Specifically, the “car” I’m referring to in the headline is the new Spyker C8 Preliator XXV that will be showing its face at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, this Friday. I had a chance to see the car and to speak with the company’s CEO, Victor Muller. He broke down the economics of car week, telling me how much he’s paying to debut his company’s new car, and enlightening me on how it’s possible for there to be enough customers for so many supercar manufacturers.
Victor Muller is a fascinating person. A dutch lawyer and car-lover, he started Spyker Cars back in 1999 along with Maarten de Bruijn, who had spent years building a mid-engine sports car that the two would ultimately morph into the Spyker C8, a vehicle that revived the brand name of an old Dutch carriage and aircraft company that went out of business in the 1920s. I’ve got a review of the Spyker C8 coming tomorrow, but suffice it to say: It’s a remarkable supercar whose combination of driving engagement/performance and build quality/attention to detail may be unparalleled in automotive history.
I love that car, which is why I was excited to have a chance to preview the newest Spyker model slated to make a bow at Monterey Car Week’s “The Quail.” The preview took place in a studio in Long Beach, and while I’ll show you what I saw when the embargo breaks on Friday, for now I’d like to direct you to a short Monterey Car Week Preview podcast that Victor (again, an interesting guy; I’ll talk more about that when I show the new car on Friday) was kind enough to host with me.
It was a great look at what Car Week means to car manufacturers like Spyker, and an opportunity to learn from the Dutch CEO, who has been attending this magnificent automotive celebration since 1990.
One thing I’ve been wondering about for a while is: How does it make sense that there are so many supercar companies attending events like Monterey Car Week and the Goodwood Festival of Speed? Surely there can’t be that many ultra-rich people to buy all these cars from all these companies, right?
“How many billionaires are there?” I asked Muller. “Are there too many cars for the buyers?”
“The opposite is true; there are too few cars for the buyers,” he replied, going on to say that Spyker C8s have been selling for way over MSRP, indicating more demand than volume.”The prices of these things are going up. Same thing for the Bugattis, same thing for the Koenigseggs, same thing for the Paganis. And look at the Gordon Murrays; those cars are off the charts!”
Muller clarified that, while some brands cannot make enough cars to satisfy demand, there have always been some flash-in-the-pan brands in attendance that come and go, and whose cars’ values depreciate quickly. He told me he’s probably seen 100 brands come and go from Pebble Beach, but “for [the big-name] brands there are more customers than there are cars.”
Am I surprised to hear this? A little. While I realize the income distribution in this world is getting more and more lopsided, with the middle class shrinking and the uber-rich class growing, I didn’t think there could possibly be enough demand to justify the rows and rows of supercar-makers at these events. But apparently there is.
“If you add up what we make — we’ll make 50 cars a year…Koenigsegg makes 60 cars a year…Pagani, something similar…Bugatti, a little bit more than that…it’s a total of maybe between 300 and 400 cars maybe in total…and the number of billionaires that is being added every year is higher than that. So the number of people that can actually buy one is going up.”
This socioeconomic trend, the fact that social media is able to bring the world of supercars to more people than ever, and the death of traditional car shows like the Geneva Salon have combined to make Car Week larger than life, per Muller. So large, in fact, that Spyker has decided to spend some heavy coin to launch its new model at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering. And I mean seriously heavy coin. I asked how much.
“The launch? $700,000…easily. But we’re still going, because I think it’s important that you don’t see the car just in digital form… it is a completely different experience [in real life],” Muller told me. “In order to appreciate the leather and the attention to detail and the craftsmanship that goes into a product like that, you really have to see it. So, we think that it’s still important to bring a car to an audience in order to allow them to see the product.”
Victor Muller is going to give a short speech introducing his new C8 Preliator XXV on Friday. He claims to have sold 19 of the 25 the company plans to make. “I guess that by Sunday, we’ll be sold out anyway. So I’m not there really to show people that they can buy the car, I’m actually much more interested in showing them the new way that Spyker has chosen for the future.” Muller has just seven minutes to communicate that new way to the audience at The Quail.
“You’ve got 7 minutes to tell your story,” he told me. “It’s $100,000 per minute, if you think about it…Oh my god I have to nail it for $100,000 a minute!”
Watch my full chat with Victor Muller via the podcast link above in this article. Expect more Monterey Car Week coverage, and more Spyker content later today and also tomorrow.
Yawn. Zero interest in this car or its buyers. I’m beginning to wonder whether The Autopian is jumping the shark. Stuff like this is nauseating. I used to read every article on this site, but I am getting more selective. But have fun!
If I were asked to summarize the state of the world in four words, I’d have a hard time coming up with a better four than this.
The Fisker of the Netherlands.
Fijne avond!
“He told me he’s probably seen 100 brands come and go from Pebble Beach, “
… with Spyker being one of them given the company’s previous bankruptcies.
LOL
What bothers me most is the wealth inequality.
What bothers me second most is all the fuckers buying these amazing cars to never drive them, at least not in earnest.
“ Surely there can’t be that many ultra-rich people to buy all these cars from all these companies, right?”
