Well, this surely comes as a shock. Aston Martin has just revealed its "Project Sparta," a DBX-based monster truck that's set to race starting next year in the US Monster Jam racing series. Aston Martin says the new racing program "has been engineered in parallel with its upcoming DBX SUV." It's direct competition in the Monster Jam series are big names like Grave Digger, Big Kahuna, Ice Cream Man and Jailbird. But why the name Sparta? That's easy.

It comes directly from the Ancient Greek province famous for its hardcore and devoted warriors. Because this is Aston Martin we're talking about here, Project Sparta will come powered by the naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 with around 1,100 hp, which was originally developed for the Valkyrie AMR Pro. What's even more intriguing this fine Easter Sunday, which also happens to be April 1st, is that Project Sparta is actually a bespoke project built by request from some very rich and semi-insane customer. "Q by Aston Martin Commission," the automaker's in-house bespoke division, can handle literally any customer request, no matter how bonkers.

This customer also requested for three-time Le Mans winner and Aston Martin Racing Works driver Darren Turner to pilot Project Sparta in all of next year's Monster Jam events. "Winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans was a real thrill last year, but when I heard about this opportunity I just couldn't say no," Turner said. "I hope the guys line up a great selection of cars for me to tear apart, because I'm sure this monster truck will really do the business".