The Spyker Silvestris V8 is a Dutch

mid-engine In automotive engineering, a mid-engine layout describes the placement of an automobile engine in front of the rear-wheel axles, but behind the front axle. History The mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive format can be considered the original layout of ...

sports car introduced in 1999 as a prototype for what would later become the Spyker C8. The Silvestris was the first new model from Spyker since it declared bankruptcy in 1929 and it hailed a return of the once prestigious brand. The Silvestris was hand built by

Maarten de Bruijn Maarten de Bruijn (born 1965) is a Dutch engineer. Born in Naarden, he graduated in 1996 at University of Amsterdam with master's degree in City Planning. 1990-1996 he single-handed designed, constructed and made functional prototype Spyker Silv ...

, co founder of Spyker, and it debuted at the 1999

Goodwood Festival of Speed The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in late June o ...

. The car is reportedly still owned by de Bruijn.

Performance

The Silvestris is powered by a 3,562 cc (3.5 L) Audi DOHC V8 producing . Power is sent to the rear wheels through an Audi sourced 5-speed

manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...

. The Silvestris is built on a basic central

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

made from galvanized sheet metal, with a tubular frame in the front and back, and features

scissor doors Scissor doors (also called flap doors, wing doors, beetle-wing doors, turtle doors, switchblade doors, swing-up doors, upswing doors, Lamborghini doors, and Lambo doors) are automobile doors that rotate vertically at a fixed hinge at the front o ...

. The car can do in 4.5 seconds and is claimed to be able to reach .

History

The Silvestris is the brainchild of

, a town and country planner with experience in metal working. De Bruijn's dream was to start his own sports car factory, which led him to create the Silvestris. Before beginning on the project De Bruijn purchased all of the rights to the Spyker brand and logo for use on his car. The car debuted at the 1999

and was met with many positive reactions, notably from car collector and entrepreneur

Victor Muller Victor Roberto Muller (born September 13, 1959) is a Dutch businessman, founder of Spyker Cars, CEO of Spyker N.V., and former Chairman and CEO of Saab Automobile AB. Education and early career Muller studied law at Leiden University. After gr ...

. Muller provided financial backing to bring the concept to production, becoming co-founder of the now reborn

Spyker Cars Spyker Cars (, ) is a Dutch sports car marque. The modern Spyker Cars held the legal rights to the brand name. The company's motto is "''Nulla tenaci invia est via''", Latin for "For the tenacious, no road is impassable". The marque's logo d ...

alongside De Bruijn. With Muller's funding the Silvestris was developed into the Spyker C8 which debuted in 2000, a car which shared some styling cues and functional elements with the prototype but had undergone substantial changes in a variety of areas.

References

External links

* http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/tenacious-spyker-no-impassable-roads {{Spyker Cars Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles Sports cars Spyker vehicles Coupés Cars introduced in 1999 Concept cars First car made by manufacturer Individual cars