Spartan Track Car Packs 400 HP Into Just 1,764 Pounds

Australia’s Spartan is one of those cars you only need to look at once to understand what it’s about. It’s lightweight, it’s raw, and it skips every extra thing you’d expect to find in a modern car. At about 1,764 pounds, it’s closer to a classic racer than anything you’d buy today.

For starters, the Spartan track car is powered by a supercharged Honda 2.4-liter making 400 hp, which in a car this light delivers quite a bit more speed than seems sensible. It goes 0–62 mph in 2.4 seconds and tops out at 174 mph—not because it wants to be a headline car, but because it’s constructed so cleanly.

The chassis is a tubular frame wrapped in carbon panels that together weigh less than 45 pounds. The aero works too: splitter, diffuser, and an adjustable wing, adding up to around 660 pounds of downforce at speed. Suspension is a proper double-wishbone with active dampers, backed up by AP Racing brakes and grippy Yokohamas.

Inside, the Spartan track car is as stripped as you’d expect. Tillett carbon seats, six-point harnesses, a small digital display, and not much else. No doors, a tiny windscreen, and a neat party trick: you can switch between left- and right-hand drive just by swapping the pedal box and steering column.

It’s road-legal in some places, though probably not everywhere, and production is tiny—about 300 units. However, that fits the car’s personality. It’s just built for people who love driving and don’t need anything getting in the way.