Spykerenthusiast does what Spyker himself failed to do. Making the B6 Venator driving and we can drive.
A little introduction is in order before you read the story below from Autoblog-Spyker correspondents Robert van den Oever and Maarten van der Pas. They have been following the Spyker brand and the business worries for us for years since the factory in Zeewolde no longer produces. They have even written two books about Spyker. and now they have found a unique piece of Spyker history for us. Below the story!
Spykerenthusiast
What Spyker never got around to due to lack of money, Spykerenthusiast managed to do: to further develop the concept model of the Spyker B6 Venator into a driving car. After two years of hard work and a lot of self-inventing, the Venator is complete. Now Spykerenthusiast shows the B6 Venator to the world and Autoblog is the first to drive it.
“The B6 Venator was a hastily put together show model and was anything but a moving car. I had to reconstruct and engineer a lot', says Jasper, aka Spykerenthusiast, about his work. He only wants to be called Spykerenthusiast by his first name and his company name.
'There was a motor with gearbox in the Venator, but it never ran. That was not possible, because the car had no gas tank. Even a cover for the tank was missing. Spyker's signature gear lever didn't work. It was welded in and only there for show. Working brakes were missing.'
Showmodel
For those who are less familiar with the history of Spyker, first go back in time. Spyker first showed the concept version of the B6 Venator to the public at the Geneva Motor Show in spring 2013. That was the (closed) gray coupé version. A few months later in August, Spyker CEO Victor Muller introduced the (open) red spyder variant at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in the United States.
Victor Muller unveils the Spyker B6 Venator coupé version at the Geneva Motor Show in 2013According to Spyker's specs at the unveiling, the B6 Venator is a compact, lightweight car with an aluminum chassis and carbon fiber body. The transverse V6, centered behind the seats, is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission and delivers 375 horsepower to the rear wheels.
The open Spyker B6 Venator Spyder that was shown to car enthusiasts at Pebble Beach in 2013Incidentally, the Venator in Pebble Beach was the same car as in Geneva. Spyker had little money and time and simply removed the roof of the coupé, painted the car in a different color and with some optical adjustments the open version was ready. So in the end there is only one B6 Venator: this red convertible. 'Venator' is Latin for hunter.
Making driving
Due to financial problems at Spyker and a barely averted bankruptcy in the period 2014-2015, Spyker itself never managed to make the Venator ready for production, let alone to start serial production. At the end of 2016, Spykerenthusiast bought the show car with the idea of making it driving. At that time he already owned several other Spykers. His first was a C8 Spyder with one of the first chassis numbers.
Jasper set to work with his technical background and access to a workshop and plenty of automotive connections. During the further development of the B6 Venator, he encountered many obstacles. Or rather, the lack of even the most essential parts. “The B6 Venator was originally an Artega, but Spyker had pretty much taken all the technology out of it. There was no wiring harness, no fuse box, and not a single switch worked.'
The Spyker B6 Venator after restoration and fully in running condition.
Artega was a small German sports car brand that went bankrupt in 2012. Although never officially confirmed, Spyker has bought an Artega and B6 Venator is based on it. The silhouette of the two cars is indeed very similar, something motoring journalists noticed immediately after the unveiling in Geneva. The Artega GT contained a VR6 engine from Volkswagen with 300 hp.
Spyker had made the B6 Venator “only” as a show model with only attention to the appearance. Jasper explains: 'The screen in the dashboard did provide an image, but there was no computer behind it. It was just a picture frame. The roll bar was plastic. I had to develop it all over again, because the Artega didn't have one, because it was a coupé and not a convertible.' A sturdy, safe and protective roll bar was added. That took a lot of puzzle and calculation work. But that was precisely the challenge for Spykerenthusiast: see if it works.
Another challenge were the headlights. When he bought the car, there were no headlights in it. Spyker had used it to build the Spyker C8 Preliator from 2016, the intended successor to the C8 Aileron. There were no more copies, so Spykerenthusiast scanned the dimensions of the headlights and 3D printed them.
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Making the technology work was the next challenge for Spykerenthusiast. “Running the engine wasn't that difficult, but connecting all the functions was. The DSG automatic transmission that belongs to the 3.6 liter VR6 Volkswagen engine had to be connected to the characteristic Spyker shift lever. Then the forward and backward movement had to be translated into actions in the gearbox. And don't forget additional (safety) functions, such as stepping on the brake to be able to take the bucket out of P position. Logical, but if that's not the case, you'll have to make it yourself. This also applied to the functions on the dashboard: 'If the box is in, for example, P or N, then exactly those lights must light up on the dashboard. That didn't work either, but I got it all done.”
