by Mike Gulett –
I have never seen 8 Spykers in one place at the same time until Friday at The Paddock during Monterey Car Week.
Spyker’s identity is in its aviation heritage, dating back to when the original Spyker company produced aircraft during World War I. This influence is immediately apparent.
Spyker cars do not look like any other cars. Judge for yourself – below are some of my photos from this day.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
More photos are in the 3 slide shows below.
Summary
Article Name
Spykers of Monterey Car Week
DescriptionSpyker’s identity is in its aviation heritage, dating back to when the original Spyker company produced aircraft during World War I.
Author
Mike Gulett
Thank you for being a part of our event, Michael. We love you!
Tom Tjaarda was reading my book of the Spyker company at my shop in 2010. He called out to me to come and see this photo. Tom said that is my dad’s (John) brother Jaap Tjaarda showing off his new Spyker design of the 1908 or 1911 Spyker car and had four wheel drive, four wheel brakes and one if not the first 6 cylinder engine. He was so proud to pronounce to me that he was from a family of car designers.
Enjoy
Very cool Jeff – thanks for sharing this. I love those fenders.
Thanks Mike as I enjoy your articles and I could not find that book but I had another book photo that had a car close to the one I described with 4wd, 4wbrakes and a 8.8 liter 6 cylinder with no belt, cam bevel gear driven hydraulic torque converter for the variable speed alloy cooling fan and crank driven in block water pump. Pretty advanced.
My first experience with Spyker was when they entered the Sebring 12 Hours in the early 2000’s. I like when a company builds a road car that breaks the mold and is not of the norm but then if they go and race it… then I really LOVE it. Spyker, TVR, Morgan, Panoz, Marcos, being some of the examples.
I think that is the area where Concorso can make a name for itself–inviting one particular group of
cars that has a connection to Italy (maybe styled there but not built there) and getting a dozen or so
good examples. I would venture to say that the value of Spykers took a big jump with such a splendid dioplay–maybe $10,000 more in value than before this year’s Car Week. Maybe Intermeccanica, and other forgotten marques could have a display. Or it could be done by carrozzeria: Cars of Ghia, etc. What’s the story on the pink car with license plate something like “Just Ken”?
That’s the plan Wally! Glad you liked our display!