--- title: Spyker Is Back With an 800-Horsepower Hypercar Built Around a Real Manual Gearbox description: Spyker's C8 Preliator XXV is a hand-built 800 hp hypercar with a true manual gearbox, and a crypto-backed owner behind the marque's latest comeback. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-08-17T08:41:11.917Z updated: 2026-08-17T08:41:11.929Z canonical: https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/spyker-c8-preliator-xxv-manual-hypercar image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/spyker-c8-preliator-155183.webp categories: Culture content_type: Feature region: Global publication: Rich Man Magazine schema_type: Article --- Spyker has unveiled a new hypercar at The Quail during Monterey Car Week: the C8 Preliator XXV Coupe, an 800-horsepower car that tops 217 mph and, unusually for the class, keeps a true manual gearbox. There are no paddle shifters, and the only screen is a head-up display. Victor Muller, the man who keeps bringing the Dutch marque back to life, built the rest of the cabin to match, down to a signature exposed gear linkage that lets you watch the mechanism move as you change gears. The car also appears on the Concept Car Lawn at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on August 16. Spyker says this is the last of the 255 cars it has built since 2000. It has never made cars at volume, and it is not trying to start now. ## Muller Wanted a Gearbox You Shift Yourself Most cars at this power level shift for you, and faster than any human can. Spyker went the other way. The company fitted a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 rated at 800 horsepower and 1,000 Nm of torque, then paired it with a gearbox the driver works by hand. "We deliberately chose a real manual transmission, not an automated imitation," Muller said. "You decide when to shift. You feel every gear change in your hand." The rest of the interior follows the same logic. The dashboard is turned aluminum. The screw heads inside the cabin are aligned by hand so they all face the same direction, a detail no owner would notice unless someone pointed it out. Spyker builds for people who want to operate a machine, not manage one. ## Each Car Takes About 2,100 Hours to Build Spyker says a single car takes roughly 2,100 hours to build. The aluminum body sits on an in-house spaceframe redesigned for this model, and Coventry Prototype Panels in England shapes the exterior panels. Each chassis number is hand-stamped into the aluminum frame. One craftsman stitches the steering wheel using two needles at once, a process that takes about four hours. Muller describes aluminum as "a living metal that can be shaped by the hand of an experienced craftsman." The aviation heritage shows up everywhere. An aerospace-derived isogrid lattice appears in the grilles, vents, pedals, exhaust mesh and seat upholstery. There are NACA-duct air intakes, a prominent fin tail that echoes the 1919 Spyker C1 Aerocoque, and rear lights shaped like the afterburners of a fighter jet. The debut car wears a metallic Quail Green finish with rose gold flake, and the interior is trimmed in an orange-brown leather Spyker calls Tuscan Saddle. Production is limited to 25 cars, each individually commissioned. ## Spyker First Went Out of Business in 1926 Spyker has done this before, and not always with a happy ending. Brothers Hendrik Jan and Jacobus Spijker founded the company in the Netherlands in 1880 as coachbuilders, and built their first car in 1898. In 1903 Spyker produced what it says was the world's first six-cylinder, four-wheel-drive car. A Spyker raced from Peking to Paris in 1907, sponsored by Louis Vuitton, and finished second over roughly 15,000 kilometers. The company merged with the Dutch Aircraft Factory in 1914, which is where the aviation styling comes from, and adopted a motto that still runs across its cars: Nulla Tenaci Invia Est Via, for the tenacious no road is impassable. Then it failed. Spyker [first went out of business in 1926](https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/spyker-has-been-saved-again/), and the name sat dormant for decades. Muller revived it in 2000 with the C8 Spyder, a car powered by an Audi 4.2-liter V8 and known for its scissor doors, its quilted-leather-and-polished-aluminum interior, and an exposed manual gear selector working a Getrag six-speed. The C8 Laviolette, C8 Double12 and, in 2009, the C8 Aileron followed. So did more financial trouble. Hagerty, which has watched the marque for years, notes this is "not the first time in a troubled history that a Spyker revival has been promised," and Muller is once again the one leading the return. ## New Money Is Behind This Revival The difference this time is who is paying for it. The debut marks what Spyker calls a new era, funded by investment from Volodymyr Nosov, who becomes co-owner. The company has also formed a strategic partnership with W Group, a European fintech group focused on blockchain and digital infrastructure whose ecosystem includes WhiteBIT, described as the largest European cryptocurrency exchange by traffic. Spyker is clear that the crypto backing will not change the cars. The hypercars will stay analogue, the company says, and the technology will strengthen "the world around the car," meaning client experiences and a digital ecosystem rather than the driving itself. Keeping the driving purely mechanical while modernizing everything around it is the distinction Spyker is selling. ## An SUV and a Return to Racing Are Next Spyker is not stopping at one car. The company says it plans a Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris SSUV, a nod to the 1907 race, and wants to return to endurance GT3 racing. Whether the money and the timing hold is the open question that has followed Spyker for a century. For now, the C8 Preliator XXV goes on show at Pebble Beach, and it does something almost no other 800-horsepower car will let you do, which is let you shift the gears yourself. More on the marque is at [spykercars.com](https://spykercars.com). ## FAQ **Q: How much does the Spyker C8 Preliator XXV cost, and are the 25 cars sold out?** Spyker has not published a price or said how many of the 25 commissions are already taken. Each car is individually commissioned, so the figure is typically negotiated with each buyer rather than listed. **Q: How do its 800 horsepower and 217 mph compare with other hypercars?** The numbers are strong but not record-setting at the top of the market. Spyker's pitch is not outright speed but the way you drive it: a true manual gearbox and a hand-built aluminum body, where most rivals use paddle shifters and carbon fiber.