What about Spyker's GT programme?

[old man]

Originally Posted by GTfour

However,it warms the hart to hear that Peter Kox is selflessly putting in the hours to help improving the cars.

Selflessly? I guess he will require a few Euros per day

[minimangler]

Originally Posted by old man

Selflessly? I guess he will require a few Euros per day

the man's gotta live!

[GTfour]

Originally Posted by old man

Selflessly? I guess he will require a few Euros per day

True,however Spyker at the moment will not be able to fork out the cash for a full on developmentprogramme like,for instance,Reiter engineering did for their Lambo R-GT.
I think Kox is partially paid in dutch pride...

[Zytek_Fan]

Originally Posted by Paddy_NL

I thought Spyker was working on a new car too (?)

I think they said they were going to make drastic improvements to the current car...which is good

[Marcel ten Caat]

The Speedy Racing site mentions "a surprise for 2008 will be announced in an upcoming press release".

Meanwhile Jonny Kane is getting close to a seat at Embassy Racing, according to Autosport.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Stranger

Meanwhile Jonny Kane is getting close to a seat at Embassy Racing, according to Autosport.

I was hoping that that was the case ..... excellant news indeed .

Now we just need Kevin McGarrity in the car beside him !!!

[dxk1]

The Spykers ran very well at Interlagos and it would be a shame to lose them for the future. Now, having a Spyker involved in ALMS as well would be the best of both worlds.

DK

[TWK]

Originally Posted by GTfour

I think we may be lucky allready if we see the Spyker crew competing next year. The financiall blow the factory has to deal with after the F1 debacle,will mean that only a few modifications will be made to the GT2 car.

However,it warms the hart to hear that Peter Kox is selflessly putting in the hours to help improving the cars.

Ah, the other way 'round. The financial mess is with the auto production, not the F1 adventure. Always has been. (You really do have to sell a few cars - sooner or later - to be a car company.)

[GTfour]

"Ah, the other way 'round. The financial mess is with the auto production, not the F1 adventure. Always has been. (You really do have to sell a few cars - sooner or later - to be a car company.)"

Naturally,this is a cows logic. However,if one followed the history of the "new" Spykercompany,one can clearly see that before the F1 debacle,cars were finally beginning to sell and revenues of that were coming in.
Tragically,it was the airheaded attitude of CEO Victor Muller who,as soon as the first profits were coming in,ran to the stock market and dived into F1.

I sencirely hope that the current heads of the company will keep their feet firmly on the ground when it comes to investing in this great mark.
Thus spending money on their GT campaign to make a solid name instead of waisting money in Bernie´s circus...

[paul-collins]

Can someone please translate and illuminate this?

http://www.spykercars.com/download/i..._investors.pdf

I get that there seems to have been a recent article that they say is erronous, and that Victor Muller is no longer part (never was?) of the new investment group (ACI)? Does anyone know what numbers were recently reported, that they claim were wrong?

[Stephan2738]

My English is not very good but i will try:


Spyker is looking for investors to refinance the operation.

In a Dutch newspaper there was an article about this issue. It stated that Spyker was in negotiation with an investor, named ACI Ltd. It is said in the article that this company wants to buy the majority of the Spyker stocks. The article also stated that under guidance of Victor Muller there were 14 Spyker cars sold on international auto shows recently.

In the article you mention Spyker makes a statement about the Newspaper article:

It is true that Spyker is in negotiation with a number of investors and that ACI Ltd. is one of them. It is not known by Spyker that this or any company wants to buy the majority of the Spyker stocks. They signed a letter of intention with this company for refinancing the Spyker car devision but nothing is secured yet. Victor Muller does not want to sell his share in the Spyker company. Sales have increased over the last two months but the figures (14 cars) mentioned in the newspaper are not correct. Spyker will tell more about this subject after they totally closed and administrated all the details of the sale of the F1 team. This statement about how many cars are built and sold will be published on short notice.

Spyker, in oktober, said they expected to make and sell 20 cars in the last quarter of 2007. That's more or less the same amount they built in the first 9 months of 2007. In 2006, before the F1 involvement, they built nearly 100 cars.

I hope that answers your questions.

Kind regards,

Stephan

[paul-collins]

Dank U wel Stephane.

[Garp]

To Mr. Collins,

The article you are refering to stated the following:
Spyker claimed to make a profit in 2006 of Euro + 800k
After recalculations demanded by the stockbrokers watchdog, "AFM"
The profit was turned into a loss of 1.3 ml.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/autotelegraa..._.html?cid=rss

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Garp

The article you are refering to stated the following:
Spyker claimed to make a profit in 2006 of Euro + 800k
After recalculations demanded by the stockbrokers watchdog, "AFM"
The profit was turned into a loss of 1.3 ml.

http://www.telegraaf.nl/autotelegraa..._.html?cid=rss

OOPS! Those pesky possitive/negative signs

robert

[Stephan2738]

Originally Posted by Stranger

The Speedy Racing site mentions "a surprise for 2008 will be announced in an upcoming press release".

