BONKERS DONKERS! The Donkervoort D8 GTO RS is Faster Than My 675LT!
**Article:**
**Introduction to the Donkervoort D8 GTO RS**
During Top Marques Monaco, Smee had the opportunity to explore the Donkervoort D8 GTO RS, a high-performance track car that captivated his attention. Known for its striking bright green color and aggressive design, this car builds on the legacy of the regular D8 GTO model, which Smee previously tested in the Netherlands.
**Exterior Design and Features**
The D8 GTO RS is a carbon fiber marvel, with the bonnet being the only aluminum component. Its aerodynamic enhancements include a redesigned front end to funnel air for increased downforce, new guide vanes, and strategically positioned outakes. The rear features a more aggressive diffuser and carbon fiber components, complementing its lightweight structure. Notably, under the rear, drivers can opt for a fabric soft top or a luggage compartment, offering unexpected practicality despite its track-focused nature.
**Interior and Driver Experience**
Inside, the RS offers an ultra-stripped-down cockpit designed for maximum driver engagement. The door mechanism is a highlight, weighing just under one kilogram, while the seats and headrests are equally lightweight. The steering wheel and digital dash display are new additions, providing race-focused controls such as brake bias adjustment, ABS settings, and sport mode with auto-rev matching. The harnesses and cage integration emphasize safety without compromising on weight.
**Performance and Track Capabilities**
With 415 horsepower and a curb weight of 695 kg, the RS accelerates from 0-100 km/h in 2.7 seconds and 0-200 km/h in 7.8 seconds, outpacing even the 675 LT. Its sticky Toyo tyres and precise handling make it a formidable track machine. The short shifter and manual blip functionality add to the driving excitement.
**Driving Impressions and Conclusion**
The test drive revealed the RS's raw power and precision, with Smee describing the experience as "one of the best drives I've had in a while." Despite its daunting performance, the car's smile factor and exclusivity (with only 65 units produced) make it a desirable collector's item. While its price tag exceeds six figures, the thrill and engineering excellence of the Donkervoort D8 GTO RS are unmatched, promising an unforgettable driving experience for those who dare to own it.
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This article captures the essence of the Donkervoort D8 GTO RS, highlighting its engineering prowess, performance capabilities, and the sheer joy it brings to its drivers.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys i'm smee and today during top marks monaco we're going to take a look at this fairly bonkers bright green thing that sat behind me this is the doncavort d8 gto rs before now i visited donkevort in the netherlands and had a test drive in the regular if you can call it that d8 gto a car that i was really rather surprised by and enjoyed an awful lot now this morning i've got an opportunity to show you around the car and take it for a very short test drive to see what the rs is like on top of that so this thing it's under 700 kilos and it has over 400 horsepower some quick maths for you not to 100 kilometers an hour 2.7 seconds not 200 kilometers an hour 7.8 seconds that makes it faster than my 675 lt let's take a look around it in a little bit more detail so the rs has been significantly updated from the d8 gto that came before basically it's all carbon fiber apart from the bonnet which is aluminium there is a lot of new aero and design that's gone into it but it maintains obviously the same shape the extended front bonnet the very rearward seating position rear-wheel drive sticky tyres basically a car that is perfect for some track fun they're built in the netherlands which i think is pretty cool and this car down here in monaco during the top marks week so to be precise about the numbers 415 horsepower out of this 695 kilos the previous car was 380 horsepower and 750 kilos so with 35 horsepower up 50 kilos down and like i mentioned there are going to be 65 of them so 40 of the regular car like this 15 of them with full exposed carbon fiber over the full body work you can see we've got parts of exposed carbon fiber on this rs and then a further 10 track only race cars in effect so looking around it a little bit more what can i tell you if you don't know already we can open up the door which has a pretty awesome hinge mechanism the door weighs less than one kilo by the way carbon fiber everything is carbon fiber it's a new design this sort of part if i close it back down it used to sort of have this sort of soft bit that came down to here but now it's a little bit more enclosed and aerodynamic leaning towards that rear hoop on the inside the seats also less than one kilo you look at this thing it's like to save weight even the headrest is just that single carbon strut beneath it um obviously harnesses are fully sort of race trick tricked out i'm going to jump in and fire all of this up in a moment but new steering wheel new new dials a new digital dash display um it's