The greatest Spyker afficionado left us.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Earlier this week Stijnus Schotte died at the age of 49, decades too early. He was still full of ideas. Still full of touring plans and more. He liked a good glass of beer - sometimes two - but more important was his big appetite for US made brass era cars, preferably in usable but unrestored condition. Ranging from early Franklin up to the slightly 'modern' Packard double six. Yet most will remember him as Stijnus 'Spyker' Schotte. As anything Spyker related would make him jump up and down with enthusiasm.

His father was a wellknown collector and Stijnus not only inherited his father's old car genes but also a small museum known as De Autostal including the 1909 car that he campaigned around the globe. Any Saturday morning you could drop in at the pocketsize homely museum for coffee and cake and have a chat with a small gathering of nutheads. When Stijnus was not in the country, he was most probably on tour with friends of the Horseless Carriage Club, with the dutch PAC or with friends in Germany.

Well remembered is the participation with his beloved 1909 Spyker in the Beijing-Paris reenactment of 2005. Further Spyker fame he gathered with the spectacular find in French Guyana of a 1907 model.

Stijnus was always a good laugh and when he was in, he was all over the place. The dustless Spyker is not the first picture to associate Stijnus with. But no matter what, when in future the famous name of Spyker will sound, to us it will have the echo of Stijnus Schotte.

Plaats een reactie, stel een vraag, geef uw mening, deel aanvullende informatie of start een discussie door de onderstaande velden in te vullen