Not sure why an interview was necessary when the question is a) what cash flow or liquid net worth is necessary to purchase these cars and b) how large is the population meeting that criteria? Seems like something available online. CEO’s opinion is useful but not authoritative given that he has a buck to make
I’m curious why you didn’t spend more journalistic energy on the topic of the new cash investment. Volodomyr Nosov is involved in a company with all of the hallmark shell companies of unscrupulous dealings, and you kind of let the CEO just gloss over a magic new source of funding
In general I find the chummy interviews to be less valuable. I recommend reading and listening to Jonathan Gault’s interviews for an example of holding people accountable
Agreed. I don’t subscribe so the writers can play chums with CEOs.
Not all CEOs are evil. I found David’s discussion with RJ Scaringe during the R2 review quite interesting.
Being intentionally abrasive or antagonistic is a good way to lose interview opportunities not only for CEO’s that are considered unlikeable, but all their friends, industry contacts, and others. You don’t burn goodwill unless you’re getting something out of it.
That said, the upthread commentary about Nosov acquiring a stake in Spyker is interesting and likely would merit some investigation. And details on “How many people can afford supercars” is not hard to come by – if you assume anybody with a net worth in the 9 figure range can afford one, then the number of potential purchasers is 10,000 to 100,000 within the US alone, assuming a supercar costs a megabuck and people are comfortable spending 1% of their net worth on one.
So, in my opinion, as a reader and occasional writer: Should Tracy have antagonized Muller? Not particularly, though there are lots of ways to ask questions that are not antagonistic while still providing meaningful response. Should there have been better investigative reporting on Spyker specifically and the market for supercars in general? Absolutely.
Thoughtful comment but I don’t think I suggested any abrasive or antagonistic behavior
This is just a preview of Pebble Beach, which we were going to do anyway. We had a few minutes with Victor and pulled him in to talk about Pebble Beach; I found his perspective quite interesting
As for Volodomyr Nosov, I met him, and asked him questions about his involvement with Spyker. You’ll see that discussion on Friday when I write a post about Spyker. As you’ll see, it’s a bit strange…
You yourself mention journalism in the video and then deliver lightweight journalism and content of you chumming with a CEO while he drives the conversation.
Muller has quite the shady past including insider trading, poor financial management of Spyker and Saab, and involvement with corrupt individuals such as Vladimir Antonov
Most journalists, given any time with such a suspicious company, would ask real questions in that situation
I’m happy to take someone to task when I’m digging into a particular story. In this case, I was there to see a new car, learn as much as I could about Spyker in a short amount of time, and a bonus: have a guest for our Pebble preview, with the goal of gaining insight from the automaker perspective.
RJ seems cool, so does Farley, and honestly so does Muller; that’s often a CEO’s superpower — making you enjoy chatting with them. The key, as a journalist, is to never take what someone says at face value without the appropriate skepticism. And when I write about the new car on Friday, you’ll see that.
Looking forward to the piece on Friday!
In-depth journalism takes time, I’m willing to wait. But meanwhile the content maw must be fed with something.
“that’s often a CEO’s superpower — making you enjoy chatting with them”
That also tends to be a trait of scammers and fraudsters.
These are people who are very nice and personable to your face.
But in many cases, they’ll stab you in the back and throw you under the bus if it helps their objectives.
Facts.
Spyker has not made or sold any new cars since 2012. To claim a place next to Koenigsegg, Pagani and Bugatti like mr. Muller does in this quote is very bold to say the least. I really hope that Spyker will make and sell cars again, but given the turbulent history of mr. Muller I am a little bit skeptical.
The company was at that point about as old as Pagani/Koenigsegg/VAG’s Bugatti; it had a steady sales cadence IIRC and their cars were held in similar high regard in terms of fit and finish and interior design. I’ve always wondered if Spyker could have continued to survive if it hadn’t blown hundreds of millions of dollars to tie the anchor that was Saab around its neck. At least when they bought out a shitty F1 team a few years prior they probably broke even when they dumped it a year later
Even if Saab was in reasonably good health, the fact that Spyker was making 60 cars in a good year and Saab’s breakeven point had to have been somewhere around 100,000 units a year per model probably meant it was way too big a leveling-up. And they couldn’t offer the then-existing GM based models forever so would’ve had to develop ones, and with every month’s production delay were getting closer to having to bootstrap a dealer network from scratch…
I can understand owning a very low mileage Spyker.
If I owned one, I would likely get distracted by a detail on my way to drive it. I’d be more likely to pull up a stool and stare at it than to hop in the seat and drive it. The details are everywhere and they are amazing.
I understand this: I recently told some friends I thought of Spyker’s design style as being “fast, but with extra jewelry,” and not in a gaudy or bad way. It’s adding little garnishes of art deco elegance to the modern supercar, without it being overwhelming. And because of that you absolutely can get lost picking out all the details.
Opinions certainly differ, then. When I saw one and a had a fair chance to look it over a decade and a half ago at the auto show, my impression was the opposite. It was studded with aircraft-related design details that I thought were incongruous, just short of cartoonish, and evoked the worst of 1950s jet cars.
That’s how Art works. Everyone takes something different from it, and we may or may not like it. I do, in a weird way, but I do see how it might seem incongruous.
Agreed (re Art).
Darn it why are you folks having a civilized conversation on the Internet when you could be fighting it off.
: )
I did not necessarily ‘get’ the aircraft elements, but loved the implementation. The fact that everything was made of precisely engineered metal parts was impressive, and I the more I looked the more of those details I found.