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...
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...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartan_Cars
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.
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!
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?
And calling something a supercar that you can't take a passenger in comfort , on the road ,is cheating. It's a track car.
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...
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