The first thing you see when you arrive at the New York Auto Show isn't part of the show, strictly speaking, but it'll stop you dead in your tracks. This hand-built mid-engine Spyker C8 LaViolette —� like the Spyker C8 Spyder pictured immediately below — goes 0-60 in 4.5 seconds and sticks to corners like a hungry leech, thanks to the same aerodynamic ground effect that the Lotus 78 used to revolutionize F1 racing back in the '70s.
Spyker's motto is "Nulla tenaci invia est via" ("For the tenacious, no road is impassable"), and while I wouldn't drive either of these beauties up the side of a volcano, there isn't much they can't do. Both cars are powered by a naturally aspirated 4.2-liter Audi V8 that kicks out 400 bhp and 354 lb/ft of torque, with stainless steel 4-into-1 high performance exhausts on either side. That power flows to the rear wheels through a manual six-speed gearbox free of electrical intervention. Top speed: 187 mph. Xenon headlamps, too. And they are very, very pretty.
Price as shown: $317,690 for the LaViolette (Chassis No. 143, if you're keeping track) and $303,005 for the Spyder (No. 103). Either one makes a perfect family car for that extra-special soccer mom.
More pix after the flip.
[Photos: Mark Durham]
