Brief History About Spyker
Spyker Cars was founded in 1999 in the Netherlands by Victor Muller and Maarten de Bruijn. However the Spyker brand name actually existed as far back as 1880 as a coachbuilder, which was started by Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker. The Spijker brothers then moved onto automobiles in 1899 and then later also merged with the Dutch Aircraft Factory N.V to work on aircraft during WW1 and then back to cars after WW1. However after the war, Spyker had financial difficulties, which led to them being taken over by a number of companies over a period of time, until it was finally made bankrupt in 1925.
The restart of the Spyker brand had little to do with the previous company other than the brand name, as can be expected with such a long period from when it was last established in 1926. The new company was set up to build an exotic supercar in the form of the C8.
In 2005 Maarten de Bruijn left to start another company. Also during the mid 2000’s the company had a roller coaster ride with share prices and investments. In 2006 Spyker bought the Midland F1 Racing Team and later changed the F1 teams name to Spyker F1, but with minimal success, sold the team in 2007. In 2007 they worked with Zagato to build the C12 Zagato concept car.
In 2010 Spyker bought Saab from GM (with GM agreeing to supply engines and other components), but Spyker quickly ran out of funds and by as early as 2011 was having financial difficulties that stopped the production of Saab cars. Spyker then tried to sell Saab to a Chinese company, but due to GM objecting to the use of their technology going to the Chinese, forced Spyker into further financial difficulties. The Saab company was then eventually sold without the GM support for its components. Spyker also had to sell some of its shares to gain a new investor and partner.
With its new investor they continued in 2013 with the introduction of the B6 Venator concept car, however with financial difficulties still causing problems they almost had to become bankrupt again in December 2014, but managed to get a reprieve from the administrators in January 2015 and then signed a partnership with Volta Volare a USA manufacturer of high performance electric aircraft, with an eye on building an electric car.
