Messerschmitt ‘Kabinroller,’ Renault Twizy, Light Car Company Rocket,  Carver One, Yamaha OX-99, Tramontana R, plus many others, are rather more commonplace by comparison.

BAC Mono Arguably the most widely-known, admired and successful of all single-seater road-going cars, the appropriately-named Mono was announced to shock and delight in 2011 by Liverpool-based Briggs Automotive Company (BAC). Initially powered by a 285bhp 2.3-litre Cosworth Duratech engine, the ultralight (540kg) carbon-fibre composite Mono was upgraded to a 305bhp 2.5-litre motor in 2015, enabling a 170mph top speed, with 0-62mph appearing in just 2.8 seconds, to help further enhance the experience of the BAC’s sole occupant. BAC was set to launch a new Mono R at the 2020 Geneva Motor Show, but due to the 11th-hour cancellation of this event because of COVID-19, the new 340bhp, 555kg Mono R should make its dynamic world debut at the postponed 2020 Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard later this year (dates t.b.a.).

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by -Dark
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