Tulips and Supercars From Holland

Filed in archive on January 24, 2006

Think "holland" and images of windmills, canals, and tulips come to mind. Maybe Gouda cheese. Or one-stop shopping in the red light district. But supercars? Naw... ! Well, think again, my friend. Inside the Robb Report pavilion at the RM Auction Phoenix event sat an eye-catching, soul-stirring, and very expensive Dutch car called the Spyker.

Automobile historians may recall that the prototype Dutch Spyker made its appearance more than 100 years ago. Then, as now, it was a sports car of great technical virtuosity, but after 25 years and a world-wide depression Spyker went out of business. It returns as a high-performance, limited-production and very expensive sports and sports-racing machine available in several derivatives.

The Spyker that I photographed in Phoenix is a C8 Spyder. The mid-mounted 4.2 liter V-8 engine comes from Audi and features four overhead camshafts, five valves per cylinder and eight injection throttle bodies. The hottest Spyker model is the 12S, which can be ordered in five tuning stages, starting with 400 hp in stage 1 and up to 620 hp in stage 5. 0-60 acceleration is 3.8 seconds. An eye-catching and practical feature is the door-opening system; the doors tilt up and forward for easier access to the cockpit.

To learn more about the Spyker, link to this enthusiast site which sets forth all the facts, or go to the official Spyker site for photos and an order form. If the price is intimidating but your interest in all things Dutch remains intact, try the cheese and tulips.