Spyker 60-hp Four-wheel Drive Racing Car

This is the first car in the world with a six cylinder engine and the first petrol car with four wheel drive and a four wheel braking system.

This is the first car in the world with a six cylinder engine and the first petrol car with four wheel drive and a four wheel braking system. That makes this Spyker 60 HP one of the most important cars in automotive history. It is a racing car, commissioned by Jacobus Spijker for the Paris Madrid race of 1903. The young Belgian engineer Joseph Valentin Laviolette, who has just joined Spyker, already has a design for an engine with six separate cylinders and puts this into practice. He also designs a transmission that drives both the front and rear wheels, as well as a transmission brake. However, the car is not finished in time for the race and is only presented in Paris in December 1903. Two months later it is shown at an exhibition in Londons Crystal Palace. In the early 1920s the Spyker is restored in an unskilled manner and, after Spykers final bankruptcy, ends up in the hands of a former director. From 1953 to 1993 the car, fitted with a heavily modified body, is displayed in various Dutch museums, after which it is acquired by the Louwman Museum. After a five year restoration the car is now in the same condition as when it was shown in Crystal Palace in 1904.