Remember Spyker? The low-volume Dutch supercar maker is responsible for building some of the most achingly beautiful performance machines of the 2000s, but fell into financial disarray in 2010 after a failed acquisition of Saab. Since then, Spyker has hovered somewhere between bankrupt and about to be bankrupt. The last anyone heard from the brand, it had secured funding from two Russian billionaires in 2022. But it’s been crickets since.
Until now, that is. The Spyker Facebook account, which has lain dormant for the last three years, just published a statement claiming the company’s founder, Victor R. Muller, has secured the rights for Spyker’s intellectual property (stuff like the brand name, badges, designs, etc.) and will get back to producing handbuilt sports cars after a drawn-out legal battle.
Here’s the announcement, which includes a statement from Muller himself:
There isn’t much detail beyond the brand wanting to build more cars, but thankfully, Dutch news site Autoweek.nl got the scoop. According to them, Muller has teamed up with SpykerEnthusiast, a Netherlands-based repair shop and used dealer that specializes in keeping Spykers on the road, to revive the company. From the report:
Perhaps the best news of all is that Jasper den Dopper, the driving force behind ‘SpykerEnthusiast’ and the only one who can keep the existing Spyker fleet running with parts and maintenance, is also involved in the reborn Spyker. Together with Muller, Den Dopper wants to build on the brand’s resurrection.
Den Dopper: “My first priority is to complete my current projects and continue to maintain all Spykers worldwide. In the meantime, ‘SpykerEnthusiast’ needs to become much more professional, and we’re working towards a future in which we’re still enthusiastic, but act more like an OEM.”
Spyker hasn’t built a production car for over a decade, but since its bankruptcy saga started, the brand has shown off a few concepts: The B6 Venator in 2014 and the C8 Preliator in 2017. There was also my personal favorite, the infamous D12 Peking-to-Paris SUV, which was unveiled in 2006 and slated for production before the company went belly-up.
One might think the reborn Spyker would simply pick up where it left off, putting these still very pretty cars into production. But that doesn’t sound like the plan, according to Den Dopper:
The reborn Spyker wants to position itself in the same way as the brand that disappeared eleven years ago, but that doesn’t mean we should expect exactly the same cars. Den Dopper: “You can’t just build a Preliator or Aileron, because those cars are simply outdated now. That’s why we really need to work on something new, possibly with suppliers from abroad.” Does that also mean Spyker will leave the Netherlands? Certainly not: “It will be a Dutch company and it will also be based in the Netherlands.”
While it’s sad to hear none of Spyker’s more modern creations won’t be built en masse, it seems like the brand is in the right hands. Design-wise, Muller and Den Popper have big shoes to fill—this is a company that’s built hit after hit, with no misses (as far as I’m concerned). Then there’s Spyker’s cabins, which remind me more of a pre-war airplane than any car. And don’t forget the funky gear selector, declared by many as the coolest shifter of all time:
Unlike Spyker’s previous revivals, this one feels far more legit. I’ve been rooting for this brand for decades, so I really hope it can start making new cars (even if my dreams of owning a Peking-to-Paris seem more dead than ever).
Top graphic image: Spyker; DepositPhotos.com
I once saw a SPYKER on the road. It was on the back of a flatbed leaving our parking garage complex. I didn’t see any other Tim Burton charterers that day.
Fun fact: Spyker made the first 4WD gasoline vehicle in 1903. This was also the first car with a 6 cylinder engine and the first with 4-wheel brakes.
The car world will be a better place with the Peking to Paris LOL
That Peking-to-Paris looks delightfully hilarious with Subaru SVX windows. Looks like a car that should be scaled down to Citroen Ami/Fiat Toppolino proportions and licensure so a kid could drive it safely
Very glad to hear this news and I wish them the best in bringing a new Spyker to the market. The C8 is one of my all time favorite cars (especially with the ‘propeller’ steering wheel) and I think if I owned a C8 and it meant that I could never have another car besides that one? I would be more than happy to have it as my Forever Car. Now I just need to scrape up 400,000 or so…
Of course, there is now the deBruyn Ferox V8 which might be more desirable and it is closer to what deBruyn wanted when he developed the Spyker C8.
