The brand new, ultra-light Zenos E10 sports car will make its worldwide debut at January’s Autosport International show, the largest dedicated motorsport trade show in Europe.
The first model from Zenos Cars, a partnership between former Caterham Cars CEO Ansar Ali and COO Mark Edwards, will be unveiled at Birmingham’s NEC between the 9-12 January, along with pricing and additional technical details. Ali and Edwards have over thirty years of experience in the niche sports car sector, having worked together at Lotus.
“The launch of the E10 at Autosport International will mark another major milestone in what’s been an exciting 18 months since work begun on Zenos Cars,” said co-founder Ali. “Based on our experience, we know the sector and what drivers want, and with the Zenos E10 we have worked hard to develop a fun, engaging and affordable lightweight sports car. We’re looking forward to showing it to the world.”
The open-top, step-in two seater, a track focused yet road legal machine, is powered by a mid-mounted 2-litre Ford engine, producing 200bhp. However, with the car only weighing 650kg, it offers a power-to-weight ratio of 300bhp/tonne, covering 0-60mph in under five seconds.
A single aluminium ‘backbone’ will span the length of the E10, delivering strong torsional rigidity, accompanied by an aluminium rear sub frame and a safety cell featuring twin roll hoops and side-impact protection. The driver and passenger sit either side of the spine in an integrated carbon composite monocoque, made from recycled carbon fibre as a skin with a thermoplastic core.
The unique chassis architecture lends itself to the Zenos name, combining ‘zen’, representing purity, and ‘os’, loosely based on the Latin word for ‘vertebra’.
The E10 is expected to enter production in late 2014, with the first customer deliveries expected during the opening quarter of 2015. Following the E10, Zenos is planning a roadster, Project E11, and a GT Coupe, Project E12, based on the same chassis architecture.
