Zenos E10 from £24,995
The Zenos E10 has been unveiled at Autosport and we finally have a confirmed starting price of just £24,995
'Floating' bodywork over clever carbon tub
For a starting price of £24,995 the E10 comes with a 200hp normally aspirated 2.0-litre engine - supplied by Ford - driving the rear wheels through a five-speed gearbox. The price includes Bilstein dampers - inboard at the front - and Alcon two-pot calipers on the front wheels and more prosaic OEM ones at the rear.
With a kerb weight of 650kg that equates to over 300hp per tonne, 0-62 in a claimed 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 135mph. The latter figures are only part of the story though because the Zenos, as we already know, is designed to be more about the driving experience than bald numbers. That power to weight one is the biggest indication of what to expect though and it's worth bearing in mind that to get a Caterham of comparable performance would cost considerably more, a factory built R300 Superlight starting at £30,995. Consider also the KTM X-Bow and Vuhl 05 that the Zenos most closely resembles and their respective starting prices of £50,000 and £60,000...
Stylish, fast and - gasp - keenly priced!
To celebrate the car's unveiling at Autosport today Zenos has confirmed a limited run of 75 launch edition cars for £28,995. These come with a pack of features offered as options on the standard car, including a six-speed gearbox, limited-slip diff, quick release steering wheel, harnesses, OZ/Avon ZZR 'performance wheel pack', footwell heating and red 'launch edition' bodywork. Zenos says these options would usually cost £5,755 in total, the launch edition price offering a saving of £1,755 and maintaining that already significant price advantage over that R300 Superlight to which you'd need to add a further £1,300 for a limited-slip diff, £300 for a heater and so on.
Full details on the Zenos website while the car itself is on display at Autosport International this weekend.
UPDATE:
It's been correctly pointed out that a more accurate comparison with the current Caterham range now that the R300 has been discontinued would be against the Supersport R. This has 180hp for a comparable 300hp-plus per tonne power to weight ratio and costs £27,995 fully built, including a limited-slip differential as standard (optional on the standard Zenos). To spec a Supersport R up to the equivalent of the £28,995 launch edition Zenos E10 you'd need to add a six-speed gearbox, heater and quick-release wheel to the price, bringing the Caterham up to £31,440.
Makes the Aeroseven look like even more of a joke.
Trouble is, I'd be weighing it up against the G40 and, for only £5kish more it comes with a roof and a windscreen, thus making it a potential contender for use as someone's only car.
If they can achieve that with this, it could open up a full market ala the Elise.
Also, looking at the design, they've been really clever with the panel gaps (i.e. there aren't any - in the traditional sense). This will be important in the early days while they iron out fabrication quality issues... It will also make accident damage much easier to repair. I wonder if this was intentional?
Huge respect to Ansar Ali and Mark Edwards.
ETA: Lovely compact thing too, just over 3.5m long by 1.8m wide, from the website.
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