Donkervoort F22 First Drive: This Is True Performance

Immediate. Relentless. Stupefying. They're the words that immediately spring to mind when you drive the Donkervoort F22. There is simply nothing like it on four wheels. At any price.

One fast run in the F22 is to realize how much work today's supercars are doing on your behalf, and how weight is truly is the enemy of performance, both in a straight line, and around corners. Pushing the little Donkervoort along a winding mountain road makes even benchmark driver's cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 RS feel a little detached, a little lazy. After a session in the F22, hot-shoeing a Ferrari 296GTB seems video game easy, and hustling the Lamborghini Revuelto feels like relaxation therapy. A Bugatti Chiron seems lumpen.

The Donkervoort F22 is the latest in a long line of fast, ultra-light, minimalist sports cars from the tiny automaker founded by Dutchman Joop Donkervoort in 1978. Joop had bought the rights to build replicas of Colin Chapman's iconic Lotus 7, only to discover that car could not be made street legal in the Netherlands without major chassis alterations. Undaunted, he re-engineered the chassis to make it compliant, beginning a process of evolution that over the next four decades would see Donkervoort take Chapman's concept to levels of performance the Lotus founder could never have imagined.

Joop Donkervoort handed over the family business to son Denis in 2021. The F22 is very much Denis Donkervoort's car. And it's the most radical Donkervoort yet, by some margin.

Denis Donkervoort wanted a car that retained the company's core DNA, a car that was small, fast, and ultra-light. But he also wanted to make it easier to use than any previous Donkervoort, with more interior room, more luggage space, and a detachable hardtop roof. That's not to say the F22, which also boasts hydraulically adjustable ride height, six different settings for both damper rates and traction control, and available with electrically powered air conditioning and electric power steering, has gone soft. Far from it.

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The air conditioning and power steering are options. So are anti-lock brakes. Race-style six-point safety harnesses are standard, not just because 98 percent of buyers of the F22's predecessor, the Donkervoort D8 GTO-JD70 opted for them over a regular three-point seatbelt, but also because they obviated the need for weighty airbags. Despite an interior that's 3.2 inches wider and almost 4.0 inches longer than that of the D8 GTO-JD70, the F22 weighs just 1,654 pounds. And it has 492 hp and 472 lb-ft of torque under its carbon fiber hood.

Let's put some context around those last three numbers: In simple terms, the Donkervoort F22 has the same power and torque as a C8 Corvette Stingray but weighs half as much. That gives it a weight-to-power ratio of 3.36 pounds per horsepower, which is almost 10 percent better than that of a McLaren Senna. No wonder, then, the little Donkervoort's claimed 0 to 60mph acceleration time of less than 2.5 seconds easily shades the mid-engine Chevy's 2.8 seconds, even though it has a conventional Tremec five-speed manual gearbox versus the Chevy's slick-shifting eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. Donkervoort also claims the F22 will get to 124 mph in 7.5 seconds and has a top speed of 180 mph.

That giant-killing performance is delivered by an engine that has just 40 percent the capacity of the Stingray's 6.2-liter V-8. Yes, mass matters, but that takes nothing away from the 2.5-liter, turbocharged Audi five-cylinder engine that, after a thorough rework by long-time Audi tuning specialists ABT Sportsline, punches out almost 200 hp per liter. It's a mighty thing, making its 492 hp at 6,360 rpm, with its peak torque of 472 lb-ft arriving at 5,150 rpm. The power and torque delivery are utterly relentless from 3,000 rpm all the way to the 6,800 rpm rev limiter. You change gears because that's as fast the engine revs, not because its intensity is starting to fade.

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The Tremec five-speed, its stumpy shifter extending little more than fist height from the carbon-fiber center console, has a heavy, deliberate action that requires some effort. But the wide gate is clearly defined; you know what gear you're in by feel and won't wrong-slot it when shifting in a hurry. The pedals are well placed, both in terms of spacing and height. The clutch throw is nice and short, and it's easy to heel-and-toe on downshifts, though the F22's electronic brain allows for rev-matching as you go to a lower gear if you want, as well as no-lift-shift capability on upshifts.

