quail green & rose gold frame obsessive details of spyker’s C8 preliator XXV

spyker returns to the quail

At The Quail during Monterey Car Week, a metallic green Spyker sat with its butterfly doors raised while Victor Muller stood in front of it, mic in hand. designboom was there as the founder and CEO introduced the C8 Preliator XXV, a car he framed around the physical connection between driver and machine.

‘There is nothing between you and the gearbox,‘ Muller said during the unveiling, adding, ‘there is just your hands and the mechanics.‘ The comment suited a coupe whose exposed shift linkage is one of the first things you see through the open cabin.

The Preliator name has been around for a decade, first appearing on a C8 concept Spyker presented in 2016. A Spyder followed in 2017, and the earlier program fell far short of the production run Spyker initially envisioned. The XXV brings the name back on what Spyker describes as a new car, built around an in-house aluminum spaceframe with every exterior panel reshaped by Coventry Prototype Panels in England. Only 25 examples are planned.

the Spyker C8 Preliator XXZ debuts at the Quail during Monterey Car Week | images © Spyker

a manual gearbox in full view

Behind the cabin lurks an Audi-sourced 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 producing 800 hp and 1,000 Nm of torque, sending power to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual supplied by Graziano Oerlikon. Spyker gives the XXV a 0–100 km/h time of 2.7 seconds and a top speed above 217 mph. The exposed linkage makes the transmission part of the interior architecture, something Muller emphasized during the unveiling. He says: ‘You decide when to shift, and you feel every gear change in your hand.‘

The gear lever rises through a rose-gold bezel, and the dashboard pairs turned aluminum with analog gauges. Physical switches handle the cabin controls, while a head-up display serves as the sole screen. Spyker says one craftsman spends four hours stitching each steering wheel with two needles. Even the screw heads inside the cabin are aligned by hand to face the same direction. The details can verge on obsessive, which has long been part of the appeal of a Spyker interior.

the hand-formed aluminum body sits on a newly engineered in-house spaceframe

spyker turns aircraft references into bodywork

A fin runs from the roof toward the rear deck, picking up a form seen on Spyker’s 1919 C1 Aerocoque and making the company’s aviation history unusually literal. NACA intakes feed air toward the engine. The headlights draw the XXV name into their light signature, while the rear lamps take their shape from jet afterburners. An isogrid pattern borrowed from aerospace structures appears in the grilles and returns inside through the seat upholstery.

Coventry Prototype Panels forms the exterior in aluminum, continuing a material choice that separates the XXV from the carbon-heavy construction common across contemporary supercars. Muller describes the aluminum: ‘it’s a living metal that can be shaped by the hand of an experienced craftsman.‘ Spyker estimates roughly 2,100 hours of work for each car. With just the push of a button, its butterfly mode opens the bodywork and exposes an engine bay finished to be seen.

rose-gold brightwork traces the quail green bodywork

25 cars begin spyker’s latest comeback

Spyker says each of the twenty-five cars will be individually commissioned. Its ‘Quail Green’ paint contains rose-gold flakes, and matching brightwork traces the body. Inside, Spyker uses orange-brown Tuscan Saddle leather.

The car arrives after another long interruption for the Dutch marque: Muller regained rights to the Spyker name and intellectual property in 2025, and new co-owner Volodymyr Nosov is backing the latest phase through fintech group W Group.

the exposed six-speed manual linkage remains a central Spyker detail