Spyker 14-18HP Double Phaeton
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. This car is the earliest known Spyker with an original factory body.
With this export market 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’-ligature is an extra vowel sound in the Dutch language).
Hendrik-Jan and Jacobus Spijker started out as coachbuilders in Hilversum in 1880, and moved to Amsterdam six years later. In 1898 Jacobus bought a Benz and it wasn’t long before the brothers introduced an improved version of this car under their own name. Two years later they produced their first Spyker car, a 5 hp twin-cylinder, in their new factory called Trompenburg, named after the estate which once stood there and had belonged to the naval captain Cornelis Tromp. The car was not an immediate success, as the Dutch had a preference for imported cars.
For many years this 14/18-HP, 2.5-litre four-cylinder Spyker belonged to the Royal Dutch Automobile Club (KNAC).