The Tremec's ratios are relatively long, which, combined with the F22's light weight and the engine's epic thrust from mid-range to redline, means you don't spend much time working the shifter. "The engine has a lot of torque, and the long gearing helps make the car easier to drive," says Denis Donkervoort. "We can do a whole lap of the Nordschleife using only third and fourth gears."

Run the engine to the rev limiter, and first gear will get the F22 to about 57 mph, second to roughly 86 mph, and third to about 129 mph. Those numbers are approximate because, well, the Donkervoort F22 certainly gets your attention on a full-throttle acceleration run. Especially on a damp road where, even with the traction control offering the most assistance, it effortlessly spun the rear wheels at 90 mph in third gear.

The stopwatch says there are supercars with quicker roll-on acceleration than this Donkervoort, but in those cars, such pace feels mildly diverting. In the F22 it feels almost cataclysmic; all sound and fury, the wind rushing overhead, the rear end squirming. Nothing on four wheels—nothing with license plates, at least—feels as viscerally fast as this little roadster. It's as elemental, as thrilling as a sportbike—and almost as unforgiving if you make a mistake.

Our test drive included a run on some of the scintillating switchbacks through the Pyrenees Mountains, on the border of Spain and France, that mid-way through was enlivened by a tropical downpour. The F22's Hankook Sportnex CR-S tires, at 235/40 ZR18 at the front and 275/35 ZR19 at the rear, are little more than slicks with a few grooves, and they skated over any standing water. Despite the best efforts of the Torsen limited slip differential, finding grip and balance in these conditions was like walking a tightrope over a pit full of alligators.

On a dry track, with the Hankooks good and toasty, Denis Donkervoort says the F22 is capable of 2.15g of lateral acceleration, a number achieved in part thanks to the car's ultra-stiff chassis, a hybrid of steel tubing, aluminum, and a carbon fiber sandwich material called Ex-Core that has twice the torsional and bending rigidity of the chassis in the outgoing D8 GTO. We'll take his word for it, until we get a return run in the F22, hopefully next summer at the demanding Zandvoort F1 track just 55 miles from the Donkervoort factory in Leylstad, Holland.

What we can confirm, however, is that having such a stable platform has allowed fine tuning of the springs and stabilizer bars in the multi-link suspension to deliver a surprisingly comfortable ride with the active shocks in their softest settings while virtually abolishing roll through corners. The F22 has noticeable dive and squat, however, the nose rearing skyward under acceleration and dipping when you hit the unassisted AP Racing brakes. This is deliberate, says Denis Donkervoort, designed to add an extra level of communication when driving on the road.

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Donkervoort says he's looking at perhaps softening the roll stiffness slightly as well to help the car communicate even more at lower speeds on regular roads. While the damp and slippery conditions prevented us exploring the potential of the F22's chassis, a little more roll would almost certainly help more precisely understand how hard you can lean on the outside front tire, especially as the standard unassisted steering is wonderfully talkative, the load evening out nicely at speed.

Donkervoort plans to build a mere 100 F22s between now and spring 2025, and at least eight of them are coming to the U.S. through the company's American partner, Florida-based AJR Restorations. Despite a price tag that starts at about $260,000, excluding shipping and taxes, Denis Donkervoort says American interest in the car is high.

Is the F22 a more useable Donkervoort? Certainly. The three-piece carbon fiber Targa roof will keep you warmer and drier, and there's 10.5 cu-ft of luggage space, enough for a few soft bags, in the trunk behind the seats. In addition to air conditioning, options include heated seats and front- and rear-view cameras to help parking. The interior is awash with carbon fiber. The vintage-roadster-meets-rocketship styling—a collaboration between Denis Donkervoort, Donkervoort technical director Jordi Wiersma, and Ford of Europe design director (and Donkervoort enthusiast) Amko Leenarts—will stop traffic in supercar hotspots from Los Angeles to London.

Make no mistake, though, in an era when the even the fastest hypercars will hurl you past 200 mph in leather-lined luxury, Mozart tinkling on the sound system, the F22 is still a minimalist ride; light and pure and explosively fast. We wouldn't want it any other way.