2006 Spyker C8 Spyder

The Spyker C8 Spyder was revealed in 2000, marking the return of the historic Dutch brand after 75 years. The lightweight mid-engine chassis and the Audi-supplied V8 certainly helped with the performance, but what really captured imaginations was the dramatic styling, both inside and out. The steampunk aesthetic helped the C8 to become one of the most instantly recognizable supercars in the world as the striking and sensational Spyker, both back then and now, especially in its market segment. A C8 Spyder appeared in Season 4 episode 7 of Top Gear (UK) driven by Jeremy Clarkson and The Stig.

History
Emerging in 2000, Spyker N.V. Automobile Company was headquartered in Zeewolde, Netherlands, by acquiring the rights to business name Spyker which had produced luxury cars and aircraft components in the first half of 20th century, the company inherited not only the logo but also a style that is visible in one of a kind car interiors. Seventy-five years after the original company disappeared, the brand was resurrected by Victor Muller and designer Maarten de Bruijn. Spyker manufactured exclusive sports cars that stand out among others in terms of performance and aesthetics, but they also carry an engineering heritage that not many manufacturers may emulate.By taking part in the first ever Peking to Paris race in 1907 and taking second place in the 15,000KM trans-continental race, the spirit of invincibility is carried further, as the company’s motto “Nulla tenaci invia est via”, which is Latin for “For the tenacious, no road is impassable.”In December of 2014, Spyker confirmed that it had gone bankrupt hoping to restructure its finances and get back on its feet. The bankruptcy declaration was reverted by early 2015 and the company announced it would continue with the production of sports cars. A short time later, in 2021 Spyker went bankrupt once again.In early 2022, according to a press release, a Russian investor group led by Michael Pessis and Boris Rotenberg will revive the Dutch sports car maker with a dotted but none-the-less colorful history.

Company Resurrected
Founded by Muller and designer de Bruijn, Spyker Cars began in it’s new iteration and production of exclusive hand-made sports cars such as the C8 Spyder and C8 Laviolette in 1999 and 2000 was under way. The cars featured elegant Art Decoesque touches such as Lamborghini-inspired scissor doors along with signature glass roofs and luxurious turned aluminum dash and hand-stitched leather accented interiors in the tradition of Bugatti, Rolls Royce and Bentley.

Spyker selected the bulletproof 400 BHP Audi 4.2 liter twin turbo V8 engine as their power plant mated with the Getrag 6-speed manual transmission propelling the cars to a top speed of nearly 190MPH.

After production of the C8 Double 12 S and C8 Spyder T In 2005, the C8 was approved to be sold in the U.S. market. At the same time, company co-founder and chief designer Maarten de Bruijn left the company to start Silvestris Aquamotive which specializes in building aluminum space frame boats.

Return to Racing
The re-launched Spyker brand also made a big splash in racing, namely in the GT categories of sports car racing and Formula One as the cars were gaining a following and interest in the upstart company grew, Spyker knocked the doors down and entered
the international racing scene at the highest levels.

In 2001, the Spyker Squadron team began utilizing the C8 Double-12R as the platform for their entry into sports car racing, namely blue ribband events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 12 Hours of Sebring and selected ALMS, ELMS and FIA GT championship events.

Name drivers for Spyker Squadron included Dutch stars such as Peter Cox, Tom Coronel and Mike Hezemans joined by other internationally known drivers like Jonny Kane, Peter Dumbreck, Alex Caffi and Ralf Kelleners, among others.

The Spyker Squadron’s debut at the 2002 12 Hours of Sebring was inauspicious as the silver and orange liveried cars had a tough go of it with one car retiring at Turn One on the first lap and the other crashing out of the event after four hours. Most embarrassingly, the team repeated its first lap retirements at Turn One in 2003, as both cars fell out soon after the greenflag parking nose to tail inside the retaining wall.

Fortunes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans were not much better with the team competing in the world’s most important motor race eight times in the GT2 class with only 5th and 9th placefinishes in 2009 and 2010 respectively to show for their efforts. To be sure, the team’s finishes would seem to be a major accomplishment given the amount of DNFs and non-classifications in the event over the previous six years; no one could begrudge the tenacious Dutch team of theirfinishing results in 2009 and 2010.

In 2006, Spyker bought the Midland F-1 Racing team, paying $106.6M for the operation and re-branding the squad the Spyker MF1 Team for the last three races of the 2006 F-1 season. The cars appeared in Dutch national sporting colors, orange with silver accents, Ferrari-supplied V8 customer engines and featuring drivers such as Adrian Sutil, Tiago Monteiro, Christian Albers, Markus Winkelhock and Sakon Yamamoto.

The Spyker team’s lone points scoring position was an eighth by Sutil at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix. The rest of the results were either non-points finishes or DNF’s which accounted for most of the team’s reputation as a mid-field contender at best.

After only 17 Grands Prix, it was announced that due to a partnership split within the team from the parent company, the Spyker MF1 Team would be sold to Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol who had ties to Spyker, and the team was rebranded as Force India. Mallya ran into some issues legal back home and the team transformed into Racing Point utilizing the famous pink livery and branding of BWT. In 2020, Lawrence Stroll who had a majority share of the Aston Martin company absorbed Racing Point and transformed it into what is now known as the Aston Martin F1 team.

While arriving onto the exotic sports car and racing scene in the early noughties with great fan fare, Spyker was not able to stay afloat against very active and more established brands and market segment competition. The brand seems little more than a novelty these days, still cool looking, fast and nimble to drive, you definitely won’t see another one going the other way up the club driveway.

This Spyker Spyder C 1245 – A partial list of notable equipment on the Spyker C8 Spyder includes:
• 19-inch Aeroblade wheels
• Wide Body specification
• Limited-slip differential
• AP Racing brakes
• “Whisper mode” exhaust system
• Removable soft top
• Xenon headlights
• Quilted leather upholstery
• Turned aluminum interior trim
• Gear shifter with exposed linkage
• Air conditioning