Donkervoort D8 GTO: Flying Dutch

Joop Donkervoort for. The sorcerer has housed the Dutch five-cylinder turbo Audi, pushed to 400 hp under the hood of the D8. Warm front.

The heirs of the Lotus Seven, the Caterham is by far the most media. But the British also made small in the Netherlands. While for decades quadre years "Cat" is simply the direct descendant of the Lotus, produced under license since 1973, the Donkervoort D8 is somehow illegitimate daughter. The recipe is basically the same: put a cigar rolling along the ground, a longitudinal four-cylinder front wheel and two previous non-keeled head resting on the rear axle, all at a weight closer to 500 pounds that tonne.

With this, a small cavalry GTI would be enough to get to a grasshopper Batavian power to weight ratio of GT, as shown by a 120 hp 1.6 Caterham. But Joop Donkervoort is not one to be content with little. If the current pattern of attack-the term suits may be particularly good in this range D8 just 150 hp, the D8 and D8 GT (a closed version, optimized and deeply recarrossée) and both offer a version hosted by the 2.0 turbo Audi S3 and TTS, developing 270 hp here. The 650 kg of the beast while crossing the 0 to 100 km / h in 3 "6.


Batavian Express

For 2012, Donkervoort has seen even greater with a dragster at the end of the world: D8 GTO. Extrapolated from the GT, it shall, in longitudinal position, the dreaded five-cylinder 2.5 Turbo brand to the rings, which passes for the event from 340 to 400 hp (and 450 Nm at 1600 r / min) and lost 30 kg, always associated with a conventional five-speed manual transmission. The D8 is reviewed in depth to accommodate the additional piston as it grows and expands from 35 cm to 15 cm. With 3.74 m long and 1.85 m wide and 1.14 m high, the self remains particularly picked up. And as it preserves its light weight (about 700 kg), she scatters now 0 to 100 km / h in three seconds all round. The (few) Levante Caterham and Ariel Atom V8 will find to talk to.

 Production of the Donkervoort D8 GTO will begin in the first half and the first special orders should arrive on the road during the summer. The "standard" models will be marketed in 2013, for a price between 100 and 150 000 euros.