Bike-engined cars. BECs. They're the ultimate goal of a good chunk of the truly speed-obsessed, especially those that can't get the sweet song of the 10,000-plus rev range out of their heads.
If you're not up to welding your own tube-framed Midlana or Locost/Lotus 7, and the Palatov Motorsport dp4 is a bit too...out there...for you, your mates Down Under have the solution: the Spartan V.
While only a hair's breadth less wooly than the dp4, the Spartan V is every bit as focused: the car weighs less than 660 pounds without the driver, sports a 170-horsepower 1,199-cc Ducati 1198S engine, Wilwood brakes, Tilton pedals, 17x7-nch race wheels, a six-speed sequential gearbox, fully-adjustable double-wishbone front and rear suspension, a chain-drive LSD, FIA-approved safety gear, and a carbon fiber body.
Performance? 0-62 mph in 3 seconds, top speed of 174 mph. Price? About $84,195 at current exhange range.
That's a hefty chunk of change for a track-only toy, and it would equate to about 2-3 Palatov dp4s of similar (or greater) performance, not to mention any number of home-built Locosts, but it allows you to take a passenger along, unlike the dp4, and it's not nearly as common as the ubiquitous Lotus 7 clone.
