Fresh attempt to revive Spyker sports car company

AMSTERDAM: Fresh plans are under way to revive the former Dutch sports car company Spyker, which once revealed a brace of Ferrari-rivalling supercars and dabbled briefly in Formula One racing.

After bankruptcy and a failed comeback since the firm was first set up in 1999, new and old investors, including Russian oligarch and SMP Racing owner Boris Rotenberg, have come up with a fresh plan, Germany's auto motor und sport car magazine has reported.

Three models are in the pipeline, the C8 Preliator supercar, Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris SUV and Spyker B6 Venator supercar.

The same trio were poised for the revival a year ago but those plans went awry.

Development work for the new cars will be carried out in Germany, said the report, with the cars based around a Russian-made carbon-fibre chassis.

Assembly will take place at the former Spyker factory in the Netherlands, the report said.

Spyker has had a bumpy ride since being set up in the wake of the historic car and aircraft brand brand which lasted until 1926.

Spyker bought Saab from General Motors in 2010 but rapidly ran out of money and was unable to fund the losses.

Saab was later sold to a Chinese-Swedish investment group.

The Spyker F1 team was set up in 2006 but it only managed to race for a single season before it was sold and renamed Force India.

The company's motto is "Nulla tenaci invia est via" which is Latin for "For the tenacious, no road is impassable."