Is the Spyker C8 Preliator worth the $354,900 price tag?

Spyker showcased its new C8 Preliator last week at the New York Auto Show. We didn't pay much notice, since we'd already seen it in Geneva just a couple of weeks prior. But with its North American debut, Holland's boutique automaker announced pricing for its latest model, and it starts at a whopping $354,900.

That figure represents a substantial increase over the outgoing C8 Aileron, which was priced in the $200,000 range. It also puts the refreshed C8 in a price bracket with bona fide supercars like the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta and Lamborghini Aventador. Though its mid-engined layout may suggest otherwise, the Spyker is at least as much about luxury as it is about performance, inviting comparison to the likes of the Aston Martin Vanquish and even the Rolls-Royce Wraith. Although both of those cars are, cough, more affordable than the Spyker's price of admission.

Of course exclusivity plays a big part here. Spyker will make only 50 examples of the Preliator. Lamborghini makes more Aventadors every month than Spyker will in the Preliator's entire lifecycle. Production numbers aside, what the C8 Preliator owners get for all that scratch is an exquisitely crafted sports car with unsurpassed attention to detail and an interior from the Jules Verne school of design.

At the C8's heart sits a 4.2-liter V8 sourced (as before) from Audi, now supercharged to 518 horsepower for a claimed 0-62 mph time of 3.7 seconds and a top speed in excess of 200 miles per hour. Lotus tuned the suspension and the brakes are by AP Racing, which justify the price tag a tiny bit more. But something tells us Spyker customers don't make value-based purchase decisions. Or at least not by our plebeian standards of value.