Design

Regardless of the angle from which you view the Spyker, you will see that its proportions are perfectly balanced: the long overhang at the nose and the short rear section of the car give it a powerful stance. The relation between the wheelbase, the overhangs, the width of the front and rear of the car - which is a fraction wider - and the height of the car give the Spyker a dynamic, powerful elegance.

The design of the Spyker underlines the car's performance potential, but does so without any extrovert features distracting the eye. This almost architectural purity of the design gives the car a clean shape that represents the essence of the Spyker experience.

Air tubes
Only design features that have a proper function have a right to be on a Spyker. This means that the beautifully hand-crafted aluminium air tubes in the flanks of the car - and in the roof, in case of the C8 Laviolette and the C8 Double12 S - are there for a purpose; they feed cool air into the engine and to the brakes. But they also form visual highlights to the shape of the body of the Spyker, subtly sticking through the skin of the car, and are reminiscent of modern air jet fighters.

Similarly, the subtle 'gills' in the front and rear wings of the car are not mere design gadgets; they actually withdraw hot air from the brakes and the engine bay.

Mirrors
Designing is about manipulating volumes to create lines, not creating lines that make up volumes. Take, for instance, the mirrors of the Spyker. Rather than shaping a block of clay in which any line could be the line, we took a bent tube of aluminium. One side was squashed to create an oval where it is attached to the door skin. The other end was sliced at an angle which resulted in another oval: this became the mirror side. The lines resulting from working with bespoke material like these are a natural consequence.

Awards Spyker C8 Spyder
The blistering performance of the Spyker C8 Spyder and its unique design features have attracted massive attention in the media. Thanks to this excellence, it won the 2000 award for engineering excellence granted by the Institute of Vehicle Engineers when it was unveiled at the British Motor Show on 18 October 2000.

The Spyker C8 Spyder was voted ‘Best New Exotic Car 2006 by duPont Car Registry’s Exotic Car Buyers Guide in September 2005. The car was chosen from well over 100 other exotic cars.

Other awards and achievements
In November 2004 the International Photography Awards 2004 (The Lucie Awards) recognized Spyker’s Dutch photographer Stefan Ammerlaan with two Professional Honorable Mentions in the categories Advertising (Automotive) and Fine Art (Book) for his submitted series of five Spyker C8 photographs. These awards are one of the highest and most prestigious awards of the creative industry honouring the greatest achievements in photography.

In November 2005 the Spyker C8 Spyder was chosen by the glossy luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report as one of its Ultimate Gifts for its 22nd annual December Ultimate Gift Guide.
The Robb Report Ultimate Gift Guide features 21 Extraordinary Gifts only and several once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, representing a record value of more than $750 million.

In January 2006 Spyker was chosen as the “Luxury Sports Car of the Year” by the members of China’s 3rd largest portal and Asia’s leading instant messenger QQ.com. Furthermore, the leading Chinese publication Hurun Report (Chinese equivalent of, for instance, the Fortune 500) awarded Spyker with a second place on its list of “Favourite Sport Cars” in Beijing.