it's a stripped out racer you can just see the way the cage is integrated into the whole car um so give that a shut down like so more carbon you've got to love all the exposed carbon everywhere but let's talk a little bit about the aero and what makes it even quicker so the front end has been redesigned basically to take air in to funnel it through the car to give the car more down force so you've got this you've also got new sort of guide vanes underneath and uh intakes as well as partnering those with these outtakes on the back which you can see are basically uh positioned and angled to keep that front end planted down to the ground along with these sort of funnels here in the side skirt too so all of this is redesigned and reworked air can also come out through the front vents to keep the front end down on the ground which is also now a little bit wider than the previous car the rear same width but one thing i think is quite cool is under here you can either have the fabric soft top or you can have a luggage compartment so there's actually quite a lot of storage space back here i'll just open it up a bit more so you can see you could get uh some suitcases in there if you wanted and you dropped the poppers to close it back up again as well he says just doing that as i go um this is something you don't want to do with a camera in your hand i'll come back to that shortly um so elsewhere on the exterior maybe i can show you under the bonnet and you press the little poppers here let's open it up which is kind of cool then you um lift this up very very lightweight literally i can pick that up easily have a quick glimpse underneath apologies in advance for any wind noise up here you can see the engine tucked in there um basically stripped out as it needs to be really uh there's not nothing extra that isn't absolutely needed and then just line the panel back up and pop it back into place it's quite easy to do there we go closed i didn't think i'd be able to do that one-handed so let me jump in for a moment and show you on the inside now this is probably going to be a challenge single-handedly as i step in over the side still but look how low okay look how low that is to the ground from where i'm sat the base of the seat basically feels like it's at ground level quite hard to tell with the light here right now but it must be this sort of height like literally i don't know that far off the ground or something so it's probably going to feel pretty uh solid when you're sat in here so let me slide in there we go that wasn't too hard actually and this is where you are snug pull the door down give it a thud you're so low and in and it's a big steer bigger steering wheel than before but a new design everything is cool you've got the sort of fighter jet style on for the mains power turn the key to bring everything to life you get a cool needle suite with all the dials the new display with the rs logo let's fire it up there we go that is very raw and savage sound so you've got some new controls well i mean you've got lots of track orientated controls you've got brake bias you've got your abs setting you've now got sport mode which will give you automatic rev matching and blipping um what else do you have around here your usual kind of light traction control toggle um everything you sort of expect to have but that's kind of nice touch if you want the car to auto blip for you the steering wheel has new sort of menu and controls this button p watch what the lights do race style flash it away i've been actually pressing so many times i think it's brought me into the menu which is the next thing i wanted to show you you have like gps and track monitoring uh lap timers and things all sorts of different settings and stuff that you've got in there which is all controlled through this toggle down here on the side um so basically uh track car for your future drive and enjoy and can be driven on the road and i think it would only be appropriate now to take this car out and uh go for a little run in it and basically see what it is like because sat here it's reminded me of a very good time i had with it last time around so let me hook up my cameras let's head on out for a little drive okay away we go and i hope you can hear me driving with the top down that it's not too windy but immediately this thing feels like a race car everything is very very precise the clutch pedal is heavy the throttle and brake pedals are very very sensitive as you'd expect there's no power steering so that's quite a workout to get right but it just feels ready to bounce and go there's a very short throw on the shifter so you get quite a nice satisfaction feeling doing it oh and there goes the gt3 rs just monaco things that sounded good as well we're just driving down the hill it already has a smile on my face and that's a manual blip i've not gone into the sport mode yet oh it feels like there's a lot of power available to you here yeah there's definitely a lot of power available here but it is like i said it's quite a workout but cars like that are what give you the sort of excitement feeling and the sense of satisfaction when you drive