Spyker at the Louwman Collection

[Mattjs33]

Very impressive thread, can't believe I hadn't found it before. Didn't know that vintage Spykers were so scarce. Thanks for the bump!

[IVR007]

I just realized I drove past the new to build Louwman 15.000 m2 (huge)museum next to the road from Wassenaar to the Hague today. The new museum will replace the location in Raamsdonkerveer, and open it's doors early 2010 we'll be easy for me to take a look at the Spykers then.

[F Spider]

I just realized I drove past the new to build Louwman 15.000 m2 (huge)museum next to the road from Wassenaar to the Hague today. The new museum will replace the location in Raamsdonkerveer, and open it's doors early 2010 we'll be easy for me to take a look at the Spykers then.

[ATTACH]5341[/ATTACH]

I've seen that too. The building looks close to ready. That will be a nice place to visit

[SpykerOwner]

Does anyone know when the building will open its doors?

[IVR007]

Medio 2010 says the Louwman site

[IVR007]

Took these today

[IVR007]

Hans van Rennes mentioned the museum when we were at the factory. Because of that we know 13 out of the 16 'old' Spijkers that survived are in Louwman's collection.
So I thought I keep you updated on the museum: the new building is now almost finished, most cars have been relocated to this new location and the Louwman museum will open it's doors on the 3th of July!

[IVR007]

Today I took my grandfather to the new Louwman museum, I was very impressed! The place still needs to have some small details fixed, but overall it looks very good. When you enter the museum, there is a huge cathedral-like open space with crossed arches to support the roof. As we say on SO: very !

I took some pictures of the Spykers and I will give some info just like Basman007 did in the openings posts. Btw looking at what he posted the '1911 Spyker 18/27 HP Roadster' was missing (or I missed it), and the 1924 Spyker C4 30/40 HP All-Weather Coupe is now marked as a 1922 vehicle.


1903 Spyker 60 HP Four wheel drive racing car

engine: 8.8 Litre six cylinder | Power: 60hp | Max. speed: 110 km/h



This was the first car in the world with a six cylinder engine and the first petrol vehicle with four wheel drive and brakes on all four wheels. That makes this car one of the most important of automobile history.
It's a race car, commissioned by Jacobus Spyker for the race Paris-Madrid in 1903. At the time the newly appointed Belgian engineer Joseph Laviolette already had a design for an engine with six separate cylinders, and so he built it. He also designed a transmission that powered both the front as the back wheels, as well as a transmission brake.
The car wasn't ready on time and was presented in December 1903 in Paris. Two months later it was at an exhibition in the Crystal Palace in London.

In the beginning of the 1920s this Spyker was restored in a bad manner, and when Spyker became bankrupt it ended up at a former president of Spyker. After that, his car appeared at different Dutch museums with a modified body, until it was bought by the Louwman Collection. After a 5 year restoration it was brought back in it's original state.

Note that this car hasn't got the characteristic circular shaped grill, but a very cool looking radiator.



1905 Spyker 12/16-HP Double Phaeton

2.5 Litre four-cylinder | power: 12-16 HP



The world of classic car lovers would definitely been different without the English movie 'Genevieve'. The film, published in 1953 and a year later in the Netherlands, was an unassuming comedy, but it did sparked an interest for classic cars. 'Genevieve' was the direct motivation for the foundation of the Nederlandse Pionier Automobielen club (PAC) or first Dutch automobiles club.
In 'Genevieve' this car is the property of advertising man Ambrose Claverhouse who in the 1950s wanted to use this car to participate in the annual London to Brighton run.
Car nut Claverhouse, played by actor Kenneth more, challenges his friend Alan McKim (John Gregson) to a race during the run. At stake is Alan Mckim's car: a 1904 Darracq, nicknamed 'Genevieve'. McKim accepts his challenge and with respective wives, Rosalind en Wendy, they race.

This Spyker has probably been delivered in London early 20th century, and fitted with a body from London. After the war this car was bought by classic car lover Frank Reece, who completely restored the Spyker. In the early 1950s he lend out his car for recordings of 'Genevieve' for which it is painted green because. When Reece died in 1964, his will read that the car should be returned to it's home country: The Netherlands. So the car went to the Autotron collection of Max Lips in Drunen. Since 2004 it can be found in the Louwman collection.


1906 Spyker 14/18-hp Double Phaeton

Engine: 2.5 Litre four cylinder | Power: 14-16 hp



A 'double Phaeton' is a luxurious, open four-seat carriage. At the beginning of the 20th century the phaeton was a very popular body-style, especially in Great Britain. This Spyker model was therefore built for export. With this in mind, the Spijker brothers had already given their company a more international-sounding name by replacing the 'ij' with a 'y': Spyker (The 'ij'-construction is an extra vowel in sound in the Dutch language).

Hendrik-Jan and Jacobus Spijker started out as coach-builders in Hilversum in 1880 and moved to Amsterdam six years later. In 1898 they introduced an improved Benz under their own name. Two years later they produced the first Spyker car in their new factory called Trompenburg, named after the estate which once stood there and belonged to naval captain Cornelis Tromp. The car was not an immediate success, as the Dutch has a preference for imported cars.
This 14/19-hp 2.5 Litre four cylinder Spyker belonged to the Royal Dutch Automobile Club (KNAC) for many years.




1907 Spyker 15/22-hp Double Phaeton

Engine: 2.7 Litre four cylinder | Power: 22 HP



The 15/22-hp succeeded the 14/18-hp model and it was equipped with a lo-pressure lubrication system for the engine. The driver was able to control the flow of oil to the engine bearings from the dashboard. The engine's oil consumption was thereby reduced by eighty per cent, and the system also eliminated the usual blue exhaust fumes.
By 1905, Spyker was averaging a production of 100 cars a year, and by 1906 that figure had risen to 250. The quality of the end product was good, but by 1907 Spyker had run into financial difficulties due to mismanagement. A further blow came when a French dealer cancelled an order for 500 Spykers, after the factory had already purchased all the necessary materials. Spyker was left with the materials as well as debts amounting to some 2 million guilders. The company was declared bankrupt shortly afterwards.


