Spyker has announced the launch of serial production of a luxury SUV D12 which is to become the most expensive in the segment. They even created a special class for the car – SSUV (Super Sport Utility Vehicle).

So, the Dutch company Spyker is renowned for its custom sportcars. However, the laurels of other manufacturers (first of all Porsche) keep the company awake at night. Well, they decided to kick off the serial production of a SUV – the first car of the class in the product line of the manufacturer. It sound quite incredible because the company as it is has quite serious financial difficulties.

The model is based on the concept D12 Peking to Paris shown in Geneva two years ago. That’s why the major features of the car are not hard to fancy. It is a 4WD 4-seat 5-mete long car weighting around 2 tons equipped with a 6-liter V12 with 500 bhp. Not to 100 km/h takes less than 5 secs, and the max speed is 300 km/h. The transmission: 6-grade automatic.

The extraordinary SUV has an extraordinary exterior – sport coupe with a high regulated suspension. The rear doors open opposite the direction of the motion and the interior is equipped with 4 separate sport seats and is finished manually with expensive leather and aluminum (typical of Spyker). Each passenger and the driver will be able to see the device data.

It has been announced that it took about 7 months to create the car (with the staff of the company which numbers 200 employees). The car has been named after one of the first models by Spyker.

The procedure of buying the car will be traditional as well. The client will have to queue (perhaps for more than a year as the cars by the company are in demand) then he gets a personal number and a personal web-page where he will be able to trace the production process online.

The new SUV, just like Porsche Cayenne, is aimed directly at Russia, Eastern Europe and America, where the demand for the cars is traditionally high. The manufacturers are sure that among the consistent audience there will be quite a lot of people who got bored with Cayenne.

Spyker D12 will be launched in 2009 and the initial price hasn’t been announced. It is expected to be somewhere near 300 000 euro.

About Spyker

At the end of the last year Spyker was purchased by the Lithuanian bank “Snoras”. The financial losses of the company make around 30 mln euro. The “power” of the company was undermined by the purchase of a F1 team and as a result quite a dissatisfying performance on track.

Annually the company produces no more than 100 cars equipped with Audi engines.

Technical Summary:

• Car name – Spyker D12
• Body type - SUV
• Engine – 6-liter V12 with
• Power – 500 bhp
• Transmission – 6 grade automatic
• 0 – 100 km/h acceleration – less than 5 secs
• Max speed – 300 km/h
• Weight – 2 tons
• Price – from 300 000 euro (expected)
• Serial production - 2009

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