the Lungs of Spijker / Spyker

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Why are we into the hobby of vintage cars? Because we like the ancient techniques. We love the primitive ride. We admire the mastership involved. The inner motivation for many of us is that we want to go back, or at least get some sense of how it all began. The longer you are into this, the earlier you want. For the very same reason the source of the river Loire is attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. With this in mind the best find of this year is not the forgotten Bugatti or whatever two, three or fourwheel gem came along, but this giant set of bellows. They measure about 6-7 feet across. Retrieved and saved by Stijnus Schotte - sun of the late Mr. Schotte who started a private carmuseum in Holland. These bellows come from the in 1969 demolished and later restored blacksmith workshop of father Spijker in Hilversum (NL), see de Spijker Pandjes (pages by Ad Tiggeler, grandson of a former Spyker employee). It is near 'these lungs' that plans were forged for the coachfactory that was opened in Amsterdam in 1886. The first Spijker car was made in 1900. Now when you know that 'spijker' is the Dutch word for nail you will look quite differently at this close up of the bellows. (PS, in the early 1900's the name Spijker was changed into Spyker in view of the importance of the UK market)

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