Endurance car, sprint racer or corporate workhorse, the ProSport Spyder more than fulfills the criteria for each category, as Marcus Pye found out

Daytona's Rolex 24 Hours is the world's most gruelling endurance race, for the unrelenting high banking of the Florida speedbowl imposes extraordinary loads on components, and the twiddly stop-start infield section taxes gearboxes, brakes and chassis agility beyond the demands of Le Mans. It's survival of the fittest in a monster 80-car field. Many drivers spend years trying to reach the chequered flag, but the small British ProSport 3000 team made it on its debut, with a brand new car straight out of the box!

A turn at the wheel of the Spyder was more than enough to put a smile on Pye's face (click to enlarge pic)

The ambitious team, managed by MD Graham Williams, covered itself with glory, for with only a 60-lap systems check at Mallory Park and minimal running in the USA, the Ford V6-engined Spyder pounded round and round, delayed only by a minor collision and a broken gear, to finish 33rd, and sixth in class. Without the unscheduled stops, which cost 50 minutes, the crew of Nigel Greensall, Peter Hardman, Mike Millard and Kevin Sherwood would have arrived in the low 20s - in a simple but well-engineered car costing £75,000, a fraction of the sum which bought the winning Riley & Scott or Ferrari's pole-sitting 333SP!

ProSport's Spyder is derived from the familiar Coupe, proven over five years in a domestic sprint race series and occasional Interserie rounds. Launched in the jaws of recession, the closed car never caught on as it deserved to, for the powerful Group C-styled machine is awesome to drive and its immense strength is reflected in an exemplary safety record. Only 19 are on the tracks but, following a change of company ownership, the superb Spyder should transform the national championship, and open up important new markets.

Suspension is uprated for the endurance car, in T45 steel with additional gussets rather than CDS2 tubing, but retains its tough triangulated rocker operation. Inboard White Power dampers, actuated by the lower fabrication in front and the upper one at the rear, were fitted with stiffer coilover springs to cope with the extra loadings at Daytona. Hewland's heavy-duty FGC transaxle has superceded the FT200 in the Spyder model, which ran on 17in Dunlop radial tyres with stiffer sidewalls and of a harder compound in the enduro. Brakes are standard sprint fit Alcon four-piston calipers.

To celebrate its success, ProSport invited AUTOSPORT to drive the car - but for a spanner check, exactly as it finished the race at Daytona, down to the grime - on Silverstone's National Circuit.

click to enlarge pic

click to enlarge pic

While its panelled spaceframe concept remains the same, and the running gear is interchangeable, the Spyder's chassis is radically different, following the vital decision to make it comply with IMSA's World Sports Car regulations. The structure is 40in high to the top of its sturdy twin roll hoops. Its floor is double-skinned in aluminium, with a sandwiched element to render it puncture-proof, and the cockpit sides are plated for driver protection.

Chassis is radically different, but complies with IMSA's World Sports Car regulations (click to enlarge pic)

Placed among hordes of club sports cars on a general test day, conditions ironically replicated the traffic which Sherwood experienced in the opening laps of the great race, when he snagged both nearside wheels on a BMW, at the cost of two outer rims and a tyre.

The Motec-managed Ford 'FBS' engine, masterminded by ProSport shareholder Bruce Stevens of Merlin Developments, is based on the 3-litre 24-valve production unit found in Scorpio road cars. Developed initially by Cosworth, it boasts a special Cologne block, steel crank and rods and whomps out a very solid 340bhp, with a stonking 2701b ft of torque from 5000-6200rpm, sufficient to propel the 850kg machine to 165mph at Daytona.

It's a superbly tractable engine, docile enough for your granny to drive it to the shops, but kick the throttle wide open and it blasts you into orbit with a throaty bellow. The power comes in hard, but progressively, from around 4700rpm (it pulls happily enough from 4000) to the rev limiter at 7600rpm, but Greensall's sound advice that there was little point in revving it beyond 7000 determined my upchanges.

As well as reliability, maneuverability and driver comfort are crucial in endurance races. The Spyder has them all. Balanced and responsive, with great visibility from the cockpit, it feels smaller than its size, jinks between slower cars with the agility of a dervish, and displays an incredibly forgiving nature. In short it is easy to drive fast. Aerodynamically it appears efficient too, despite the Lee Noble-mastered bodywork not having seen a wind tunnel. Excellent downforce and stability are hallmarks, and there is no hint of buffeting which is so tiring if, as Hardman did at Daytona, you drive a three-hour triple stint.

The sheer speed of the Spyder is breathtaking for a car without a pure racing engine. I saw an eye-opening 141mph on the Stack dash before firing it into Copse using the perfectly weighted steering, before braking in the kink prior to Becketts, 139mph at the end of the Club Straight and 124mph on the start-line. Apex speeds of 108mph in Copse (in fourth or fifth gears) and 74mph at Brooklands (third) were telling, for there was plenty more to come given a clear track.

Braking power and positive turn in characteristics were impressive too. Having driven two ProSports (and raced one at Brands Hatch in the wet at the 1992 Formula Ford Festival), I felt the cornering ability of the Spyder was enhanced by the stiffer-walled enduro tyres. Its attitude remained very fiat throughout, whereas the closed car used to roll and squirm at the rear mid-corner.