Like I said yesterday, I am going to try to stay away from the predictable Porsches all of this week. So in honor of that, here is a Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R that ran at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2006.
We all know about Spyker’s history of being a Dutch aircraft company started in the 1880s, building the Royal coach in 1898, building the world’s first four-wheel drive car in 1903, one of the world’s first cars with aerodynamic bodywork in 1919, going out of business in 1926, coming back in 1999, kinda going out of business in 2014 again, and now kinda sorta still being in business...?
We also all know that Spykers look AMAZING, sound pretty good, but aren’t necessarily the fastest cars in the world. In their defense, they don’t have to be, because they are rolling pieces of art.
The company did try to prove their quickness by going racing, but wasn’t able to win anything, their best finish being a 2nd in class in the 2005 Le Mans series, as well as in the 2008 1000km of the Nurburgring and 1000km of Silverstone. Their record at the Le Mans 24H is a 5th in class (25th overall) in 2009.
This particular #86 car driven by Dutchmen Jeroen Bleekemolen, Mike Hezemans, and Brit Jonny Kane DNF’ed in 2006.
Despite that less-than-stellar race record, the cars looked great on track, in a classic silver with orange livery. For 2006 the Spyder was fitted with a roof, adding to a sleeker silhouette.
IXO did a great job executing this model, with decals where they are supposed to be, headlights that look great, and even rolling wheels! Clearly this car is a candidate for some rolling pan-0-rama shots as pioneered by Jobjoris.
One curious detail, though, is that the correct driver names are written on the passenger side door, but on the drivers side it shows the names of the drivers of the #85 sister car (also a DNF...): Dutchmen Tom Coronel, Donny Crevels, and Brit Peter Dumbreck.
Either way it’s fun to have a piece of Dutch automotive art in my display cabinet. Shoutout to Jobjoris for sending it over from the Homeland!