1907 Spyker 15/22-hp three quarter Landaulette.

Engine: 2.7 Litre four-cylinder | Power: 22 hp



This Spyker was discovered in France in the 1960s. It is the earliest known Spyker with an original Factory-body. Like one of the double Phaetons on displayed at the Louwman museum, this model has a 15/22-hp engine with a low-pressure lubrication system which prevented the car from emitting blue smoke.
1907 was a bad year for Spyker, but not only in a business sense. The Ferry 'Berlin' was crossing the channel to England when it sank off the coast of Hoek van Holland; both Hendrik-Jan Spyker and the marque's British agent Frederick Elsworth were on board and both drowned. Jacobus Spyker then decided to retire from the company.
That year, sales dropped too and a large French order was cancelled. Spyker was declared bankrupt, but managed to resurrect itself under new management.
The only highlights for the marque in 1907 was that the Frenchman Charles Godard came second in the epic Peking to Paris race behind the wheel of a Spyker.



1912 Spyker 7-hp two-seater

Engine: 1.1 Litre two-cylinder | Power: 5 HP



In the Dutch Children's cartoon by Marten Toonder, 'The Tom Puss tales', Sir Ollie R. Bommel and his good friend Tom Poes drive around in a car which was inspired by this Spyker. In reality, it was a prototype, built to satisfy the demand, just before WWI, for smaller, more economical cars. It is a 7 HP, twin-cylinder, designed by the Belgian Engineer Joseph Laviolette.
The car was equipped with a special spare wheel. In the case of a flat tyre, the spare-wheel could be screwed upon the faulty one and the car could then be driven to the nearest garage. The oldest Vredestein tyre in existence, made in the former factory in Loosduinen, is fitted to the spare wheel of this Spyker.
When a new director arrived at Spyker, he believed that at least a 100 of these cars could be sold. However, the rest of the board disagreed and the project never went further than this prototype, making this car unique.

[IVR007]

1919 Spyker C1 13/30-hp Torpedo touring

Engine: 3.6 Litre four-cylinder | Power: 30 HP



Three of the 330 examples produced of the Spyker C1 13/30-hp were delivered to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. This luxurious Spyker was the first model launched by the factory after WWI. The C1 with it's heavily underpowered 3.6 Litre, four-cylinder engine disappeared off the scene after two years.
From 1915 Spyker was under new management. The director of the company was now the aviation pioneer Henri Wijnmalen. As WWI had broken out, there was little demand for cars, but considerably more for aeroplanes. Wijnmalen borrowed some additional funds and managed to convert the factory to build aeroplanes as well as cars; during the war the company focused on aircraft construction. This was also the time when the car was given it's distinctive logo of an aircraft propeller overlaying a wheel, with the Latin motto 'Nulla tenaci invia est via' (no road is impassable to the tenacious)

1922 Spyker C4 all-weather coupé

Engine: 5.7 Litre six- cylinder | Power: 70 hp | Max speed: 120 m/h



This Spyker is upholstered in real snake skin. The luggage rack has a jagged edge to discourage mischievous little boys from hitching a ride on the back. The car is powered by a 5.7 Litre, six-cylinder engine by German Zeppelin and motorcar manufacturer Maybach. This car was fitted with four-wheel brakes, a novelty at the time. Note that there are four spare wheels on the running boards, and a wing mirror (with indicator). The number plate is from the Dutch province of Noord-Holland. The reliability and luxurious design of the C4 earned the Spyker the accolade in England of 'Rolls Royce of the continent'.
Selwyn Francis Edge, who set the 24-hour speed record at Brooklands in 1907 with a Napier also on display in the museum, returned to Brooklands in 1922, this time with a Spyker C4 for a 'double twelve'. He set a new speed record with the Spyker, covering a total distance of 2,860 kilometres and averaging 120 km/h.

1924 Spyker C4 standard Torpedo Cabriolet

Engine: 5.7 Litre six-cylinder | Power 70 hp | max. speed: 120 km/h



One of the very last Spykers. Even Queen Wilhelmina's uninterrupted support could not save the company. Sales had been disappointing, even though the C4 had impressing qualities and despite the fact that the cars had life-long warranty provided a special sealing on the engine wouldn't be removed. In five year's time 150 C4s were sold for about fifteen thousand guilders. In 1925 the Spyker factory closed it's doors for good.
The Spyker's gear change box had an 'M'-configuration. The lever had to be moved back, sideways and forward to change from second to third gear.
On 27 November 1920 the very first C4 named 'Tenax' (Latin for tenacious) left for the Nijmegen to Sittard return endurance race, a distance of approximately 120 kilometres which was covered non-stop by four drivers over a period of about one month. The race ended on 2 January 1921, with Spyker breaking the record set by Rolls-Royce, within 36 24-hour periods, the 'Tenax' had covered a distance of 30,000 kilometres on an average speed of 35 km/h.

edit: Some footage of the 'Tenax' driving the Nijmegen to Sittard endurance race can be found here!

[SpykerOwner]

Thanks for these excellent posts. I already wanted to visit the Louwman collection, I even want it more now

[Wouter]

Nice. Thank IVR007,...I have to go there asap.

[Laviolette GT2R]

Nice Ingmar, thanx for sharing!

[panoz1]

what would we do with out the Internet Great post IVR007

[IVR007]

Thanks all of you!

Here are some more photos (low quality, phone pics sorry) to get an impression:

[IVR007]

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