You haven’t forgotten about Spyker Cars, have you?
Well, you’d be forgiven for doing so so, because the sports car manufacturer has remained veiled in mystery for the past few years thanks to a convoluted series of financial woes and vaporware concept vehicles.
Spyker revealed the B6 Venator at the Geneva Motor Show in 2013. The concept vehicle was a drop-top with a 375-horsepower V6 and six-speed automatic transmission. That model never made it to production because the company went bust. After multiple rumored “savior” companies declined to pick up the Dutch automaker, finally a U.S. electric aircraft company, Volta Volare, came to Spyker’s rescue.
Since then, the brand has apparently been at work on what it will reveal at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the C8 Preliator. Fans of the brand will recall that the C8 name has been used before on the C8 Spyder, Laviolette, Double, and Aileron. The latter was powered by an Audi-sourced V8 ponying up 400 hp and 354 pound-feet of torque.
Spyker’s claim to fame is its intricate, handmade interior designs and fanciful exterior styling. No doubt these elements will remain central to the new C8 Preliator, but don’t expect a naturally-aspirated V8 under the hood now that Volta Volare is in charge.
Much more likely is an all-electric powertrain with plenty of juice to maintain Spyker’s performance credentials but a much softer (read: silent) soundtrack. Considering prices for the last production Spyker crested the $200,000 mark, expect the Preliator, with its more-expensive-to-engineer EV powertrain, to meet or exceed that quote.
Spyker’s attention to lightweight construction may actually be one of the better construction philosophies for an electric setup, where heavy batteries tend to offset acceleration potential. Carbon fiber and aluminum were used generously on previous models, and with solid financial backing, will surely appear on the Preliator concept. We’ll learn all there is to know in just three weeks, so stay tuned.