“You can’t just build a Preliator or Aileron, because those cars are simply outdated now. That’s why we really need to work on something new, possibly with suppliers from abroad”
7000 pound rebodied Chinese SUVs it is then
I have never thought of any Spyker as “achingly beautiful”. They are just a mess of different shapes that happen to be on the same car.
The never-ending bullshit from Muller. Spyker was founded by Maarten de Bruijn.
“Possibly with suppliers from abroad” is corporate-speak for rebadged Chinese EVs.
Automakers never use the term “suppliers from abroad” no matter how many components are sourced from China.
The Spykers always looked like something out of a comic book – I’ll never be able to afford one, but they’re cool enough and unique enough that I’m still happy they’re coming back.
So they got the Russian Oligarchy money. I would prefer the one presented with problems corrected for todays $130,000 than a new pay R&D design model. I think Stryker is just money laundering and people will but overpriced cars and never drive them like the American version of buying Hunter Biden’s artwork that sold for big money right up until Puddinhead had the debate with Trump.
Unfortunately, what I remember from seeing a Spyker at an auto show (production? concept?) was that it had silly looking scoops all over the exterior that looked like a joke. Second worst appearing vehicle I’ve seen, after the Yousabian. Could not suppress laughing out loud on seeing that.
Whatever happens, I think we can forget about those beautiful cabins, the watchlike gauge cluster will be replaced by a screen, and they’ll be at least one more screen taking up real estate somewhere else
One of the more interesting supercar makers, would enjoy seeing them succeed.
Spyker, like Pagani, felt like their mission statement was “how do we out-Lamborghini Lamborghini?” and I always appreciated that about them. Flashy and a bit ridiculous, as a supercar should be.
Not going to lie, that top image made me thing this would be about Masserati.
Interesting news, and it certainly bears reporting, but even if it cones to fruition, it affects a couple hundred people, I would think.
I have a soft spot for Spyker, because researching Spyker for the NAPA catalog led me to my first foray into internet marque-specific car forums. I was active for many years at SpykerOwner.com and met cool people, some of whom I’m friends with to this day. I adore the modern Spykers and even sat in one once.
Victor Muller is nothing if not tenacious. But my gut instinct is to take any announcement from him with a grain of salt. I feel like this is the fourth or fifth time I’ve read of Spyker’s rebirth. Remember the deal he had with Koenigsegg for naturally aspirated engines for the Preliatror? And every time he did secure another round of funding, it always seemed like it came from a Russian billionaire with questionable ties. In my opinion, he had no business whatsoever taking over Saab (to be fair, neither did I).
I can tell you this: if a new Spyker car does come of this, it will be unique in the market, and will find buyers. Because unique sells. He’s going to have to figure out how to crack the U.S. homologation though, since history tells us about half of all Spykers sold went to the U.S.
I still get the Spyker emails so I was as surprised as anyone to get this announcement this morning. I’d love to see new Spyker cars, but I’m not holding my breath
Tenacious? You bet. On the Muller-era Spykers, the badges also had inscribed on them, “Nulla tenaci invia est via”, translated to, “For the tenacious, no road is impassable.”
It’s very unfortunate that the timing of his attempt to save Saab turned out the way that it did, but at least it gave the Saab a few more years of life and got the final 9-5s and 9-4x out the door, even if in limited numbers.
For shifter lovers, the Porsche Boxster prototype (1993) had a gorgeous one, too:
https://cdn.abcmoteur.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/porsche-boxster-concept-19.jpg
I hope they make it. Their cars were so pretty.
Oh god the C8 with that crazy steering wheel is such a beaut.