Chinese firm Youngman to help Spyker build the Saab 9-3 - sort of

Youngman Lotus has agreed to pay $12.5 million US dollars (10 million Euros) to Spyker in exchange for a 29.9% ownership in the company. Reports indicate that Youngman paid just 6.3 cents per share for the 29.9% stake in the company. In addition to buying into the Spyker corporation, Youngman will also invest $31 million US dollars (25 million Euros) into the Spyker brand to help build the new Spyker D8 P2P sport utility vehicle shown on the right side. This performance oriented SUV is expected to follow in the footsteps of the Spyker C8 sports car, packing a 500 horsepower engine and an advanced all wheel drive system. The name P2P means Peking To Paris, signifying the rally racing routes of this unusual looking SUV.

Once the Spyker D8 P2P hits production, it will be interesting to see what the company uses for a drivetrain. When this concept was originally unveiled in 2006, it packed a W12 Audi engine with 500 horsepower and because of that – the vehicle was named the Spyker D12. When plans changed to use a Cadillac V8, the name was changed to D8 to point out the change in engine size. Now that Spyker is suing General Motors for $3 billion dollars, it would be surprising to see GM build engines for the company’s new high performance SUV…but there are a great many companies in the world who can build a 500 horsepower V8.

The Spyker D8 P2P is expected to arrive at the end of 2014 as a 2015 model year vehicle with low production figures and a price north of $250,000.

The Saab brand as we have known it may be gone but Chinese firm Youngman Lotus still wants to work with the Spyker brand to achieve some of the goals that they planned to reach through a joint venture in the Saab brand. This begins with the Phoenix architecture that was going to serve as the production platform of the new Saab 9-3 but with the bankruptcy of the Saab brand, Spyker has transferred the rights of that platform to the “new” Spyker brand. This means that Spyker and Youngman can essentially build the Saab 9-3 as they imagined before the Saab brand went bankrupt – sans the Saab name, of course. While it is unclear whether the Phoenix-based Spyker car build with help from Youngman Lotus will be a sedan with a similar basic form to the 9-3 or if it will be a totally unique looking vehicle but based on the rest of the Spyker lineup, the new vehicle based on the Saab Phoenix platform should certainly stand out in a crowd.

This new venture with Youngman could be much easier from a financial standpoint should anything come of the $3 billion dollar lawsuit that Spyker has filed against General Motors. Spyker is insisting that if GM had not prevented the deal between Spyker and Youngman, the Saab brand would now be worth $3 billion dollars. Because of that, Spyker is suing GM and the American automaker has until September 28th to reply to the lawsuit. You can read more about the suit by clicking here.