LELYSTAD, 22 May 2008 – In the production facility of Donkervoort Automobielen, the production of the D8 GT has started. In 2007, the D8 GT was introduced during the Salon de l’Automobile in Geneva, Switzerland. Over the course of last year, we have worked hard on making the prototype ready for production. This is currently in full swing and in August of this year, we expect to deliver the first cars to our customers.

The D8 GT has been created based on past racing experiences. Donkervoort's objective was to build a closed car and to improve the aerodynamics at the same time. The first experiments took place in 2004 and 2005, when a Donkervoort broke the lap record for production cars on the Nordschleife not once, but twice! This record car had also been equipped with a hardtop, which greatly improved the aerodynamics. Using these experiences, the D8 GT was created based on the existing D8, with a hardtop roof and wing doors. Only the front end of the frame remained unchanged with regards to the open D8.

Large number of adjustments
But not only the coupé roof and the wing doors make the D8 GT different from the current D8 version. The entire nose end has been modified in favour of aerodynamics, to name just one of the changes. The previously always separated head lights have now been integrated and large air exits take care of extra cooling. The wheel suspension has become wider, which increases the wheel base with no less than eight centimetres. Both the brakes and the light weight 17-inch wheels are specially developed for the Donkervoort D8 GT - by Tarox (Italy) and Race (Japan) respectively.

Less CO2 emission thanks to the low weight
Carbon fibre is used frequently in the D8 GT. Resulting from this is that the roof and the doors of the GT weigh even less than the cloth roof and doors of the open D8! The total weight of the car is just 680 kilogram’s, which makes the new Donkervoort the world’s lightest GT ever. With this, Donkervoort introduces a new approach to handling the tightening CO2 emission regulations; the D8 GT will comply with the future most strict emission requirements without a doubt. The new roof adds extra stiffness to the frame, which by itself is already particularly stiff. The carbon fibre body work contains integrated crash boxes and strengthening girders, which has increased the passive safety.