In the history of the automobile, there have been some mighty names. Either evoking fear, lust or simply a sense of adventure, the name can make or break a car. Dodge really understood this. The Dart Swinger, the Viper, the Matador. One is the slayer of one ton beasts, one is a poisonous snake and the other is named after a strange sexy party. All things a typical male would be excited about! Heck, even the Rampage was a good name. Didn’t make it a cool car but you get my point. Names like Ramcharger, Stealth and Magnum make us forget about names like the La Femme and the Meadowbrook (although, the Meadowbrook is really good looking).
On the other side of the coin you have your awful names that make you want to go down to the automobile naming institute and smack some people around. The Volkswagen Touareg? I’m just hoping a Touareg is a menacing German machine gun or something. The Pagani Huayra doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue either. They’ve named this car after the Aymara god of wind. Kind of neat in a Lord of the Rings kind of way but for a car, no. And the Ford Probe…. it’s called a PROBE, for the love of God. Nobody wants that.
Car names go bad often when there named after the creator. We all remember the Gumpert Apollo. Amazing car with the nerdiest name ever.
Well, now theres a new awful name on the block. Enter the Donkervoort D8 GTO! Named after it’s Dutch creator, Joop Donkervoort, the D8 GTO is 100 times better than it’s crummy name. Weighing in at only 1540 lbs, this beautiful piece of machinery is powered by an Audi 2.5 liter turbo five-cylinder putting out about 340hp. If you are lucky enough to get one of the first 25 special edition versions, you’ll get 400hp via the magic “race” button.
Donkervoort D8 GTO
The D8 GTO is a bare bones, light weight machine. Like the Lotus 7 and Caterham line, the Donkervoort believes in the racing theory of lighter is faster. With 0-60 times around 3 seconds, I’d have to say thats a pretty strong theory.
Donkervoort D8 GTO
Starting at $130,000, the D8 GTO isn’t exactly light in the wallet area. A Caterham Superlight R500 starts under $62,000 and that car is no slouch. So using Terry math that should make the Donkervoort twice as good as the Caterham which is an insanely tall order.
So, although it’s no Thunderbolt or Marauder, I have a feeling the other kids won’t be making fun of little Donkervoort once he starts walloping them around the track.
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