Spyker

Spyker or Spijker was a Dutch car manufacturer started in 1880 by smelters Jacobus and Hendrik-Jan Spijker as a coach production company. They were originally based in Hilversum but in 1898 moved to Trompenburg, Amsterdam.

History

The Golden Coach with Prince Willem-Alexander, Queen Beatrix, and Princess Máxima

In 1898 Spyker manufactured the "Golden Coach", still in use by the Dutch monarchy today.

In 1899 they started building automobiles and in 1900 put their first models on display, two-cylinder 3 hp and 5 hp similar to the Benz. Four-cylinder models were introduced in 1903, along with the six-cylinder Spyker 60 HP, a racer with the world's first ever four-wheel drive car with a single engine^[1] and four-wheel brakes.^[2] An engine with six cylinders was also a world's first.^[3]

The 1905 cars featured a round radiator grille which became a feature of many of the pre war cars. In 1913 the company was having financial problems again and in 1915 was taken over by new owners and renamed Nederlandsche Automobiel en Vliegtuigfabriek Trompenburg (Dutch Car and Aircraft company). Under the new owners, the previous complex model range was simplified and a new car, the 13/30 C1, introduced; sales were disappointing. In 1907, an 18 hp model successfully competed in the Peking to Paris race.

Hendrik-Jan Spijker died in 1907 on his return journey from England when the ferry he was on, the SS Berlin sank, and this loss led to the bankruptcy of the original company. A group of investors bought the company and restarted production, but Jacobus Spijker was no longer involved.

Before Hendrik-Jan Spijker's death, he and his brother had developed a special relationship with Dutch electrical pioneer, Rento Hofstede Crull.^[4] The Spijker brothers had known Hofstede Crull already when he was a young man racing on the velocipede circuits in the Netherlands and in Germany while he was an engineering student first in Mittweida and later in Hannover at the Technische Hochschule in the 1880s. Hofstede Crull had already owned his first automobile in the 1890s. In the first decade, he had accumulated a collection of automobiles which included a number of the Spijker racing models. He housed the collection in one of the wings of the N.V.Heemaf,^[5] one of the companies he had founded. Although this was all a hobby for him initially, he began assembling Spijkers at Heemaf with the approval of the Spijker brothers and subsequently with that of those who had taken over SPIJKER. He provided them with improvements on the automobiles. Heemaf's board of directors^[6] complained that Hofstede Crull was using a part of the factory as his personal garage and auto park. To circumvent the criticism, he established the Spijker Automobiel Verhuur Maatschappij which along with Amsterdam's Trompenburg Bedrijf became the first auto rental companies in the Netherlands.^[7] One of his other companies was the American Refined Motor Company which helped improve mechanical motor parts. This all stemmed from an automobile accident that he, Hofstede Crull, and his chauffeur, a man named Poorthuis, had in 1909 when he subsequently discovered a defect in the Spijker's steering mechanism^[8] which he improved.

During World War I, in which the Netherlands were neutral, they manufactured aeroplanes and aircraft engines.

In 1922 the company went bankrupt again and was acquired by Spyker's distributor in Britain who renamed the company Spyker Automobielfabriek. Production continued and prices dropped but the company continued to decline. Final production was of the C2 two-ton truck and the C4 car which lasted until 1926 when funds finally ran out.

It is estimated total Spyker car production was at most 2000 cars.

In 1999, a new company, Spyker Cars was founded, unrelated to the original company but for the brand name.

Car models

Spyker 60 HP (1903)

Spyker 60 HP (1903)

Spyker C2 truck

The 1905 Spyker 12/16-HP Double Phæton that was used as Ambrose Claverhouse's car in the film Genevieve. As of 2012 this car is held in the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands. A still from the film can be seen in the background

Aircraft

• Spijker V.1
• Spijker V.2
• Spijker V.3

Spyker on stamps and in film

Both Spyker brand automobiles appear on Dutch postage stamps (first day of issue: May 10, 2004).

The car driven by Kenneth More in the 1953 film Genevieve, about the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, is a 1904 Spyker 12/16-HP.

See also

• Spyker Cars

References

External links

• Company history at RitzSite