Any news yet?

[GTfour]

Originally Posted by Stephan2738

Any news yet?

I haven't found anything yet. I hope they'll find a way to fix the awkward hardtop since it still is an aerodynamic compromise.

By the way,your english seems fine to me!

[Stephan2738]

Originally Posted by GTfour

I haven't found anything yet. I hope they'll find a way to fix the awkward hardtop since it still is an aerodynamic compromise.

I don't know exactly how many Double 12's (Laviolette long wheel base it's called now i believe) are sold. If Spyker is able to build and sell 25 of these than they can homologate this model. They raced it in 2002 and 2003 at Le Mans but because they did not build and sell enough at that time they were penalized very heavy.

It showed potential though, even at that time. With the knowledge they experienced with the Spyder over the years, i think if they can run this model unpenalized it will be faster than the Spyder. It is, among other things, as you mentioned more aerodynamic than the Spyder.

Hope the refinance operation will be succesfull in such a way that there is some money left to continue GT racing!

[paul-collins]

OT: you know, I wish I had've bought the Spyker cufflinks when they had them... All the cool Spyker stuff got binned when they brought out that patchy MacGregor stuff, or the even worse Spyker F1 junk.

[GTfour]

Didn't Aston use to sell handcufs too? By the way,what were you planning on doing with these then? Adding them to your collection?

I hope the refinance plan wont rob the factory of it's "dutchness".

[Paddy_NL]

I do believe cufflinks are slightly different from handcuffs...

[GTfour]

Originally Posted by Paddy_NL

I do believe cufflinks are slightly different from handcuffs...

Sorry,my english isn't that good....

[Stephan2738]

Today i read a Dutch car magazine called Autovisie. One of their reporters shared the Spyker C8 Spyder GT2R with Kox and Hezemans in the last LMS race, the mille milhas. Their is a report about this race but also a peek into the 2008 season:

* Spyker Squadron is looking for sponsors for LMS and Le Mans in 2008, it is said that they need 2 million euro.
* The article says that it is confirmed that Speedy is again going to race one Spyker in 2008.
* Van Erp, the teamleader wants to field a long wheelbase car but that won't be possible for 2008 (no reason mentioned but probably homologation issues, still not 25 sold i guess).
* For 2008 Spyker will use an evolution of the chassis, they also focus on mechanical downforce. In order to create more downforce the diffuser will be changed. If they succeed the rearwing can be set flatter and that will bring more topspeed, still with the same amount of downforce.
* They are trying to convince the A.C.O. to let them change the fire order of the V8 cilinders. If they are allowed to do so than they can use an other type of crankshaft which gives more power and yet will give an increase in durability.
* They also want to use a new motormanagement system in order to make fuel consumption better.
* Furthermore they want to use a new tractioncontrol system (maybe they kept that out of the F1 deal Since Force India is not allowed to use that in 2008 anyway)

Best wishes!

Stephan

[ger80]

Originally Posted by Stephan2738

* They are trying to convince the A.C.O. to let them change the fire order of the V8 cilinders. If they are allowed to do so than they can use an other type of crankshaft which gives more power and yet will give an increase in durability.

Change the fire order? But that will have an impact on the loved engine sound...

[Stephan2738]

From a recent pressrelease from Spykercars: "Zeewolde, The Netherlands - 10 December 2007 - Spykercars N.V., the Dutch manufacturer of exclusive premium sportscars, announces that it has entered into exclusive negotiations with Snoras group of Vilnius, Lithuania, an affiliate of the Convers Group of Moscow, Russia, for the refinance of its operations".

If the two parties can reach an agreement that would mean a very nice Christmas gift for Spyker:

First of all: A better financial position.
And second: The Convers Group is very motorsport minded, they sponsored the MenX Ferrari 550 at LMS and Le Mans. So they most certainly will sponsor the Spyker Racing program in 2008!

Goodluck Spyker!!

[Satorian]

Originally Posted by ger80

Change the fire order? But that will have an impact on the loved engine sound...

The Spyker's V8 sounds very "American", so I'm guessing it's a crossplane arrangement. Switching the firing pattern I assume they want to completely convert it to a flatplane, which could be expected to give better performance. The F430s sound like flatplanes for example, and I like their sound as well, so I think it's worth it.

Hey, anything making the lil' Spyker more competitive is fine with me.