If TVR were to compete with any brand regarding how many times it went bust and got back to business, it would probably find a match in Spyker. Now that TVR is planning to return (again), Spyker has also released news that two Russian investors would help it make cars again.
Boris Rotenberg is a known Russian billionaire with close ties to Vladimir Putin. The former judo champion bought some football teams and is the founder of SMP Bank, which sponsors the SMP Racing team. Michail Pessis runs Milan-Morady, a customization company dedicated to making a wide variety of goods even more exclusive. There’s not much information about him around.
The fact is that they will put money in Spyker to make it produce three cars in 2022: the C8 Preliator, the D8 Peking-to-Paris SUV, and the B6 Venator. If the names sound familiar, that’s because they really are: those are vehicles Spyker already made or planned to make in the past. The D8 derives from the D12, a 2007 project. The idea is probably to start from where it stopped to get the wheels spinning. If things go well, Spyker may think about developing new vehicles.
Frequent readers of autoevolution will say that they have already read this in the past, and that’s true. On September 1, 2020, very similar plans were disclosed. Rotenberg and Pessis were to invest in Spyker. At the time, Autocar also said that the deal went sour for unknown reasons, possibly due to issues for Spyker cars to reach the U.S. with Rotenberg’s involvement with the company. The oligarch was blacklisted by the American government in 2014. They may have already been reverted, but restrictions may still stand. Whatever the problem was, it now seems to have been solved.
Being dedicated to supercars, Spyker may not feel the heat to update its cars or to present an electric version. The limited production numbers and the hefty price tags its products will bear make it a more flexible company. As long as it finally delivers anything and things finally happen as planned, fans of the Dutch brand will be okay.
The fact is that they will put money in Spyker to make it produce three cars in 2022: the C8 Preliator, the D8 Peking-to-Paris SUV, and the B6 Venator. If the names sound familiar, that’s because they really are: those are vehicles Spyker already made or planned to make in the past. The D8 derives from the D12, a 2007 project. The idea is probably to start from where it stopped to get the wheels spinning. If things go well, Spyker may think about developing new vehicles.
Frequent readers of autoevolution will say that they have already read this in the past, and that’s true. On September 1, 2020, very similar plans were disclosed. Rotenberg and Pessis were to invest in Spyker. At the time, Autocar also said that the deal went sour for unknown reasons, possibly due to issues for Spyker cars to reach the U.S. with Rotenberg’s involvement with the company. The oligarch was blacklisted by the American government in 2014. They may have already been reverted, but restrictions may still stand. Whatever the problem was, it now seems to have been solved.
Being dedicated to supercars, Spyker may not feel the heat to update its cars or to present an electric version. The limited production numbers and the hefty price tags its products will bear make it a more flexible company. As long as it finally delivers anything and things finally happen as planned, fans of the Dutch brand will be okay.