Spyker 60 HP History

Commissioned by Jacobus Spijker for the 1903 Paris–Madrid race, the 60 HP was engineered by Belgian designer Joseph Valentin Laviolette (whose name the modern Spyker supercar later honoured). Its 8.7-litre inline six-cylinder engine was the first of its kind in any automobile, and Laviolette's transmission extended the driveshaft forward to power all four wheels — the world's first four-wheel-drive petrol car.

The car was not finished in time for the Paris–Madrid race and was instead presented in December 1903 in Paris, then displayed at Crystal Palace in London in early 1904. It raced only twice: third at Blackpool in 1904 and first at Birmingham in 1906. The surviving original example is preserved at the Louwman Museum in The Hague, restored over five years to its 1904 Crystal Palace specification.

Together with its simultaneous four-wheel braking system — also a world first — the 60 HP represents the most technically audacious single car produced during the Edwardian racing era, a fact that underpins Spyker's identity to this day.