New Donkervoort D8 GTO gets Audi 2.5 litre turbo with up to 400hp

New Donkervoort D8 GTO

Dutch firm Donkervoort has revealed their D8 GTO with an Audi 2.5 litre 5-pot engine with up to 400hp and a 0-60mph of 3 seconds.

Dutch maker of bonkers cars, Jooop Donkervoort, has unleashed his new, lightweight and totally impractical car – the Donkervoort D8 GTO – after what seems an age of development. And thanks to a close working relationship with Audi, the D8 GTO pretty much lives up to its cheeky GTO moniker.

After some serious fettling the 2.5 litre, 5-pot turbo lifted from the Audi TT (and RS3, for that matter) loses a mammoth 30kg in weight. In the process Joop has sprinkled some fairy dust on the Audi lump so it can be switched in to race mode at the flick of a switch to turn that 340hp up to a ridiculous 400hp. That’s 400hp in a car that weighs not much more than the BAC Mono (just 700kg) and should see the D8 GTO good for 60mph in around 3 seconds.

Donkervoort normally eschew such modern niceties as ABS and power steering, and the D8 GTTO is no different. But as a nod to the barking amount of power in a car that weighs about the same as an orange Geordie on a Friday night out, Donkervoort has capitulated and added traction control to the D8 GTO. But only for when it’s really slippery.

The GTO gets a steel tube frame with carbon composite panels draped over and clever one-piece doors that lift like a Koenigsegg, and the aluminium bonnet is carefully locked down with devices derived from the American rocket industry.

Production of the D8 GTO starts in 2012 with Donkervoort expecting to deliver the first GTOs in the Summer, with prices between £80k and £120k.