The first Spartans were produced in 1973, here is the cover of the first sales brochure :
1973 Brochure Spartan Cars
It is difficult but very pleasant today to give them lustre that they deserve.
For aesthetics above all, but also for technical reasons, or simply because some pieces no longer exist, a few pieces have been custom-made for The French Spartan and will remain unique copies.
Cylinder head cover
Originally on the Ford Sierra 2.0i DOHC EFI engine, the rocker cover is made of plastic.
We will have to find a solution to give this engine a beautiful look.
The engine of the Ford Galaxy 2.0i DOHC is equipped with an aluminum rocker cover.
It does not have exactly the same shape, it would have to be cut to make a part that will allow the head of the camshaft to come out towards ignition, weld this part, and machine the groove that
will receive the seal of the upper engine.
The hardest thing will be to find a Ford Galaxy 2.0i rocker cache, it can't be found !
I will look for this piece, for months, in many countries where this model was commercialised, to finally find it in France.
We will now have to have this rocker cover modified, and give it another rendering.
Back from the precision mechanics workshop, the cylinder head cover is tested on the engine.
About 25 hours of hand polishing will be needed to make the piece beautiful.
A touch of red to sublimate the part...
It will be most likely the only Spartan to be equipped with a polished aluminium rocker cover on a Ford 2.0i DOHC engine.
At the bottom left is the modification made.
With its placement on the engine, the final appearance of the latter begins to emerge.
An aluminum oil filling cap will replace the original plastic cap.
The thread has the right step, but the diameter is 2mm too much, it must be reduced with a lathe to fit perfectly, and become, too, an unique part.
Connecting the steering rack
A really very small space between the power steering rack and the pump required the manufacture of customised fittings to receive the hoses.
They allow a 90° output immediately on the rack, which is impossible to do in so little space with elbowed pipes such as those that finish the original Ford hoses.
The manufacture of these parts requested that they be designed to be programmed for machining, before hydraulic hoses and a DASH connection on the entrance were welded.
A lot of work for two small parts...
Tachometer
The car will receive new Smiths metres.
Problem : the news lap counter is analogue, but Ford 2.0i DOHC engine is designed to receive a digital lap counter.
An automotive watchmaker will be in charge of removing the mechanism of the analogue rev counter, to keep only the chassis, dial and needle, and to insert the electronics of tachometer.
Again, a Smiths rpm count on a Ford 2.0i DOHC engine is probably unique.
Exhaust
2 chromed side exhaust outlets will take place behind a custom-made stainless steel line.
Alas, this exhaust line has been poorly done, and the work has to be done again.
To begin with, one of the two tubes located after the collector is made of steel and not stainless steel.
The garage had told me that it had painted these 2 tubes in the engine compartment black for aesthetic reasons. Why not...
The real reason was to camouflage the steel tube.
Boutier Rétro Motors had to make a stainless steel exhaust line !
It will obviously be replaced by a stainless steel tube, as initially intended.
More seriously, the line was poorly designed.
The mechanical rules were not respected.
The gases of cylinders 1 and 3 go directly to one of the side outlets, and the gases of cylinders 2 and 4 to the other outlet.
This type of assembly is possible, provided that you have identical lengths of exhaust pipes on and sides, otherwise it creates differences in (de)pressures between the gas outlets of cylinders
1-3 and 2-4.
Here, the line has not been studied and adapted, the lengths are very different, which greatly harms the performance of the engine.
In such a case, an X-pipe should have been set up to balance the gas pressures, before they are sent to the side outlets.
The exhaust line will be redone, by people who really know how to do…
The seats
On the first Spartans (Triumph based), the most frequently mounted seats were from the British manufacturer Billover, whose Carrera model (left in the photo) was a great success.
Of course, other models were subsequently mounted, and, on The French Spartan, seats from the manufacturer MG had been installed.
The leather of these original seats is damaged, the seams are cracked in places, the fixing rails are oxidised...
To the question, should they be renovated or replaced, the answer is that above all they are black, and therefore far from allowing a resemblance to the model presented in the Spartan Cars
salesbrochure of 1983, which, as it is said at the beginning of the renovation, remains the objective.
Excerpt from the 1983 SPARTAN sales brochure
At first, I found beautiful beige leather seats to come and replace them.
Unfortunately, their fixing system is incompatible with a mounting on the Spartan, error of appreciation....
It was necessary to (re)put ourselves in search of new seats.
I found some superb, down to one detail..., the leather of the driver's seat is damaged!
It doesn't matter, they are beautiful and go too well with the Spartan, we will change the leather of this seat.
The SPARTAN logo will be embroidered on the headrests.
Here is the model of this embroidery before completion :
And here is the first embroidered headrest.
(Yes, it must be cleaned...)
The interior
None of the parts still exist today, and the interior must be entirely custom-made.
It is Laurie, Saddler at BRM, whose work you may have been able to appreciate if you followed Les Reines de la Mécanique on RMC Découverte, on french TV, who will take care of the
carpets, trims, seats and the hood.
Here she begins the design of the carpets :
And here is the design of the back seat.
The location of the seams it will make to harmonise this tailor-made interior has been marked.
Here it is :
The hood
The hood is also custom-made.
The steering wheel
The wooden steering wheel, an english one of course, has been prepared and the Spartan enamelled logo has been integrated in its center.
Windscreens
Several templates were drawn and presented on the car in order to choose the shape that would best suit it.
This one was further modified before being selected :
Test of windscreen templates
Once the final shape is adopted, they have been custom-made, and the Spartan logo has been engraved, at an angle that allows it to be horizontal when folded.
The hinges were purchased from a Morgan specialist in England.
Windscreens are articulated just above the new small chrome mirrors and are of the most beautiful effect :
