The gradual teaser campaign is familiar to the car industry now. Even specialists like Dutch firm Donkervoort aren’t immune. Today sees the dropping of its latest breadcrumb ahead of the winter reveal of the P24 RS, its quickest and most extreme offering yet.
As the pictures attest, it’s another sneaky teaser, but it’s also got PH some time in front of CEO Denis Donkervoort to dig a little deeper. The key news is that the P24 RS has delved into the world of Formula One for a pair of light, bespoke water-charge air coolers. Made with 3D printing, they weigh 1.4kg apiece compared to the 16kg of a conventional intercooler. When the company’s cars teeter around 750 kilos anyway, it’s a notable percentage saving.
The knowhow comes from Conflux, an Australian company founded by Michael Fuller, whose CV includes the Super Aguri, BMW Sauber and Mercedes-AMG F1 teams. Additive manufacturing – aka 3D printing – allows precision manufacturing via the melting of powdered metal and has resulted in dinky devices which slot directly between the turbochargers and throttle bodies. Great for packaging and weight distribution, while a boon for response and efficiency, too.
“Each component is 3D-printed with tailored fin geometry, density and size, grounded in engineering-first principles,” reads the bumf. “Water is cooled through a bespoke external radiator, then redirected to chill the intake air before it enters the combustion chamber. That precision enables consistent, high-performance delivery – under any condition.”
Denis, whose dad Joop Donkervoort founded the company, is delighted with the result. “We pushed our suppliers to think outside of the box and bring us their newest technology to put into this car,” he tells PH. “We gave Conflux our exact specifications and they delivered a solution so effective, we could downsize it from the original prototype.”
What he won’t yet be drawn on is precisely which engine these intercoolers are fitted to. “We have used the Audi five-cylinder for more than a decade,” he tells us. “Once we learned that it was no longer an option, it was very clear that we needed to step up our game to beat it. That engine is still something very special. It's very light, very powerful, it has the right emotion with its sound. But it also has its limitations, right? Audi is a strict company and we wanted to be able to go way more outside the box.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new engine is another OEM donor unit – just with a heap more bespoke components latched onto it. A pair of billet turbochargers come from Van der Lee, while we can expect the rest of Donkervoort’s collabs to be drip-fed throughout the year. We have gleaned from Denis that a manual gearbox remains intrinsic to his cars’ appeal, though. Goodie.
“We are not going over to hybrid or electric,” he affirms. “We are staying with conventional combustion architecture because we have a car that is very lightweight.” Which means staying manual? “Absolutely. I would never say never to the possibility of an automatic gearbox, but I would agree that a manual needs to remain as well. You as a driver are fully responsible for the car’s performance. While manual maybe isn’t the fastest nowadays, it's definitely the most fun. And that's a very important thing. Our cars are about providing the most fun.
“When you speak about lap times, then we do have our versions with a sequential gearbox. But because of our combination of light weight, high torque and the relatively long ratios we have chosen for our gearbox and differential, you don't need to shift that much anyway.”
Lap times, then: will the P24 RS take Donkervoort back to the Nordschleife to go chasing new records? “The car doesn't yet exist, so it's a bit too early to say if we can achieve such kind of records, but it's definitely going to be the fastest Donkervoort we have built. So that's a record in itself. Our hopes and expectations are high.”
A production mule is testing at the moment; by early summer a full prototype will be in development. The full P24 RS reveal is due in December with customer deliveries by March 2026. Plenty of those will make the move up from an existing Donkervoort.
“Our ambassadors are following us, and we have made them part of our decisions. When we learned that we needed a new drivetrain, for example, we sat at a dinner table brainstorming with them about what they would prefer. This gives you great confidence once you've made a decision that you are going in the right direction.”
What engine would you like to see in there?
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