It’s been more than a decade since Donkervoort first announced the D8 GTO line. For years, the Dutch automaker hasn’t hinted at a replacement for a lightweight supercar…until recently.
In a teaser published on the Donkervoort website and various social media channels, a new model is coming and will be named F22. Perhaps named after the famous Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet, the teaser is accompanied by a caption that says “You’ll never see it coming. It’ll be worth the weight.”
There is no confirmed information about the model, except for the name and logo shown in the teaser. However, a curious play on the phrase “worth the weight” may provide some clues about the new model.
Donkervoort has been known to make very light handcrafted supercars – a fact that has earned the company critical acclaim. With the pun above, we can conclude that the new model will be heavier than the current D8 GTO. If you’re a fan of the Dutch brand, this isn’t great news, but we all know that the extra pounds can be offset by the added power, which is to be expected in the new model.
For reference, the D8 GTO Individual, which debuted in the US earlier this year, comes with Audi’s 2.5-liter inline-five turbocharged engine producing over 400 horsepower (294 kilowatts). At $240,000, this lightweight US-spec supercar can sprint to 62 miles per hour (0-100 kilometers per hour) in just 2.7 seconds and reach 124 mph (200 km/h) in 7.7 seconds.
Will the Donkervoort F22 live up to the recognition of the model it will replace? And more importantly, will the Dutch company abandon its minimalist design inspired by the Lotus Super 7 and release a car that looks a lot like the F-22 stealth fighter jet? We’ll know in the coming months so for now, all we can do is weight.
