Audi-Powered Dutch Supercar – I Spy A Spyker Spyder

2008 Spyker C8 Spyder, Sothebys, 1/26/23

Tony’s Take: “The Dutch are known for many things, but automobiles are not one of them.” Thank you Sotheby’s. And yet, from the land of windmills, clogs, Heineken beer, Edam cheese and legal hashish, comes a Dutch scissor-doored supercar powered by a 400-hp 4.2-liter Audi V8 engine: the Spyker C8 Spyder. But not just any Spyker. The first gen . . .

The C8 was Spyker’s first offering, and is the company’s most well known model. Over the course of production, the C8 has been available in hardtop and removable folding-top body styles, as well as short or long wheelbases. The C8 has been built in three distinct generations (2001-2012, 2010-2018, 2017-2021) that feature a wide range of variants available in numerous power and styling combinations.

Before going belly-up, Spyker produced numerous exciting but stillborn concepts, an F1 car and 310 aero-inspired road cars. Is the earliest model – like this one – the best? Usually the first car out of a supercar maker’s garage isn’t (e.g., the first Bugatti Veyron).

The automaker seems to have got it right out of the gate. That said, later versions traded Koni shocks for a Lotus-tuned suspension with forged aluminum bits and new mono-tube dampers. So there is that.

As implied above, hardly any two Spykers were alike. This one is blessed with seven more miles than music-loving RF’s drive from Austin to Nashville (793 miles).

Factory options: 19″ “aeroblade” alloy wheels, four dashboard air-conditioning vents ($2k AC refurb recently completed), side-window reinforcement bars, a Spyker-branded oil filler cap and an aftermarket four-spoke Spyker propeller steering wheel. Don’t forget the one-of-fifteen “periscope” side mirrors.

Setting a price on this Maserati-ish Dutch smokewagon – featured in the 2008 video game Test Drive Unlimited – seems simple enough. As always, we let history and current market conditions be our guide.

Last Three Sales

Setting the wayback machine to October 2020, a yellow C8 Spyder brought a $225k high bid. Add 40 percent for the market uptick and say yellow three times puts the car at $315k to $330k. Spyker C8 Spyders are in the extremely rare category – especially in terms of reliability and spare parts availability (thank you Audi).

This one has low-miles, decent spec and did I mention it’s yellow? For that I’m adding a significant premium. I’d see this is as a $400k car all day long, but with the market about to submerge a four in the front sounds scary. So that’s the top of my estimate. Downside: you have to watch a video to figure out how to open the door.