GT4 2002 Spyker C8 Laviolette

For today's featured car here is a 2002 Spyker C8 Laviolette in my GT4 pictures.

The location is Nanzenji, Nanzenji Temple, Kyoto, which is "one of the treasures of Kyoto with a 700-year history, established in the Kamakura Era. The serene beauty of the autumn leaves in front of the Sanmon gates will take your breath away".

The Spyker name has some resonance but most of that resonance ended in 1926 when Spyker went bankrupt (the first time) having previously been a coach building company and then producing Benz-engined automobiles.

 

Spyker was "resuscitated" in 2000 by one Maarten de Bruijn who bought the rights to the defunct Spyker name and propeller logo.

See the Spyker propeller log above as rendered in GT4 and photographed by me.

The Laviolette was the first generation of the C8 limited production series Spyker and was succeeded by the C8 Aileron.

Spyker's motto is Nulla tenaci invia est via meaning "No road is blocked for those who persevere". However Spyker didn't persevere enough - it went into bankruptcy a second time some years back and is now defunct again.

When you think of handmade exotic supercars, the Netherlands isn't the first country that comes to mind. But the Spyker C8 is Dutch by birth, built mostly of aluminum, from the frame all the way to the handcrafted body panels. The name Spyker isn't entirely new to the automotive world. Back in the late 1890s, a company called Spyker began producing cars not long after the invention of the automobile. It was primarily known for its production of the world's first 4WD vehicle, but the company disappeared in 1925.
Fast forward to 1997. The name Spyker is resurrected as a low-volume specialty-car manufacturer. The company unveiled the C8 Spyder in October 2000 and the fixed-roof Laviolette coupe in February 2001. Later it released the C8 Double 12S, a street-legal racer whose platform was used as the basis for Spyker's GT racing machines. The Spyder and Laviolette featured the Audi S8's 4.2-liter V8. It came in two variations, one producing 394 HP and the other 443 HP. Mated to this mid-mounted powerplant was a 6-speed sequential gearbox. The 443 HP version of the Laviolette boasted a top speed of 190 mph and 0-62 mph time of 4.2 seconds.
Spyker also developed a racing car called the C8 Double 12R based on the Laviolette but using a 4.0-liter engine. The car raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2002.

This Spyker is not the best rendered car in Gran Turismo 4.

GT4 1970 Chaparral 2J Race Car

Now, what is this? A vacuum cleaner? An air con unit?

Noooo, it a car.

It's a Chaparral - the GT4 1970 Chaparral 2J Race Car.

And it's pictured here parked at Nanzenji.

A very powerful car, and with two available turbo upgrades in GT4, its power can be increased to over 1000 bhp.

However, it's rather hard to control, fragile, also likes to fly in GT4 for some reason... I look confused, shouldn't it like stick to the surface?

From the Gran Turismo file.

"Nicknamed "The Vacuum Cleaner", this car took the motoring world by surprise and became an icon in racing history."


The 2J may well be the most innovative, wildest racing machine ever created. The car, characterized by its big boxy rear end, entered the 1970 SCCA Can-Am racing series in North America, as the first machine in the series to feature active ground effects...in the form of a giant vacuum.
The Can-Am series was quite unusual as, at the time, there was no rule to limit the amount of horsepower for its race cars. Chaparral boss, Texas oil magnate Jim Hall, pulled a wild car from his sleeve when he created a race car that utilized two engines: one was a 690 HP powerplant to power the car and the other, an air-cooled snowmobile engine that powered a pair of large fans to suck the air flowing underneath the car, thus making it "stick" to the road surface. The area between the sides of the bodywork and the ground were sealed by floating pieces of high-strength Lexan. Nicknamed "The Vacuum Cleaner", the Chaparral 2J astounded race fans and the other Can-Am drivers alike.
Aside from its odd looks, the 2J often took pole position by several seconds over heady competition that included the previously-dominant McLaren M8D...that is, when it was running. The 2J experienced many mechanical problems in its maiden season, making every race it entered a thrilling event.
Before the start of the 1971 season, the SCCA banned the use of engines used for other than powering the car itself, and the Chaparral 2J was banished from motorsports forever.

GT4 2001 Lexus IS 300 Sport Cross

The GT4 2001 Lexus IS 300 Sport Cross is today's car.

 White Pearl Crystal Shine is the (non-) color.

Nanzenji is the photo travel location.

Nanzenji is the Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto, Japan, one of the treasures of Kyoto with a 700-year history, established in the Kamakura Era.

The 2001 Lexus IS 300 Sport Cross '01 is a road car produced by Lexus. It first appears in Gran Turismo 4 from where these pictures come.

I bought car just to win the Altezza event in the Toyota dealership and it did. 

However I can't say much about the car except that it won the event hands down after I installed multiple upgrades.

Usually I try to win events using stock cars. If that doesn't work, I go for upgrades which is in most cases enough. Only in one case so far (in GT5) I had to tinker with a car's setup to win.

Here's the GT5 file on car:

The best sports sedans in the world came from Europe, this was an established fact for decades, until the Altezza (Lexus IS) came along in October 1998. The new FR (Front engine/Rear drive) sedan was instantly embraced by the masses in Japan and in the U.S. since it represented the first FR sports sedan to come from that country for several years.

The Altezza came equipped with two engine types in Japan. One was a 2.0-liter DOHC inline-4 (dubbed the 3S-GE) with VVT-i, mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. It produced 207HP and 159.1 ft-lbs. of torque. The other came in the form of a 2.0-liter DOHC inline-6 that produced 158HP and 147.5 ft-lbs. The U.S. version, called the Lexus IS, had the 3.0-liter DOHC inline-6, the 2JZ-GE engine, that produced 217HP and 216.9 ft-lbs of torque through a 5-speed automatic gearbox.

In July 2001, Toyota added a sports wagon to the line. In Japan it was called the Gita, while the name Sport Cross was used in other parts of the world. The appearance of the station wagon was unique and aggressive, not at all possessing the boxy shape commonly associated with the genre.

The handling and power of the Altezza created many fans all over the world, and with this attractive car, the Japanese FR sports sedan was back.