them well and dirt properly there's a car turning around in the hairpin oh dear around we go and away we go my goodness war that propels you into the next century it just picks up and goes that flies that really really and truly flies oh okay hard work on the hairpins but turns in solidly the way we go goodness me guys this is fast and it has the race abs but obviously i'm driving it for the first time in fairly babyish settings relative to what it's capable of but this is um it's requiring concentration it's a proper drive but the numbers speak for themselves it is brutally fast savage amounts of power available and the noise is cool too it's all around you you feel all the vibrations all the bumps everything about the car wow wow this is just awesome this is so so cool okay so let's just mellow out for a second and chill and think about this obviously it's got tiny mirrors you can't see that much there's a very long bonnet out in front of you the wheels you can position nicely because you can see the covers over the top of them but you feel like you're in a race car even if you're not centrally seated you still feel like track car go um there's not much of the car behind you it's pretty much all in front so you're basically sat over the rear wheels i imagine it's probably quite a fun drifting machine as well but this is just cool i'm going to spin around though pop it into sport mode and head back up the hill so then one flick of that we're in sport mode and we've got an open stretch in front of us uphill holy moly whoa okay this is quick uphill my goodness then split the shifts wow literally that is all i can say right now yeah this is a monster just a little squirt and away you go it just takes off a warp speed it is ludicrously quick oh my goodness me your eyes are just glued to the numbers rising well actually they're not they're staring at the tarmac in front of you because of the rate at which you're accelerating how much concentration you require and then you gloves down on the numbers and you're like huh i'm doing what and the only thing that beats that sense of rapid getting get up and go it's the wind in your hair while you're doing it it might not be the sunniest of days today but this feels pretty perfect to me and the shifts the short shifter is such a beautiful thing to drop in this is this is just taking the words away from my mouth it's perfection it's just incredible oh wow just going around the hairpin turning itself is not the best guys genuinely i'm left a little bit speechless my goodness me this is this is one of the drives of what i've had the best drives i've had in a while it's so ridiculously good as a car so ridiculously good can you put a price then on happiness well i think in this instance you actually can it might be into six figures somewhere just over a hundred thousand pounds for this thing but that does not really matter the smile it puts on your face and the enjoyment you have driving this thing is just unlike anything else it is out of this world exciting whatever you can do you need something like this in your life just to enjoy and get the pure thrill of driving a little bit of a workout a little bit of harder sort of effort to have to make it happen but then you go and my goodness it's it's like jww said about the lt spider sell your house sell your wife sell your kids you need one of these and yes you do quadrifoglio there julia oh my goodness up weed go again and just it's like an aircraft taking off you're just clicking on because you're going away like you wouldn't believe oh my word and it clicks on it turns in beautifully it grips and it grips oh boy okay this has been uh quite a fun run or two here oh time to uh chill a little bit relax try and drive it civilized it's not a car that's ever gonna let you drive it in a civilized manner you just want to push on for taking what i'm looking at look around me a little bit but then you just want to do this again just because it's utterly ludicrous actually absolutely utterly utterly ludicrous it just goes mamma mia don't care you've done well this is amazing guys i don't really know what to say this thing is just amazing it has that rawness and excitement and the smile factor which just is something out of this world it's so raw so like racy and well you can hear even the rattling i think from the flywheel now press the clutch in it gets a little bit more gentle but let's uh put it back in gear and shut this down just take a moment to think about this car just all these details everything is so nice and so driver focused i mean that mirror is not up to much but the whole experience of it and driving in this thing is just out of this world it's crazy um to open the door by the way you've got a lever down here you sort of pull that and press it with your elbow and up it goes and it literally weighs nothing i mean well a kilo i should say um not quite nothing now comes the challenge getting out holding a video camera which is not the easiest task in the world hey i've actually managed mission success so so so so so so let's shut that down for a moment oh he says i've managed to get this caught