Donkervoort S7 History

The S7 was Joop Donkervoort's debut car, introduced in 1978 after he set out to improve on the Lotus Super Seven concept he had admired as a teenager. Built in a small workshop in Tienhoven, it used a 1.6-litre Ford Crossflow OHV engine producing around 90 PS, paired with a four-speed manual gearbox.

Lightweight and raw, the S7 established Donkervoort's founding philosophy of minimum weight and maximum driver involvement — a 'No Compromise' ethos that would define every model that followed. Production ran from 1978 to 1982, with a later variant also offered with a 2.0-litre Ford OHC engine.