Should you’re already aware of Bandit9, chances are high fairly good that it’s due to the corporate’s wildly futuristic customized bikes. Since 2011, the Vietnam-based store has been turning out bikes the likes of which the world has by no means seen, with gentle edges, swooping curves, and space-age supplies. (We even featured Bandit9 founder Daryl Villanueva on the quilt of Challenge One in all Iron & Air.) It’s a singular aesthetic that challenges the connection between kind and performance, blurring the traces between artwork and bike within the course of.
Even the avant-garde can get to be a bit stale after some time — no less than as soon as it has garnered its fair proportion of competitors. However Villanueva didn’t stop his day job to do what was anticipated or what the remainder of the customized scene might; quite the opposite. By no means content material to relaxation on their laurels, the Bandit9 crew have introduced what’s — simply — their most formidable venture but. Meet the Monaco.
It’s uncommon to see a customized bike builder who can apply their expertise to the realm of four-wheeled transport — no less than, with any diploma of success. The mathematics often doesn’t work out; the expertise, for some purpose, doesn’t appear to translate. Assuming issues do come collectively, the ensuing construct is usually half-baked in execution or vague from a horde of like-minded examples.
As Villanueva places it: “I might argue that constructing a automotive is nearer to constructing a home than a motorbike. I see a motorbike as a singular unit. Every part is correct there in entrance of you. However a automotive has an exterior and an inside. It is advisable think about the expertise on the surface, which is totally totally different than the expertise on the within. And like a home, there’s one other world behind the façade: the electricals, the plumbing, the construction, security, and so on. Additionally, the results of aerodynamics, weight distribution, materials weight is 10-fold in comparison with a motorbike. Designing a automotive is a mammoth process.”
Bearing all of this in thoughts, Bandit9 has managed to ship in exceptional vogue. And it’s exactly as a result of the crew determined to go its personal means and create a automotive from the bottom up. Nonetheless, the place most of Bandit9’s bikes are distinctly forward-looking, the inspiration for the Monaco is — conversely — firmly grounded in custom. And but, on the similar time, the design stands aside as one thing unto itself. Villanueva likes to say, “The Monaco is our tribute to racing. Fairly than a selected automotive, it was the legendary designers and their philosophies that impressed us. Enzo Ferrari’s character, Colin Chapman’s emphasis on lightness over pure energy, Shelby’s racing pedigree. These are the important thing components behind the Monaco.”
It reveals in the long run product. The Monaco’s physique consists of a carbon fiber monocoque beneath a carbon fiber shell, sculpted with sharp traces and rounded corners such that it appears just like the lovechild of a ’60s Brabham and a Lancia Stratos. Open-cockpit and open-wheel in design, it does away with problems like a entrance wing and a big spoiler in favor of a easy, streamlined aesthetic. From tip to tail, it’s easy and slippery, with solely a pair of gaping facet ducts, a rear diffuser, and a set of cast magnesium aero wheels to interrupt its clear traces. To keep up its street legality, the Monaco contains some courtesies like lights, indicators, and mirrors, however they’re so inconspicuous that you simply’d hardly even know they’re there.
Per Bandit9: “If it didn’t add to efficiency, it was scrapped. If it did, we made it compact, mild, and environment friendly. It’s simple so as to add. It’s onerous to subtract.” However subtract they did; the ultimate curb weight is available in at simply 795 kilograms (1,753 kilos).
Inside, the automotive is equally spartan; you gained’t discover any creature comforts like music or air con. It’s wholly centered on its goal, constructed with a deep race-ready bucket seat, a detachable, programmable yoke steering wheel, and a 1080p show to be used with a rear-facing ultrawide digital camera. In different phrases, the Monaco isn’t a car meant to numb you from the expertise or take your consideration away from the street forward; it’s a instrument, a driver’s automotive for unlocking pure, unadulterated thrill.
For that matter, not even the drivetrain will distract you from the following flip. That’s as a result of, as an alternative of shoehorning some raspy V8 behind the cockpit, Bandit9 opted for a pair of electrical motors and a few lithium iron phosphate batteries — the identical as these discovered within the Tesla Mannequin S. On the street, which means it makes in extra of 536 horsepower and 445 pound-feet of torque, enabling a silent-but-face-melting 2.7-second dash to 60 miles per hour.
It’s this sort of potential that made an EV such a pure selection for the Monaco. “Let’s face it: it’s inevitable,” says Villanueva. “It’s like the appearance of the combustion engine within the steam period or the lightbulb within the age of candlelight. I believe we should always cease resisting and as an alternative nurture and expedite its potentialities. Batteries will get smaller, lighter, extra environment friendly, and cheaper. Similar with the engine.”
What concerning the vary, you ask? By no means fret. Due to its featherweight chassis, the Monaco is nice for as many as 250 miles from plug to plug. Or, as Bandit9 places it: “greater than a whole F1 race on a single cost.”
After all, there can be some petrol-blooded purists who will take difficulty with the truth that such a vintage-leaning automotive is definitely electrical. To this, Villanueva says, “I completely get why folks assume EVs are soulless. To be trustworthy, I share the sentiment. I like the heat of LPs vs. mp3, the texture and grain of a real movie digital camera over digital, a mechanical watch vs. quartz. However I believe, moreover the sound issue, you’ll miss little. As soon as you’re feeling the blood go to the again of your head from the 2gs of acceleration, it’s over. You’re hooked.”
Yep, you learn that proper: 2gs — and Bandit9 claims as a lot as 4gs by turns. That’s as a result of the Monaco mounts its powertrain low and behind the driving force. Past enhancing weight distribution, this additionally helps with grip, driving the wheels into the street for optimum traction. When mixed with a push-rod and pull-rod suspension setup, this makes for some ludicrous downforce. Actually, Bandit9 says, “The expertise of leaping into the cockpit of the Monaco is nearer to a fighter jet than a automotive.”
Good factor you’ll be capable of catch all of it on digital camera, as Bandit9 has enlisted the assistance of Forcite and its cutting-edge MK1S sensible helmet. Between its 1080p video recording, its built-in Harman Kardon comm system, its hazard alert characteristic, and its voice-control expertise, the lid is laden with devices that will help you unlock your inside Velocity Racer.
Worth-wise, the Monaco isn’t precisely what you’d name low-cost; it begins at $150,000 for the aluminum-framed base mannequin. That being mentioned, this isn’t a automotive supposed for the lots or the informal weekend canyon warrior. Bandit9 additionally hopes that house owners will join its Race Subscription, a service that unlocks entry to unique crew occasions, professional engineer session, and ongoing customization alternatives to optimize the automotive on your driving type.
Solely time will inform once we’ll see our first Monaco on the street. If you wish to expertise it in particular person for your self, you may catch it on the Bonneville Salt Flats come 2023. There, Bandit9 can be trying a world document, one thing Villanueva calls “a pure engineering train.” He goes on to clarify, “My crew is fairly stable proper now; we’ve obtained people who construct navy helicopters and airplanes, so we’re coated. What we really need are sponsors. I don’t want to clarify the economics of constructing a automotive, however it’s costly. We want the lightest and hardest supplies paired with the most important, baddest battery and engine mixture round.”
This text first appeared in Iron & Air Magazine, and is reproduced right here beneath license.
Phrases by Grey Van Dyke | Photos Courtesy Bandit9
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