the production cars are actually going to have all the final cars have a whole new armrest system as well padded armrests but yeah i mean what else can i tell you more aggressive diffuser than the regular d8 gto there's the new rs badging just a monster sticky toyo rubber the way the exhaust pipes are down the side inside this sort of housing with the gto cut out and the mesh is just really really cool in every way what a mental machine what an exciting machine to drive and just look at it especially in a bright lumo color like this the lumo lime green just standing out like crazy like you wouldn't believe it is something out of this planet truly extraordinary and i'm really rather sad that i have to say goodbye to it i think one of these would be quite nice in the air in the shmi 150 fleets what do you think guys something different from everything else i own different category of car track car ah i love that as you can tell i hope i haven't been too over the top but thank you very much dunkavor for the drive in the d8 gto rs this has been awesome and i hope you've enjoyed this look coming along for some driving impressions and seeing a bit more about the new carbon fiber beast that is the rs i'll wrap it up for there thank you very much for watching guys and i'll catch up with you again very soon cheers youhi guys i'm smee and today during top marks monaco we're going to take a look at this fairly bonkers bright green thing that sat behind me this is the doncavort d8 gto rs before now i visited donkevort in the netherlands and had a test drive in the regular if you can call it that d8 gto a car that i was really rather surprised by and enjoyed an awful lot now this morning i've got an opportunity to show you around the car and take it for a very short test drive to see what the rs is like on top of that so this thing it's under 700 kilos and it has over 400 horsepower some quick maths for you not to 100 kilometers an hour 2.7 seconds not 200 kilometers an hour 7.8 seconds that makes it faster than my 675 lt let's take a look around it in a little bit more detail so the rs has been significantly updated from the d8 gto that came before basically it's all carbon fiber apart from the bonnet which is aluminium there is a lot of new aero and design that's gone into it but it maintains obviously the same shape the extended front bonnet the very rearward seating position rear-wheel drive sticky tyres basically a car that is perfect for some track fun they're built in the netherlands which i think is pretty cool and this car down here in monaco during the top marks week so to be precise about the numbers 415 horsepower out of this 695 kilos the previous car was 380 horsepower and 750 kilos so with 35 horsepower up 50 kilos down and like i mentioned there are going to be 65 of them so 40 of the regular car like this 15 of them with full exposed carbon fiber over the full body work you can see we've got parts of exposed carbon fiber on this rs and then a further 10 track only race cars in effect so looking around it a little bit more what can i tell you if you don't know already we can open up the door which has a pretty awesome hinge mechanism the door weighs less than one kilo by the way carbon fiber everything is carbon fiber it's a new design this sort of part if i close it back down it used to sort of have this sort of soft bit that came down to here but now it's a little bit more enclosed and aerodynamic leaning towards that rear hoop on the inside the seats also less than one kilo you look at this thing it's like to save weight even the headrest is just that single carbon strut beneath it um obviously harnesses are fully sort of race trick tricked out i'm going to jump in and fire all of this up in a moment but new steering wheel new new dials a new digital dash display um it's it's a stripped out racer you can just see the way the cage is integrated into the whole car um so give that a shut down like so more carbon you've got to love all the exposed carbon everywhere but let's talk a little bit about the aero and what makes it even quicker so the front end has been redesigned basically to take air in to funnel it through the car to give the car more down force so you've got this you've also got new sort of guide vanes underneath and uh intakes as well as partnering those with these outtakes on the back which you can see are basically uh positioned and angled to keep that front end planted down to the ground along with these sort of funnels here in the side skirt too so all of this is redesigned and reworked air can also come out through the front vents to keep the front end down on the ground which is also now a little bit wider than the previous car the rear same width but one thing i think is quite cool is under here you can either have the fabric soft top or you can have a luggage compartment so there's actually quite a lot of storage space back here i'll just open it up a bit more so you can see you could get uh some suitcases in there if you wanted and you dropped the poppers to close it back up again as well he says just doing that as i go um this is something you don't want to