Spyker has unveiled the C8 Preliator XXV Coupé at The Quail during Monterey Car Week, an 800-horsepower hypercar with a hand-built aluminum body and a conventional manual gearbox. Production is limited to 25 cars, each individually commissioned. The company describes it as an entirely new model rather than a revision of an existing one, built on an in-house spaceframe redesigned specifically for this car.
Power comes from a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 producing 800 hp and 738 lb-ft (1,000 Nm), with a quoted top speed above 217 mph. The gearbox is a true manual with no paddles or automated alternative offered. That approach carries into the cabin, where the only screen is a head-up display and the remaining controls are physical.
Packaging changes underneath include moving the fuel tank out of the sills into a trapezoidal space behind the seats and ahead of the engine, a layout Spyker previously used on its Le Mans cars. The rear trunk has been relocated entirely to the front. In its place is what Spyker calls butterfly mode, in which the whole car opens at the push of a button, an arrangement that required the engine bay to be finished to the same standard as the rest of the car.
Every exterior panel is shaped by hand in aluminum by Coventry Prototype Panels in England, a supplier Spyker has worked with for years. The company says each car takes roughly 2,100 hours to build. The steering wheel is stitched by a single craftsman using two needles at once over four hours, the turned aluminum dashboard is milled by a workshop that has finished automotive parts since the 1880s, and the screw heads inside the cabin are aligned by hand to face the same direction. Chassis numbers are hand-stamped into the aluminum spaceframe. The car shown at The Quail is chassis 270, which Spyker identifies as the last of 255 cars built since 2000, finished in metallic Quail Green with rose gold flakes, rose gold brightwork, and orange-brown leather the company calls Tuscan Saddle.
Aviation references run through the design. The C8 Preliator XXV Coupé uses NACA ducts for its air intakes, and the fin tail, which first appeared in subtler form on the 2006 Spyker D12 Peking-to-Paris, returns as a prominent element referencing the 1919 Spyker C1 Aerocoque. The headlights carry the XXV name and the taillights are shaped after fighter jet afterburners. An isogrid lattice of interlocking triangles, a structure originally developed for rockets, appears in the grilles, vents, pedals, exhaust mesh, and seat upholstery. The exposed gear linkage carries over as a Spyker signature.
Spyker was founded in the Netherlands in 1880 by brothers Hendrik Jan and Jacobus Spijker as coachbuilders, building its first car in 1898. In 1903 the company produced what it says was the world’s first six-cylinder four-wheel-drive car, shown in London and Paris, and in 1907 a Spyker finished second in the Peking to Paris race over roughly 9,300 miles (15,000 km) with sponsorship from Louis Vuitton. The company merged with the Dutch Aircraft Factory in 1914 and has used the motto Nulla Tenaci Invia Est Via since. Preliator is Latin for warrior.
The reveal follows an investment from Volodymyr Nosov, who becomes co-owner of the marque, and a strategic partnership with W Group, a European fintech company specializing in blockchain and digital infrastructure whose WhiteBIT exchange serves more than 40 million users across 150 countries. Spyker says the partnership will support client experiences and digital infrastructure rather than change the cars themselves, which will remain analog. The company lists the Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris SSUV and a return to endurance GT3 racing among its next steps.
Following its debut at The Quail, the C8 Preliator XXV Coupé appears on the Concept Car Lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 16.
