There is something quietly thrilling about a car that emerges not from a vast German factory or a Californian design lab, but from the distant industrial edges of Australia, built by people more interested in engineering than ego. This weekend, at Wiltshire’s Castle Combe Circuit, that kind of passion takes centre stage.
The Masters of Motoring, Britain’s increasingly relevant summer celebration of speed and design, welcomes a new contender: the Spartan. It’s not a revival or a restomod. It’s something rarer – a newcomer that looks back to move forward, taking inspiration from CanAm racers of the 1960s and arriving with the attitude to match.
On Saturday, visitors to Castle Combe will have the chance to experience the Spartan not just as a static display, but in motion. Its low-slung body and high-revving heart will carve up the tarmac during passenger laps. Then, on Sunday, it trades the track for elegance, taking its place among a curated display of automotive icons on the manicured lawns of Bowood House & Gardens.
There’s something fitting about this juxtaposition. Castle Combe, with its weathered paddocks and corners that carry names as storied as the cars that have tackled them, is one of the UK’s most beloved circuits. And Bowood, a Georgian estate set in 100 acres of Capability Brown-designed parkland, is one of the few venues that can make even the loudest machines seem somehow civilised. Between the two lies the soul of the Masters of Motoring: celebration not just of vehicles, but of craft, character and place.
The Spartan car, built by the Australian manufacturer Spartan Motor Company, arrives in the UK after a long development journey. Lightweight, purpose-built and fiercely analogue, it offers something that’s becoming increasingly rare: the thrill of mechanical honesty. Weighing just over 770kg and powered by a tuned 2.4-litre Honda engine producing around 500bhp, it’s already proven itself on the circuit. It lapped Cadwell Park faster than both a Porsche 992 GT3 RS and a Radical on slicks, according to Evo’s track car of the year review.
But raw figures only tell part of the story. The Spartan is a throwback to a time when racing cars were brutal and beautiful in equal measure. Its aesthetic nods to the CanAm era – Lola, McLaren, Ferrari – are not ironic or borrowed, but born of admiration. Its low production numbers, supercharged and naturally aspirated options, and carbon fibre panels are appealing, yes, but the appeal is deeper. It is a car made for driving, not displaying. Though, ironically, it will look entirely at home on Bowood’s concours lawns this Sunday.
There’s a quiet irony in seeing this hand-built machine from Australia arrive in the English countryside, not as an underdog, but as a headline. And yet it feels right. Because events like Masters of Motoring are about more than heritage. They’re about spirit. And in the Spartan, that spirit is alive and well.
So if you find yourself in Wiltshire this weekend, don’t just look at the cars. Listen to the stories they carry. One of them will have come a very long way.