do with a camera in your hand i'll come back to that shortly um so elsewhere on the exterior maybe i can show you under the bonnet and you press the little poppers here let's open it up which is kind of cool then you um lift this up very very lightweight literally i can pick that up easily have a quick glimpse underneath apologies in advance for any wind noise up here you can see the engine tucked in there um basically stripped out as it needs to be really uh there's not nothing extra that isn't absolutely needed and then just line the panel back up and pop it back into place it's quite easy to do there we go closed i didn't think i'd be able to do that one-handed so let me jump in for a moment and show you on the inside now this is probably going to be a challenge single-handedly as i step in over the side still but look how low okay look how low that is to the ground from where i'm sat the base of the seat basically feels like it's at ground level quite hard to tell with the light here right now but it must be this sort of height like literally i don't know that far off the ground or something so it's probably going to feel pretty uh solid when you're sat in here so let me slide in there we go that wasn't too hard actually and this is where you are snug pull the door down give it a thud you're so low and in and it's a big steer bigger steering wheel than before but a new design everything is cool you've got the sort of fighter jet style on for the mains power turn the key to bring everything to life you get a cool needle suite with all the dials the new display with the rs logo let's fire it up there we go that is very raw and savage sound so you've got some new controls well i mean you've got lots of track orientated controls you've got brake bias you've got your abs setting you've now got sport mode which will give you automatic rev matching and blipping um what else do you have around here your usual kind of light traction control toggle um everything you sort of expect to have but that's kind of nice touch if you want the car to auto blip for you the steering wheel has new sort of menu and controls this button p watch what the lights do race style flash it away i've been actually pressing so many times i think it's brought me into the menu which is the next thing i wanted to show you you have like gps and track monitoring uh lap timers and things all sorts of different settings and stuff that you've got in there which is all controlled through this toggle down here on the side um so basically uh track car for your future drive and enjoy and can be driven on the road and i think it would only be appropriate now to take this car out and uh go for a little run in it and basically see what it is like because sat here it's reminded me of a very good time i had with it last time around so let me hook up my cameras let's head on out for a little drive okay away we go and i hope you can hear me driving with the top down that it's not too windy but immediately this thing feels like a race car everything is very very precise the clutch pedal is heavy the throttle and brake pedals are very very sensitive as you'd expect there's no power steering so that's quite a workout to get right but it just feels ready to bounce and go there's a very short throw on the shifter so you get quite a nice satisfaction feeling doing it oh and there goes the gt3 rs just monaco things that sounded good as well we're just driving down the hill it already has a smile on my face and that's a manual blip i've not gone into the sport mode yet oh it feels like there's a lot of power available to you here yeah there's definitely a lot of power available here but it is like i said it's quite a workout but cars like that are what give you the sort of excitement feeling and the sense of satisfaction when you drive them well and dirt properly there's a car turning around in the hairpin oh dear around we go and away we go my goodness war that propels you into the next century it just picks up and goes that flies that really really and truly flies oh okay hard work on the hairpins but turns in solidly the way we go goodness me guys this is fast and it has the race abs but obviously i'm driving it for the first time in fairly babyish settings relative to what it's capable of but this is um it's requiring concentration it's a proper drive but the numbers speak for themselves it is brutally fast savage amounts of power available and the noise is cool too it's all around you you feel all the vibrations all the bumps everything about the car wow wow this is just awesome this is so so cool okay so let's just mellow out for a second and chill and think about this obviously it's got tiny mirrors you can't see that much there's a very long bonnet out in front of you the wheels you can position nicely because you can see the covers over the top of them but you feel like you're in a race car even if you're not centrally seated you still feel like track car go um there's not much of the car behind you it's pretty much all in front so you're basically sat over the rear wheels i imagine it's probably quite a fun drifting machine as well