Spyker, the famous Dutch car manufacturer with its rich automotive and aeronautical heritage dating back to 1898, is proud to be back at Sebring after its debut here in the 2002 edition of the 12hrs.
The factory team Spyker Squadron has entered a Spyker C8 Double12 R (S/N 009) for the opening race of the new sports car season. S/N 009 ran at Le Mans in 2002 and had to retire after 14 hours and 23 minutes due to an engine failure.
Victor Muller Spyker CEO comments: “In the 2002 season we tested the C8 Double12 R at Sebring and Le Mans. The results were very encouraging indeed. We have learned tremendously from the experience gathered last year and our 2003 cars have benefited there from in every possible aspect of the car. Unfortunately we are still running with heavy penalties: a15% smaller restrictor and 70 kilos of ballast. Since under the 2003 regulations the restrictions of all GT Class cars were reduced by 10% we found that in order to generate sufficient power out of our 4.0 litre engines we had to use the 1150 kilo restrictor. Our cars weighing a mere 1109 kilos therefore had to be weighted by 41 kilos and with the penalty kilos added, the car weighs 1220 kilos with restrictors which are approximately the same size as those of the 1100 kilo cars without penalties. During today’s qualifying German race driver Norman Simon, Spyker’s # 1 factory driver, clocked the car at 2:12:520, finishing 21st in class and 49th overall.
Norman Simon: "We have made a lot of progress in the past months. We are 2 ½ seconds quicker than last year at Sebring with a 10% smaller restrictor. We have successfully worked towards the best set-up for this unusually heavy track for suspension and chassis. There is, however, still a vast, untapped, potential in the car, which we will develop prior to the Le Mans test days early May".
Simon partners S/N 009 at Sebring with Dutch race veteran Hans Hugenholtz and Belgian Patrick van Schoote, a San Diego resident.
Hugenholtz, a partner in Spyker Cars, said: “Our sole objective is to finish this race and gain more experience in the process. We have entered two cars for Le Mans 2003 and will enter cars at Miami and Petit Le Mans in the ALM Series this year. Moreover, a privateer will enter a car in the French FFSA championship and discussions are ongoing with a number of interested parties in the USA. In order to prove what a Spyker C8 Double12 R is capable of
without penalties we entered a car last October in the French GT Championship at Magny
Cours. We came in second, 0,4 seconds behind a Ferrari 360 GT in spite of the car still being in LeMans specs”.
Spyker expects to lose the majority of its penalties by 2004 when the production and homologation of the C8 Double12 S has progressed substantially.