Spyker C8 Aileron to come back with supercharged power?
Fri, 08 Mar 2013
Since its introduction in the year 2000, the C8 has used a 4.2-liter V8 engine sourced from Audi, which, in base form, offers up 400 horsepower. Though it's a great powerpant, that's simply not enough power in this day and age – after all, if a car is going to be called super, it needs to offer more ponies than something as mundane as the Ford Mustang GT.
According to R&T, John Walton, Chief Commercial Officer at Spyker, indicated that a new engine supplier may be in the works. "[The Audi-sourced V8] really hasn't got enough bang for the buck. To be honest, every supercar needs to have something that begins with a '5' today. That's why we're supercharging the car in the future, which will take it to over 500-hp," said Walton.
Assuming Spyker doesn't decide to supercharge Audi's V8 itself, where will that supercharged engine come from? We have no idea, though with legal wrangling still in process it seems a bit unlikely to come from General Motors, although its supercharged 6.2-liter V8 would seemingly make an excellent choice.
On the other hand, if GM's engine is the best option available, Spyker could potentially buy complete supercharged crate engines directly from GM Performance Parts in either 556- (LSA) or 638-horsepower (LS9) iterations, and it probably doesn't need explicit approval to do so. In any case, we're just postulating. Only time will tell what, if any, new engine Spyker will bestow upon its C8 Aileron.
By Jeremy Korzeniewski
See also: Audi A3 G-Tron offers big range, few emissions, Audi A3 E-Tron is a look at battery-operated things to come, Audi RS Q3 is funky, chunky, spunky forbidden fruit [w/videos].