Roughly eight months after being previewed through a series of renderings, the Donkervoort D8 GTO-JD70 has been officially presented by the small Dutch car manufacturer. The car has been launched to celebrate the 70th birthday of company founder Joop Donkervoort.
Driving the D8 GTO-JD70 is a 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder Audi engine producing 420 hp and 383 lb-ft (520 Nm) of torque. Coupled to this engine is a close-ratio five-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip differential that drives the rear wheels.
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A huge portion of the car is made from carbon fiber meaning it tips the scales at a mere 1,543 lbs (700 kg). This results in truly blistering performance with a claimed 0-62 mph (100 km/h) time of 2.7 seconds and a sprint from naught to 124 mph (200 km/h) in 7.7 seconds. Given enough room, Donkervoort says the D8 GTO-JD70 will hit 174 mph (280 km/h).
However, it is not in a straight-line where the JD70 is most at home. It is in the corners.
The car manufacturer has equipped the car with double-wishbone suspension that includes adjustable dampers and springs at all four corners. The car also delivers 80 kg (176 lbs) of rear downforce and 50 kg (110 lbs) of front downforce thanks to aero modifications. When equipped with the standard Nankang AR-1 tires, Donkervoort says its new flagship performance model can achieve more than 2G of lateral acceleration during cornering. Those are the types of forces that will make it feel like your face is being pulled off.
“The JD70 has moved beyond the normal measures for acceleration, braking and cornering so we’re using G forces now. The car is a pure driver’s machine like nothing else on the market,” Donkervoort managing director Denis Donkervoort said about the car. “The JD70 is the distillation of everything we know and everything we’ve learned on the road and the racetrack, from track days and from customer talks and, of course, from Joop’s own ideas on what a supercar should be to its driver.”
Donkervoort will build just 70 examples of the car, each with a starting price of €163,636 (~$185,400).
