The Donkervoort P24 RS is simultaneously one of the fastest and slowest cars I have ever driven. The flyweight 600hp roadster can rocket to 60mph in circa. 2.5 seconds and pull 2.4G in the corners. And yet… every time you stop for fuel or a flat white, you need to factor in time for chatting with strangers who want to take photos and quiz you about this automotive oddball.
Indeed, David Beckham could pull up at the opposite pump in a new Lamborghini Revuelto and he’d be practically invisible. So, to save Donkervoort drivers from further delays when filling up, I will attempt to answer the many questions I was asked during a morning with the P24 RS. Starting with: “What the hell is a Donkervoort?”
While the name is little known here, Donkervoort has been building cars in its native Holland since 1978. It all began when Joop Donkervoort went on a school trip to Britain and spotted a Lotus Seven: the lightweight sports car that lives on today as the Caterham Seven. The youthful Joop fell instantly in love and, when his studies were completed, he set about becoming the official Dutch importer for Lotus.
It transpired that the rather rudimentary Seven couldn’t be homologated for sale in Holland, but Joop was undeterred. He redesigned the car to satisfy local legislation, making it more comfortable and usable in the process. The first Donkervoort had arrived.
A brief history of Donkervoort
Donkervoort’s cars have grown ever faster and more technically advanced, but the ethos of the back-to-basics Lotus is still woven into its DNA. You see it in the open front wheels, manual transmission and front-engined, rear-driven layout of the P24 RS. This is a Seven turned up to 11.
Earlier Donkervoorts used Ford engines, from the humble Pinto to the legendary Cosworth YB, then the company switched to Audi power from 1999. However, emissions rules mean time is running out for the charismatic five-cylinder motor – borrowed from the Audi RS3, and boosted to 500hp in the outgoing F22 roadster – so Donkervoort has returned to its roots, bolting in the 3.5-litre V6 from the Ford GT supercar.
A dial on the centre console offers a choice of Comfort, Touring and Performance modes, uncorking 400hp, 500hp or 600hp respectively. Combined with a dry weight of just 780kg (call it 840kg with fluids), that gives the P24 RS a power-to-weight ratio to shame most supercars. The latest Porsche 911 GT3 RS, for example, musters 525hp and tips the scales at 1,450kg.
P24 RS coming to the UK
Donkervoort plans to build 150 examples of the P24 RS, 100 of them painted and 50 in naked carbon fibre, and the company’s loyal fanbase means the majority have already been sold. The big news for Brits, though, is that this is the first ever Donkervoort offered in right-hand drive. As sales officer Quentin Mond points out, it will open up other RHD markets as well, such as Japan and Australia.
The car’s body and front subframe are made from a patented material called Ex-Core. Essentially, this sandwiches a layer of expanding foam between two pieces of carbon fibre, which are heated and cured together in an aluminium mould. Developed by Donkervoort, the technology is now licensed to several F1 teams, and also used in aircraft and luxury yachts, delivering light weight and huge torsional rigidity.
The P24 RS rides on double wishbone suspension with Tractive adaptive dampers that remove the need for anti-roll bars. Its brakes are lightened discs (carbon-ceramics are optional) with four-piston AP Racing calipers. The wheels are 18-inch forged rims at the front and 19s at the rear, wrapped in bespoke Nankang semi-slick tyres.
Donkervoort P24 RS price and options
As you might expect, this kind of performance and exclusivity doesn’t come cheap. When the P24 RS is launched here in 2028 – coinciding with Donkervoort’s 50th anniversary – it will cost £302,400. Serious supercar money, in other words. UK sales are via Premier GT in West Sussex, or you can buy one direct from the factory.
Nailing its hardcore credentials to the wall, the options available for a P24 RS include power steering, anti-lock brakes (ABS) and air conditioning. You can also tailor the specification to your taste, with finishes such as the green-tinted carbon fibre seen here. “Every one of the 150 cars will be unique,” explains Mond. “There is no such thing as a typical Donkervoort owner.”
This particular P24 RS also sports the bolt-on Aero Package. Made from Ex-Core and yours for £17,000, it adds up to 180kg of downforce via an enormous, snowplough-like front splitter, side skirts and dainty hoop spoilers behind each of the rear wheels. Best to combine it with the suspension lift kit (£7,660), mind, or you risk becoming beached at the first hint of a speed hump.
Guaranteed to get attention
The P24 RS is “a beast even by Donkervoort standards,” says Mond. It looks suitably intimidating, too – like a praying mantis ready to strike. I’m also reminded of a die-cast Hot Wheels toy rendered at 100 percent scale, or perhaps a Transformer before it switches into a robot. Ultimately, this is a car that looks like nothing else.
