At the Geneva Motor Show, I chatted with both Spyker CEO Victor Muller and Christian von Koenigsegg, Spyker's freshly announced engine supplier to talk about the specifications, future collaborations and their plans in general.

But the first thing you need to know is that the silver Spyker lettering on the displayed engine was hand-painted by Koenigsegg. Apparently, he didn't like it in base orange and grabbed a brush with a can of paint just before the show. Talk about hand-crafted!

A Koenigsegg original Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Needless to say, Victor Muller could have not been happier. His 50 Preliator coupés are all sold out, and now, he had to tell his customers that their cars will be delayed by nine months, only so they can be supplied with Koenigsegg V8s instead of the ancient Audi engine with a supercharger bolted on its top. That's not a bad trade, and the kind of news that made his new Preliator convertibles even more desirable in an instant.

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Mr. Muller told me he never liked the supercharger's whining noise, and has been looking into a partnership with five different engine suppliers in his quest to find Audi's replacement.

Koenigsegg won the competition with flying colors, and as Spyker moves towards building its SUV using the very same V8, Victor Muller is already fantasizing about the time when his cars can get Koenigsegg's Freevalve cylinder heads as well. Either way, this is an absolute game-changer for the Dutch supercar company.

Spyker's main man believes 600 is a very conservative horsepower estimate and his engine is basically the same as Koenigsegg's own V8s, except for being naturally aspirated without any bits made out of "meteorite" like in a Regera. Plus, his version gets linked to a six-speed manual with an exposed linkage, of course.

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Christian von Koenigsegg was a bit more specific:

So basically, for us to have time to do this and resources, since we're a small company, we only change what we have to change, and remove what we have to remove to make it work. So, it's over-engineered for their needs, because the structure can take 1500 horsepower and they're having 600. So, basically they have the same crank, connecting rods, camshafts, cylinder heads…but we changed what we needed to. The dry-sump lubrication, the exhausts, the intake for normal aspiration, bumping up the compression ratio, and the injectors are smaller because there's no need for that kind of flow. We maintain the dual injectors not because they're really needed, but because it makes it easy for us because we're used to controlling dual injectors, and at the same time, with duals, the injectors can be super small, which means super accurate, so we turn it into a benefit, even though it's an extra cost you might not need. And of course are engines are bulletproof with 1360 horsepower, our customers don't kill engines, so that engine will last for I don't know…200 years or something. All this means they're paying a little bit of a premium for the engine because they're getting stuff they don't need, but it makes it easier for us, and they get a jewel of an engine. With this optimized engine for natural aspiration, from five liters, we get 600 horsepower at 8000 rpm. A beautiful setup for the car.



Máté Petrány/Road&Track

For Spyker's customers, that "little bit of premium" is certainly a no brainer in exchange for a bespoke engine by Koenigsegg. When asked whether he'll continue to expand their portfolio and share their technologies, Christian had this to say:

Our main focus is getting our own cars to the highest level and deliver them to the waiting customers as soon as possible. At the same time, we are developing so many systems, technologies, electronic platforms and Freevalve engines, this and that. And to only develop those things for twenty cars a year? Well, we can make that work. We have a good business with that. But it's a bit of a shame not to let others use the technology, to make it come to use in a bigger picture. And it's also potential income for the company of course, improving economic spread. We are kind of at the beginning, but in the long term, it should make sense. Because if we have a software or an electronic circuit board or something, that's so easy to produce thousands of…or hundreds of thousands of. It doesn't make any difference, you just put a different number into the machine, or copy paste the software more times, so, why only put that technology into 20 cars a year? From that point of view, I would say yeah, we'll probably see more of these. We're collaborating with more and more other car manufacturers as well. Of course our smaller friends like Spyker and so on who don't have the technology, we're happy to share with them. We think the world is still a big place, we're not competitors with Spyker at all, and not even with companies similar to us, like Pagani or Bugatti. I almost don't see them as competitors, because we all sell out our cars, so it's not like we're fighting over the customers. So, we can help each other, basically.



Sounds like a plan!

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

Máté Petrány/Road&Track

A naturally-aspirated V8 revving to 8000, connected to a six-speed manual in a car looking as special as a Spyker. That's a real thing now.

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