17 September 2020
Review

Well, this is a giggle. We headed to the Netherlands to drive the Donkervoort D8 GTO-JD70, a long name for a small car that has spectacular performance.

Company founder Joop Donkervoort started his business importing Lotus, then Caterham, 7s. But he had to modify them slightly so they could be sold legally in continental Europe. He ended up producing his own car and he hasn't stopped creating since.

This is his company's latest model: the Donkervoort D8 GTO-JD70, made to celebrate his 70th birthday. It's wild: it has a 415bhp Audi 5-cylinder engine under the hood, on Nankang track day tyres it's said to be able to corner at 2G. It's beautifully put together, has a top speed of 174mph, can do 0-62mph in a claimed 2.7sec and costs, including taxes, some £176,000 in the UK.

We had a short time to get video of this car so join us for a brief rundown of what we think makes it great.

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Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes. 

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jason_recliner 20 September 2020

Epic

All we need is some muppet to state that you could get two boxsters for the same amount of money and he doesn't see many Donkey Warts driving around his suburb so they mustn't be any good.