Sports Cars > Donto P1
The Donto P1 was and Argintinean sports car which failed to get past the pre-production stage. The first prototype was fitted with a 180 horsepower engine, but for the later prototypes Donto significantly upped the ante with a 300 horsepower unit mounted in a mid-transverse position. Donto never divulged what engine they used. But whatever it was, it was mated to a six-speed gearbox and allowed the car to accelerate from 0-62 mph (100 km/h) in 4 seconds, and carry on to a top speed of 161 mph (260km/h).
The car was originally conceived as a lightweight roadster to compete against the likes of the Ariel Atom and KTM X-Bow.
The Donto P1 is based around a stainless steel chassis covered with carbon fiber body panels. The designer, Lucas Lopez, has done a great job of making the car look stylish, sporty, and perhaps most importantly of all, original. There is a bit of KTM X-Bow in the design, but not so much it loses its own identity.
As you'd expect from such a lightweight, minimalist design, there wasn't a huge number of luxury options. However it did come with a removable roof and windshield allowing the occupants to talk to each other without fear of forcibly ingesting numerous hapless bugs. The simple dash featured a racecar-like AIM LCD display with 8 channels of data acquisition. In a further nod to its track-origins, the Donto P1 featured race harnesses and a removable steering wheel.
Back in 2010 Donto Motors envisaged a price tag of $55,000 for the production version.
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