Spyker D8 to return in 2014

Spyker is set to unveil a revised D8 Peking to Paris super-SUV at next year’s Geneva motor show, eight years after the original concept appeared at the Swiss expo.

The Dutch sports car maker is putting new impetus behind the ‘P2P’ project after forging a joint venture with Chinese company Youngman. Spyker contributed the intellectual property rights and technology of the P2P, while Youngman has invested €25 million (£21.8m) to finish the project.

Spyker chief Victor Muller told Autocar, “The engineering has been done, but we need to build the tools and put the car into production.”

Muller estimates there is potential to sell up to 1000 examples of the premium 4x4, predominantly in emerging markets like China and Russia.

“No one has put in the marketplace a mid-engined supersports vehicle with four doors and four-wheel drive,” he added. “The P2P will be very usable, but it will be a beast.”

Spyker will turn its attention to the P2P after it has signed off the B6 Venator, the 375bhp V6-powered, Porsche 911-sized sports car it showed at Geneva this year ahead of a market launch in 2014. The development of the smaller car has been one of the motivating factors behind the design refresh of P2P.

Spyker will outsource the build of the B6. The firm’s current model, the Spyker C8 Aileron, is built at its Zeewolde HQ, but with the new, less costly model expected to sell in larger numbers, it doesn’t have sufficient capacity there.

Muller wouldn’t be drawn on the identity of the partner, although it has an existing technical tie-up with Lotus Engineering. “We really need to have very high-quality craftsmen that understand how to build a car, so we will probably end up in Germany or in England,” he said. 

An open-top B6 Venator Spyder will be unveiled at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance later this month.