We met Victor Muller last summer on the Bullrun and ran into him again at Pebble Beach. And he's emphatically not the type of guy who comes across as somebody who would start a crazy exotic car operation or buy an F1 team. The soft-spoken, affable Muller comes across as a quirky businessman, not the head of what's now a multinational corporation.
Regardless, Spyker brought their entire line to LA: the C12 La Turbie, the C8 Laviolette and the new, barking-mad Peking-to-Paris SUV — which drops as an '08 model — as well as one of their bright-screaming-orange F1 cars. Muller announced that the company would indeed mount an effort to drive two of the hyper-lux, W12-powered sport-utes from Bejing to the City of Light and was realistic about the chances of the former Midland team's chances in their first few years of F1 competition.
We asked him whether the next F1 cars will be festooned with crazy aluminum bits, to which he replied, "No, I'm going to go the other way. We have a car debuting in Geneva which will take elements from that," as he pointed at the low-slung tangerine-colored carbon-fiber baby, "and apply them to a Spyker road car."
"So will it be a C8 or C12, or will it be an entirely new car?"
"That's all I can say. You'll have to wait until Geneva."
"So what's it like owning an F1 team?"
"It's the best thing in the world."
Related:
Peking, Duck!: Spyker Unveils New SUV Concept [Internal]