Spyker C4 Standard Torpedo Cabriolet
One of the very last Spykers.
Even HM Queen Wilhelmina’s uninterrupted patronage could not save the company. Sales had been disappointing, despite the impressive qualities of the C4 and the fact that the car was guaranteed for life, provided that a special seal on the engine remained unbroken. A mere 150 C4s were sold in five years, and in 1925 Spyker closed its doors for good. Bankruptcy was declared a year later.
The method for changing gear in this Spyker is rather curious; the gear gate has a ‘W’-configuration. The lever has to be moved back, sideways and then forward to change gear. In 1921 the Spyker C4 Torpedo cost fifteen-thousand guilders.
In the Netherlands the Spyker C4 set a special record. On 27 November 1920, the very first C4 named the ‘Tenax’ (Latin for ‘tenacious’) left for the Nijmegen-Sittard-Nijmegen endurance race, a distance of approximately 120 kilometres, to be covered non-stop by four drivers over a period of about one month. The race ended on 2 January 1921, with Spyker breaking the record set by Rolls-Royce; within 36 24-hour periods, the ‘Tenax’ had covered a distance of 30,000 kilometres at an average speed of 35 km/h.