After being in and out an Atom since 2010, I thought there might be people interested in my current toy.
Just wanted to share the purchase I made. I was on the 3 year list for a 4, but was afraid Brexit would make registration very difficult after 2020, so decided to invest a little more and buy a 1200 mile 2017 Mono. Don't get this topic wrong, I am still very much an Atom enthusiast.
The most funny thing is that I kind of expected it to be quite equal to an Atom, as both have over 300hp and weigh around 600kg, but I could not be more wrong! These 2 cars are absolutely nothing a like...handling is totally different. Where my 3.5 SC gave me the feeling at 100 miles an hour like I was driving double that speed and you could very much notice it struggled against frontal forces from 120 miles an hour, the Mono is rocksolid and stable all the way up to Vmax, it accelerates as hard from 120-160mph as it does from 60-100.
The bad thing off course is you tend to drive it much, much faster, which isn't very good for my drivers licences. I always liked how the Atom was the most fun on the street up to 100mph, but this one has that same thing, but is as fun above...
The amount of engineering and detail in the car is mind blowing, so so different from the Atom, which I love for its simplicity. This thing has no simplicity, anywhere. It also feels much more like a supercar than a toy, but than lighter and more engaged.
Than the drivers position, for me this is (together with the insanely cool gearbox) the number 1 highlight of the car, you lay down in the car, just like in a formula car and this position together with the car surrounding your body really snug and the Formula-style steering wheel, makes you feel you are actually in a race car on the road, surrounded by normal cars.
You are so surrounded by the interior of the car, you cant imagine, my nose is underneath the gunsight/window, thats how low I am.
This brings me to another great feature. Being so low in the car makes it far more usable in lower temperatures. I had the windshield and sidepanels on my latest 3.5 and even with those on it was freezing when making a highway drive longer than 1 minute, when ambient temp was under 12 degrees celcius or such. I drove this thing home for 2 hours at 0 degrees ambient and I wasn't even cold...No wind in my trousers, no wind in my neck, nothing.
Again, this added to the Atom experience, but it is different and for now it feels better to me. Mostly because I can drive it without windshield and still not have to worry about a painful neck afterwards (which was the main problem for me driving without windshield which I liked more than with a shield, but had no choice)
oh and the ceramic brakes and Carbon wheels are just fantastic
Well I will add some pics and video's, hope you like it and if someone wants to know anything specific, feel free to post here.
here is a little walk around with some nice details, the visible carbon instead of decals is a one car special for me
I am not a native english speaker, so excuse the bad english
This is what it sounds through a gopro with a bad microfone and what it goes like in a straight line on semi dry streets at 1 degree ambient. traction control is interfering all the time, but wanted to share the sound anyway