The bodywork was a different story. The purple-red paint had been applied too hastily, making it not nearly perfect up close, far from perfect. “Because of the speed, the paint hadn't dried properly, leaving water in the carbon body parts. Over time, that finds its way out, even through the paint. That's why bubbles had formed in the paint. So the paint job had to be done from scratch', says Jasper.
The Venator is complete and running, but the car remains a prototype. Spykerenthusiast does not want to go faster than 80 kilometers per hour by car. “It can easily go over 200 kilometers per hour, but because of safety I don't want to go that far. Because it is originally a coupé, the A-pillars in the current open form are not strong enough to absorb the car during a roll. I didn't do any strength calculations on that, so that puts limitations.'
Mark of new period
For Spyker, the B6 Venator marked a new period in its existence. At the beginning of 2013, Spyker had left the debacle with the takeover and bankruptcy of Saab behind and it was back to what it was before: a small sports car manufacturer in Zeewolde. To expand the model range consisting of the C8 Spyder and Laviolette and later the C8 Aileron, Victor Muller wanted to create a smaller, light and affordable 6-cylinder sports car, below the larger V8 models. This was to ensure greater sales numbers and a stronger business model.
The B6 Venator was a logical and understandable step for Spyker at the time. Much of the Lotus Evora technology would be used for the development of the production model, including Toyota's 3.5 liter V6 with compressor. But lack of money meant that production never got going. However, Victor Muller still tried to raise extra money through a financing construction with bonds. This meant that customers actually paid for their car in full in advance.
Many projects
The B6 Venator is not the only and certainly not the first car that Spykerenthusiast is working on. It started with his own cars, first an early C8 Spyder, then a Laviolette and then an Aileron. Because Spyker was no longer in business, Jasper himself started to maintain Spykers for customers who could no longer go to Zeewolde. 'I gradually started supplying parts or making new parts when they were no longer available, such as the well-known propeller steering wheel.' That's how the ball started rolling.
In addition to maintenance and parts manufacturing, larger projects soon came to the attention of Spykerenthusiast. In addition to the B6 Venator, another important recent project is the restoration of the Spyker C8 Double 12 S with chassis number #008, which has been standing in Victor Muller's office in Zeewolde for many years. It did drive, but that was a piece of string. For example, there was no functioning fuel tank. Spykerenthusiast has tackled the car from top to bottom and rebuilt it from scratch. Even the pop rivets in the mudguards have been renewed. “They were all drilled out and smashed in again.” Technically it is now perfect, it has been repainted and it even has air conditioning.
What is special about this example is that it does not have a regular Audi-V8, but the race-spec BMW-V8 from tuner Mader, similar to that in the Le Mans Double 12 R race cars from Spyker from 2002 and 2003. That is why the car had an alternator. which sits on the output shaft of the gearbox, so that the battery only charges while driving. Jasper has installed a dynamo for the customer for street use, which is mounted on the crankshaft. To do this, the firewall had to be moved three centimeters forward.
Furthermore, Spykerenthusiast has also restored the very first Spyker, the C8 Spyder that debuted at the Birmingham Motor Show in 2000. The Spyker C12 Zagato, the special concept model unveiled in 2007, has also passed through his hands at the request of a customer.
Pure hobby
Spykerenthusiast is working on Spykers out of sheer passion and wants to keep the Spyker brand alive. He wants to let the heritage live on, keep the cars on the road and he has the technical knowledge and resources for that. By now, just about all Spyker drivers around the world know where to find him when they need something. He keeps enthusiasts informed about his restorations via his social media channels so that everyone can enjoy it: that's what it's all about for him.
Jasper has been given the opportunity to buy Spyker's special prototypes and do with them what Spyker has not been able to do: technically complete them and let them drive. For him, originality is the most important and the intention with which Spyker designed and built things himself. So no changes or improvements to the cars, but everything in the spirit as Spyker intended. If a customer wants LED taillights, this is possible, but the original ones will be kept and can be rebuilt.
By the way, Spykerenthusiast is not affiliated with the company Spyker of Victor Muller and he has no binding with Muller.
The fact that Spykerenthusiast is only now coming out with his work is because he first wanted to provide proof in the form of completed and really functioning cars. Spyker has built a reputation for promising things but not delivering. That's why I don't want to promise anything. I do things, and don't show them until they're really done. That is the ultimate proof.'
Next projects
A next project is already being worked on: making it rolling of the D12 Beijing-to-Paris super-suv. The show car that Spyker showed at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show was just a body with wheels, but it is also hitting the road. The car was no more than a posh interior as an eye-catcher. A real W12 block has now been fitted, as was originally intended. Victor Muller promised, but Spykerenthusiast realizes it. As Spykerenthusiast announces on its website: coming soon.
Story: Robert van den Oever and Maarten van der Pas