24 Hours of Le Mans

Spyker developing all-new GT racer for 2012

© Spyker Squadron

Spyker Squadron, the factory racing division of luxury supercar manufacturer, Spyker, will focus its resources this year on the development of a next generation GT race car for 2012.

Based on Spyker’s new flagship C8 Aileron luxury supercar, the new GT racer will be designed and developed to the ACO’s new GTE specifications and will be ready for the start of the 2012 motorsport season. Development activities will be undertaken by Spyker Squadron’s expanded engineering team at its Zeewolde headquarters in conjunction with its long-standing technical partners.

Greater attention will also be paid to the commercial arm of the Spyker Squadron division, specifically through the sale of its new C8 Aileron GT car to customer teams. Squadron is already in discussions with a number of potential purchasers for the supply of cars and of full customer racing support packages.

Spyker Squadron Managing Director, Peter Van Erp, said: “We are taking a racing sabbatical this year to concentrate our resources on developing a new GT racer based on Spyker’s new C8 Aileron supercar, instead of continuing to spend money on a car at the end of its development cycle. For the long term future of Spyker Squadron, and for its role in the promotion and technical development of Spyker road cars, it’s a positive and strategically important step.

© Spyker Squadron

“We will develop the car for the new GTE class, although after its first season we will assess whether there is sufficient demand to develop a variant to FIA GT3 specifications. This would be relatively straightforward and would increase the potential customer base for the car and associated race support package. We are already attracting customer race teams wishing to buy an off-the-shelf car, with enquiries arriving from Europe and the Far East,” continues Van Erp.

“Ultimately, our fans can look forward to a very exciting long term future following Spyker in top-flight endurance racing, with both the Spyker Squadron and customer racing teams fielding C8 Aileron GT cars. And as a result, Spyker will become an even more prominent and successful name in endurance motorsport around the world in 2012 and beyond.

”The Spyker C8 Aileron GT racing car will take over from Squadron’s C8 Laviolette GT2R racer, with which Spyker’s race division enjoyed three years of competitive European GT endurance racing. In 2009, the C8 Laviolette GT2R delivered Squadron’s most successful season, claiming two second-place GT2 class finishes in the Le Mans Series, and scoring an incredible fifth place in the gruelling 24 Hours of Le Mans.

High res images can be found at www.spykercars.com/geneva