Spyker
Spyker NV, formerly Spyker Cars and Swedish Automobile, is a modern Dutch sports car brand that owns all legal rights to the traditional brand name. The company motto is Nulla tenaci invia est via, “For the tenacious no road is impassable.” The brand logo displays an airplane rotary engine, an allusion to the previous Spyker company as an aircraft manufacturer. To stave off bankruptcy, Swedish Automobile in September 2011 announced the sale of Spyker to North Street Capital; however, that transaction did not transpire, and the future of Spyker is very much in doubt.
Since Victor Muller and Maarten de Bruijn reincarnated the company in 1999, Spyker has built the C8 Spyder, Laviolette, and Aileron exclusive sports cars. The C8 uses an eight-cylinder, 4,172-cubic centimeter Audi engine with 400 horsepower, 0 to 60 acceleration in 4.5 seconds, and a top speed of 190 miles per hour. In July 2005, Spyker reported official approval of the C8 for sale on the American market.
From 2002 to 2006, Spyker built the C8 Double 12 S with five levels of performance, Stages I (400 horsepower) through V (620 horsepower), depending on customer preference. From 2003 to 2007, Spyker built with Cosworth the C8 Spyder T with two turbochargers capable of 525 horsepower and a 0 to 60 acceleration in 4.0 seconds. In 2006, Spyker built the C12 La Turbie with a twelve-cylinder engine of 500 horsepower with 0 to 60 acceleration of under 4.0 seconds.
In 2007, Spyker produced the C12 Zagato based on the C12 La Turbie but with better body construction, faster speeds, and the Zagato trademark roof bubble, perhaps the most exclusive Spyker car yet. The C12 Zagato develops 493 horsepower from its Volkswagen W12 engine that accelerates its 3,263 pounds from 0 to 60 in 3.8 seconds and attains a top speed of 195. Anti-lock braking is by steel ventilated discs. The automatic five-speed transmission features a torque converter. Spyker says the shift from the manual gearboxes on the Spyker C8 is per customer demand and that the Aileron model will have a similar automatic gearbox.
In September 2006, Spyker bought out the Midland F1 team, which competed in the final three 2006 season races as Spyker MF1. In 2007, the team competed as Spyker F1 using Ferrari engines but had minimal success, suffering multiple retirements before its first and only point in Japan. At the end of the season, Spyker sold the team to an Indian consortium, which renamed it as Force India.
In November 2009, Spyker announced that it would move production from Zeewolde to Coventry for assembly in partnership with CPP Manufacturing. UK production began in February 2010.
In 2009 and 2010, Spyker sold the C8 Laviolette LM85, a special edition with orange paint, black wheels, and many track-ready enhancements. In 2009, the Spyker C8 Aileron with the same power output as the C8 Spyder and C8 Laviolette but with updated technology and manufacture appeared at auto shows. Spyker currently has two production models, the Spyker C8 Aileron and the Spyker C8 Aileron Spyder. The C8 Spyder is the original base model with the Audi 4,172-cubic centimeter V8 engine.
The Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris is a luxurious, four-door, high-performance sports utility concept car introduced at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show as the D12 renamed the D8 after a change in its proposed engine from twelve to eight cylinders. The model name refers to a 1907 endurance rally in which a Spyker car participated and finished second after a three-month drive. The car has design features from the C8.
Annual sales were highest at 94 in 2006 of 290 cars sold between 2000 and 2010. Spyker had 166 full-time employees in 2007, 37 in 2012.