but this is just cool i'm going to spin around though pop it into sport mode and head back up the hill so then one flick of that we're in sport mode and we've got an open stretch in front of us uphill holy moly whoa okay this is quick uphill my goodness then split the shifts wow literally that is all i can say right now yeah this is a monster just a little squirt and away you go it just takes off a warp speed it is ludicrously quick oh my goodness me your eyes are just glued to the numbers rising well actually they're not they're staring at the tarmac in front of you because of the rate at which you're accelerating how much concentration you require and then you gloves down on the numbers and you're like huh i'm doing what and the only thing that beats that sense of rapid getting get up and go it's the wind in your hair while you're doing it it might not be the sunniest of days today but this feels pretty perfect to me and the shifts the short shifter is such a beautiful thing to drop in this is this is just taking the words away from my mouth it's perfection it's just incredible oh wow just going around the hairpin turning itself is not the best guys genuinely i'm left a little bit speechless my goodness me this is this is one of the drives of what i've had the best drives i've had in a while it's so ridiculously good as a car so ridiculously good can you put a price then on happiness well i think in this instance you actually can it might be into six figures somewhere just over a hundred thousand pounds for this thing but that does not really matter the smile it puts on your face and the enjoyment you have driving this thing is just unlike anything else it is out of this world exciting whatever you can do you need something like this in your life just to enjoy and get the pure thrill of driving a little bit of a workout a little bit of harder sort of effort to have to make it happen but then you go and my goodness it's it's like jww said about the lt spider sell your house sell your wife sell your kids you need one of these and yes you do quadrifoglio there julia oh my goodness up weed go again and just it's like an aircraft taking off you're just clicking on because you're going away like you wouldn't believe oh my word and it clicks on it turns in beautifully it grips and it grips oh boy okay this has been uh quite a fun run or two here oh time to uh chill a little bit relax try and drive it civilized it's not a car that's ever gonna let you drive it in a civilized manner you just want to push on for taking what i'm looking at look around me a little bit but then you just want to do this again just because it's utterly ludicrous actually absolutely utterly utterly ludicrous it just goes mamma mia don't care you've done well this is amazing guys i don't really know what to say this thing is just amazing it has that rawness and excitement and the smile factor which just is something out of this world it's so raw so like racy and well you can hear even the rattling i think from the flywheel now press the clutch in it gets a little bit more gentle but let's uh put it back in gear and shut this down just take a moment to think about this car just all these details everything is so nice and so driver focused i mean that mirror is not up to much but the whole experience of it and driving in this thing is just out of this world it's crazy um to open the door by the way you've got a lever down here you sort of pull that and press it with your elbow and up it goes and it literally weighs nothing i mean well a kilo i should say um not quite nothing now comes the challenge getting out holding a video camera which is not the easiest task in the world hey i've actually managed mission success so so so so so so let's shut that down for a moment oh he says i've managed to get this caught the production cars are actually going to have all the final cars have a whole new armrest system as well padded armrests but yeah i mean what else can i tell you more aggressive diffuser than the regular d8 gto there's the new rs badging just a monster sticky toyo rubber the way the exhaust pipes are down the side inside this sort of housing with the gto cut out and the mesh is just really really cool in every way what a mental machine what an exciting machine to drive and just look at it especially in a bright lumo color like this the lumo lime green just standing out like crazy like you wouldn't believe it is something out of this planet truly extraordinary and i'm really rather sad that i have to say goodbye to it i think one of these would be quite nice in the air in the shmi 150 fleets what do you think guys something different from everything else i own different category of car track car ah i love that as you can tell i hope i haven't been too over the top but thank you very much dunkavor for the drive in the d8 gto rs this has been awesome and i hope you've enjoyed this look coming along for some driving impressions and seeing a bit more about the new carbon fiber beast that is the rs i'll wrap it up for there thank you very much for watching guys and i'll catch up with you again very soon cheers you\n"