Closer inspection reveals a high standard of fit and finish, from the alignment of the carbon fibre weave between body panels to the plush, leather-lined interior. A Lotus Seven-esque kit car this is not.
If it didn’t already look striking enough, lifting the Donkervoort’s dihedral doors is guaranteed to draw a crowd. My favourite design detail, though, has to be the pop-out LED headlights, which pivot upwards from either side of the nose cone when switched on, and look like an additional pair of aerodynamic winglets.
Inside the Donkervoort P24 RS
Swivelling your hips over the broad sill requires a certain dexterity, although you can unclip the steering wheel, racing car-style, to make access easier. Once ensconced, the carbon-shelled Recaro seats are remarkably roomy and the driving position offers plenty of adjustment, even if the four-point harnesses are a faff. I’d swap them for conventional seat belts if you plan to use your P24 RS for road trips, rather than as a track toy.
Indeed, Mond says this is very much a road car, estimating that only around 10 percent of owners take part in track days. “I know at least three people who have a Donkervoort as their only car and drive it daily,” he adds. “The boot holds 298 litres, so you can definitely use it for touring over long distances.”
You sit low with the wheel pulled close to your chest and legs tucked inside a narrow footwell. A small screen displays the essential driving data, but there are no other distractions: just a few eyeball air vents, a stubby manual gear lever and the bright red PTC controller. No stability control either. Gulp. Let’s start off in Comfort mode, shall we?
An onslaught for the senses
At first, driving the Donkervoort feels a bit alien. You can see the front wheels, for starters, and like a Morgan or Caterham, there’s a sense of being atop the rear axle with the majority of the car stretched out ahead. Thankfully, this P24 RS has the electromechanical power steering option because a) it’s direct and full of detail, and b) I suspect it would be a workout without it.
The shift lever is notchy and heavy, and the pedal positioning makes it tricky to heel-and-toe, but there is an auto-blip function if you want to cheat. As in the Ford GT, the Ecoboost V6 inhales the road with a furious whoosh of turbocharged boost, interrupted by gasps of escaping air when you snatch the next gear. It’s intense and industrial, rather than tuneful or evocative like the old Audi five-pot.
By God, though, it’s quick. The 400hp setting merely feels fast, but step up to 500hp Touring mode and things suddenly get altogether more serious. The five-speed gearbox’s ratios are exceptionally long – second gear does the job around town and on tighter country lanes – yet acceleration is still utterly explosive. With so little weight, the Donkervoort gathers speed like it’s been dropped from a plane with no parachute.
I’ll confess, I only switched into maximum-attack Performance mode for a few minutes, wary of the lack of stability systems and my sub-Max Verstappen level of driving talent. Here, as with many modern supercars, you encounter the kind of performance that is hard to deploy on a public road. It’s an onslaught for the senses, but one that demands a cool head and a calm pair of hands. In the midst of a heatwave, with the roof open and no air-con (not an option fitted to this P24 RS), it feels a bit beyond my skill set.
Slippery when wet
There is much to enjoy here without going at silly speeds, though. The Donkervoort is unashamedly analogue, a car that demands your attention, even when you are just pottering through villages at 20mph. From its feathery steering to its lithe body control, you feel intimately involved with every input. Heading home in my family SUV later felt like driving with my limbs inside several layers of bubble wrap.
That sense of connection swiftly builds your confidence, too. You can sense the lack of the weight over the front wheels and feel the rubber bite as you turn in. And at the rear, a Torsen differential provides a crisp, mechanical link between the engine and the driven wheels, allowing you to trim the car’s line using the throttle – or flick it sideways, should the mood take you.
Guiding the Dookervoort along wet, winter roads would doubtless be very different, requiring a delicacy akin to handling a live grenade. But in an era where cars increasingly feel like appliances, one that makes every drive an experience, and makes driving an end in itself, is to be applauded.
Verdict: Donkervoort P24 RS
As I handed back the keys to the P24 RS, half of me ached for another go, while the other half was thankful to have returned the car in one piece and really fancied a small lie-down, thank you very much. As you will have gathered by now, this is a car of contrasts. It takes a familiar formula to extremes that would have been unimaginable all those years ago, when Joop Donkervoort first laid eyes on a Lotus Seven
If you’re the sort of person who feels supercars have gone a bit soft, the P24 RS could be just the tonic. Just don’t expect to travel anywhere very quickly – even if a few more Brits now know what the hell a Donkervoort is.
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