- Donkervoort debuts its new sports car, the P24 RS.
- The P24 RS is powered by a Ford V6, making 600 horsepower and paired to a manual.
- The car weighs just 1,700 pounds, which gives it 770 horsepower per ton.
- The Donkervoort P24 RS costs around $350,000 in the US.
Donkervoort may not be the first name that leaps to mind when you think of even the most niche sports car manufacturers, but for nearly 50 years, the Dutch automaker has been quietly producing small, light, silly quick performance cars for drivers who want something different.
As a rather small operation, Donkervoort typically produces just one model at a time. Now, it’s finally got a new one—the P24 RS, the company’s most extreme car yet. At a glance, the P24 RS follows a tried-and-tested formula: engine up front, driver in the middle, power at the rear. But quickly do you realize it’s much, much more than that.
Dutch Designed, American Powered
Photo by: Alex Goy | Motor1
Under the P24 RS’s pleasingly long hood is a turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 producing up to 600 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. It’s hooked up to a five-speed manual gearbox, with firepower at its rear wheels.
It takes less than 2.5 seconds for the P24 RS to reach 62 miles per hour, and just 7.3 seconds to reach 124. The car weighs a shade under 1,720 pounds; on the power-to-weight front, it’s safe to say it’s a bit spicy with 770 hp per ton to play with. That said, you can adjust its output to suit your needs—400, 500, or the full beans 600 hp are ready to roll at the flick of a dial. You can even adjust the Tractive dampers and ferocity of the traction control to match the engine.
This powertrain is brand new for the company. Donkervoort formerly used Audi’s turbocharged five-cylinders underhood, but in this case, the company looked to Ford. The P24 RS uses the same V6 as in the former Ford GT and various Raptors, but modified—the turbos attached aren’t standard. For the snails, Donkervoort looked to Van Der Lee Turbo Systems, which opened up a whole new world of possibilities.
“We have the option not to just use a turbo that is off the shelf from Ford or Audi, but to create a fully bespoke, made-to-measure turbo for us,” CEO Denis Donkervoort tells us. “We said, we have this total weight of under 800 kilos, more or less 600 horsepower. But we want two things: no turbo lag, and a very precise throttle response.”
No small ask.
But for a company so invested in lightweight, jumping from a five-cylinder to a V6 seems counterintuitive, no? Denis Donkervoort says there’s a reason for that: “There was one very clear demand [from customers]: not to go down on cylinders. So that made it easy.”
Photo by: Alex Goy | Motor1
‘We want two things: no turbo lag, and a very precise throttle response.’
Because the P24 RS is low, light, and has exposed front wheels, it should go ‘round corners rather quickly. You can ping yourself around at 2.3 Gs if you’re committed enough, says Donkervoort. That commitment is more for the track rats, but in its natural state, the P24 RS isn’t optimized for aerodynamics. That’s where removable wings come into play.
When it’s time to get serious, you can pop extensions onto the P24’s nose and some mean-looking spoilers on its back end. After you’re done, simply take them off (or keep them on because they look awesome).
Pretty much everything you see—including those wings—is carbon fiber, which not only adds to its exotic pedigree but also helps keep weight down and components strong. For good measure, there’s a decent slug of 3D printed metal in there as well—its exhaust tips, for one, are made of the stuff.
Donkervoort tapped a company called Ex-Core for most of the carbon bits. Rather than requiring a massive oven to cure its carbon, Ex-Core uses molds and foam. Tooling in the desired shape is fabricated, then sheets of carbon fiber are layered within, and the expanding foam is injected into a closed mold before heating elements are inserted into strategically drilled holes, heating the carbon, expanding the foam, and creating a solid piece.
The result is a single piece that can be fabricated (after the tooling has been made, of course) on a workbench. No autoclaves needed. Ex-Core isn’t exclusively Donkervoort’s to play with either—the company has found its way onto luxury yachts and even Toyota’s latest race cars. The P24 RS’s removable aero is an Ex-Core creation, though, and it’s really only possible because of the fact.
When it comes to looks, the P24 RS is a pleasing evolution of Donkerwoort’s previous work. It’s long, low, wide, and pointy in all the best ways. This time, though, the team had a problem: lighting.
The car’s tiny DRLs set in the hood look the part, but they don’t have the power of traditional beams. Rather than make the light cluster bigger, the brighter beams now fold out of the nose cone at the press of a button. Pop-up headlamps aren’t dead… they’re just different.
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Source: Alex Goy | Motor1
If you’re thinking the P24 is impractical, you’re wrong. There’s an 8.8 cubic-foot trunk at the rear, so you can do a weekly shop if you fancy it. Donkervoort’s founder, Joop Donkervoort, is a tall chap, and he built his cars for people of his height to be comfortable in. This one’s no different.
People over 6 feet and 7 inches can fit in the cabin with its removable targa top in place without issue. That means there’s a spacious cabin, with… a bit of room for things.
For the first time, the company has switched to an electric handbrake and has put a cubby hole in its place. There’s no stereo—it’s not that sort of car—but its digital instrument display fires all the info you’ll ever need right in your eyes in glorious high definition. Being something that’ll be used on the track, there’s a GPS lap timer built in. When you’re at a circuit, it will keep tabs on how well you’re doing.
A Pricey Plaything
Donkervoort P24 RS Interior
Photo by: Alex Goy | Motor1
Donkervoort doesn’t do big volumes, and only 150 examples of the P24 RS will be made. More than 50 of them are already spoken for thanks to a loyal customer base. Seeing as the ticket kicks off at €298,500 (roughly $350,000) before taxes and options, that’s a huge result for the company.
The P24 RS is the first car fully made under the guidance of Denis Donkervoort, the company founder’s son. He took over in 2021 after a period of working side by side with his father, Joop. While they may have slightly different approaches, the P24 RS is still very much a Donkervoort through and through.
The Donkervoort P24 RS is indeed headed to the US, and it will likely cause a stir at your nearest cars and coffee… if you’re lucky enough to bump into one of the 150 units, that is.
Motor1’s Take: Donkervoort has done it again, with another absolutely absurd sports car in the P24 RS. Packing a powerful Ford V6 with upwards of 600 horsepower and a light curb weight, we can only imagine what this sports car is like on the road. We’ll find out soon enough.
