Wednesday 12th June 2019

Meet Australia's flyweight British sports car

Take a bit of Zenos E10, add some Ginetta G20 and a bit of Ariel Atom and you get...

---

A hundred PHer points to the reader who knew of the Spartan sports car before right now. It's a project that first saw the light of day in 2011, devised by brothers Peter and Nick Pap and powered by a Ducati 1198S engine before it was replaced with a supercharged Honda Jazz unit. Now the Spartan is back once more with another Honda engine.

Like an Ariel Nomad, the Spartan uses the supercharged 2.4-litre four-cylinder motor with the output rated at an absurd 400hp. It's lighter than the Ariel, too, with a claimed kerbweight of just 550kg thanks to carbon panels. Apparently it's capable of 0-62mph in 2.4 seconds, and 150mph.

In keeping with the 60s retro theme established by the swoopy styling, the Spartan is mostly devoid of driver assistance, with little beyond traction control to help its driver out - "it's like a big go-kart with driver involvement paramount", says Spartan. The dampers are adjustable, and extensive development on road and track is said to have yielded a "supple predictable and confidence-inspiring" sports car.

Want one? It's only for the truly committed, really, and that's not just because of the speedster-style windscreen. The Spartan isn't road legal, and it costs £80k, so getting one over here and on track days isn't going to be the work of a moment. The Spartan boys clearly have a sense of humour, though, as they plan to make 300. You can see a video of the car in action below, and more details are on the Spartan website. If scarcity appeals in your track toy, surely there's nothing better...

 

[TIGA84]

Utterly pointless for the money.

Looks like a Sports2000 from the front - why not just pick a Duratec one of those up for 1/3rd of the price and stick a second seat in it?

https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/83566/lo...

I know its sold...

[B10]

Surprised that the original Spartan sports car is not mentioned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartan_Cars

[Panjy]

Looks pretty rapid that.
Good luck to them

[More torque]

That old one in the car park looks as though its doing 100mph even when its standing still !!

[anonymous-user]

I think it looks great, and if i was a millionaire i wouldn't think twice about ordering one

[Equus]

I like it a lot, too, but I do think it's a hugely missed opportunity not to make it road legal.

Notwithstanding the flagrant under-quoting of weight on the original Ducati-engined version (they reckoned 300kg, which was never gonna happen), it's a nicely designed and executed little thing, and with its retro looks it could have been a two seat (yes, I know) spiritual successor to the LCC Rocket.

Without aero, it really doesn't look good value as a track car.

Possibly their decision has been driven by the difficulty of registering cars under the Australian ADR regulations, though, which make our IVA system look like a virtual free-for-all.

[je777]

When I open a car video, do I want to hear:
a) The sound of the car.
b) Music (almost inevitably a variety of dance music that would have seemed cheesy even back in 1988).
Does anyone not switch off immediately when that is the case?

[anonymous-user]

That’s a lovely thing. I’d really like to sample one.

[danlindfield]

I can’t stop noticing that along the straight the steering wheel needs to be about 30 degrees left to keep the car straight!

[ceebmoj]

I would love one. also I'm sure PH covered them a long while back.

[Redline88]

je777 said:

When I open a car video, do I want to hear:
a) The sound of the car.
b) Music (almost inevitably a variety of dance music that would have seemed cheesy even back in 1988).
Does anyone not switch off immediately when that is the case?

Exactly my thoughts!

[Equus]

ceebmoj said:

I would love one. also I'm sure PH covered them a long while back.

Link here, complete with fantasy weight claim.

[Edmundo2]

Love the looks if still a whiff of kit car in bits of it. Preffered the Ducati approach as made it different. Also liked the lightweight, well balanced approach. New big power angle is less appealing to my eyes and as others have said, theres plenty of non road legal 2ltr track cars about for a quarter of the price so why bother.

As for the original 300kg claim - ridiculous, ( I have a very small, full carbon tub single seater with gsxr engine, monoshock front end, bike box with no reverse etc, no lights, no trim and no bodywork - Weighs 290kg

Still - good luck to them!

[HeMightBeBanned]

They're dreaming.

It'll disappear without a trace.

[Michael77]

To be fair, the old article text states the chassis and body weigh 300kg... add engine, suspension, brakes, wheels, etc. etc....

[anonymous-user]

je777 said:

When I open a car video, do I want to hear:
a) The sound of the car.
b) Music (almost inevitably a variety of dance music that would have seemed cheesy even back in 1988).
Does anyone not switch off immediately when that is the case?

Yep. 100%

And calling something a supercar that you can't take a passenger in comfort , on the road ,is cheating. It's a track car.

[Equus]

Michael77 said:

To be fair, the old article text states the chassis and body weigh 300kg... add engine, suspension, brakes, wheels, etc. etc....

I think that's just the usual PistonHeads sloppy writing - the tech spec at the bottom of the article states total weight of 300kg, and I remember similar claims in other media articles at the time.

[PhilboSE]

If you want something that's not road legal then why would you even consider this rather than a, say, Radical? Radical is a proper race car, FIA approved cages & extinguishers, loads of them around, proper slicks and wings, lots of support and available for much less than half the money. This thing wouldn't even see which way my £7000 Clubsport went on a track, let alone an SR3 or SR8.

[anonymous-user]

PhilboSE said:

If you want something that's not road legal then why would you even consider this rather than a, say, Radical? Radical is a proper race car, FIA approved cages & extinguishers, loads of them around, proper slicks and wings, lots of support and available for much less than half the money. This thing wouldn't even see which way my £7000 Clubsport went on a track, let alone an SR3 or SR8.

Because you’ve owned a Radical, Caterham etc and aren’t bothered about lap times and want to have something that’s a bit different and fun?

[TIGA84]

yonex said:

PhilboSE said:

If you want something that's not road legal then why would you even consider this rather than a, say, Radical? Radical is a proper race car, FIA approved cages & extinguishers, loads of them around, proper slicks and wings, lots of support and available for much less than half the money. This thing wouldn't even see which way my £7000 Clubsport went on a track, let alone an SR3 or SR8.

Because you’ve owned a Radical, Caterham etc and aren’t bothered about lap times and want to have something that’s a bit different and fun?

Because you'd need at least 50-60k extra to have that car that's "different and fun" from Caterhams or Radicals et al.

80k buys some astonishingly capable road and indeed track cars that would blow this into the weeds in every aspect, all day, every day on any road or track in the world, its obsolete before they've even built it.

Fun for the same sort of money with provenance and absolute class?

I'd be in this with 10k on the passenger seat, rather than a slightly weird looking soon-to-be-obscure machine made in the outback.

https://racecarsdirect.com/Advert/Details/102956/b...