RE: Zenos E10R: Spotted
Discussion
There have been a couple of non-R 2.0T unregistered cars on Autotrader for 16-17k for a while.
Seems like a bargain to me and different to the usual suspects worthy of consideration. A shame a screen and roof weren't a serious option which would have made a nice weekend toy - but that might be missing the point.
If you think a tiredish S2 Elise is about the same price ......
Seems like a bargain to me and different to the usual suspects worthy of consideration. A shame a screen and roof weren't a serious option which would have made a nice weekend toy - but that might be missing the point.
If you think a tiredish S2 Elise is about the same price ......
996jim said:
What a waste of the thick end of £30k. I always think there's a good reason a car company goes bust - better products are available, usually for less. Definately the case here, look in the classifieds and see what £30000 will buy you. Whilst it's nice to have something exclusive, it's better to have something that's not crap. Surely a Caterham is a better buy at that sort of money.
Caterham don’t make a car with that amount of power, the one they DO make that has 310bhp will set you back more than £30k for an equivalent age car!996jim said:
What a waste of the thick end of £30k. I always think there's a good reason a car company goes bust - better products are available, usually for less. Definately the case here, look in the classifieds and see what £30000 will buy you. Whilst it's nice to have something exclusive, it's better to have something that's not crap. Surely a Caterham is a better buy at that sort of money.
Companies go bust for all sorts of reasons, a sub-standard product is only one of these. Cash flow management is often the culprit, or with niche 'luxury' products like these a recession could easily temporarily wipe out your market.Oily76 said:
996jim said:
What a waste of the thick end of £30k. I always think there's a good reason a car company goes bust - better products are available, usually for less. Definately the case here, look in the classifieds and see what £30000 will buy you. Whilst it's nice to have something exclusive, it's better to have something that's not crap. Surely a Caterham is a better buy at that sort of money.
Companies go bust for all sorts of reasons, a sub-standard product is only one of these. Cash flow management is often the culprit, or with niche 'luxury' products like these a recession could easily temporarily wipe out your market.To order it was fully refundable deposit up to build start. Then a 50% payment. Full payment due when the build complete.
- however* everything bar a small admin charge was refundable and returnable within 14 days. Great for the customer (I ordered mine sight unseen) but bad for a business and suppliers.
They were at the rate of a 100 cars /year and had a reasonably full order book... but end of the day you still need cash on hand to do day to day stuff.
As for the product? Well I'm into my 3rd year with the first customer e10R and not going anywhere.
IanJ9375 said:
SpudLink said:
This is something that’s been discussed on the Zenos owners FB group. As I understand it the E10R has the Mustang engine which is not exactly the same as the Focus, and not prone to the same failure.
There's only one 2.3 engine - different head work is what takes the power up from Mustang level to Focus RS levels as I understand it, and this E10R has RS levels of power?As an RS owner the hype about failures is just that hype, the numbers are low and the only fallout from all the recall work has been further work required to address oil leaks
Yes the head is different but the engine used in the E10R is a custom built unit by Hendy with completely bespoke management setup.
It is not an off the shelf unit but to the lay person it makes sense to compare with the focus RS as it's the nearest comparable unit.
As I understand it, the main issue with the RS units that did fail was down to the fitment of the wrong head gasket. The faulty units had ones that looked identical but had a different part number and different characteristics.
Pericoloso said:
otolith said:
996jim said:
Definately the case here, look in the classifieds and see what £30000 will buy you.
What do you have in mind?
otolith said:
Pericoloso said:
otolith said:
996jim said:
Definately the case here, look in the classifieds and see what £30000 will buy you.
What do you have in mind?350 hp & torque, engineering pedigree. 30k.... struggling.
996jim said:
What a waste of the thick end of £30k. I always think there's a good reason a car company goes bust - better products are available, usually for less. Definately the case here, look in the classifieds and see what £30000 will buy you. Whilst it's nice to have something exclusive, it's better to have something that's not crap. Surely a Caterham is a better buy at that sort of money.
Still like to hear what is crap about it?Mine is a daily driver (ok, when it isn't raining).
The engine is a peach and is happy ticking over pushing... well.. not very much.
The interior is perfectly fine and comfortable - I did tick the boxes on heated seats which work way better than when driving my old 211 and even on other Lotus cars (the heaters were never up to much)
The windscreen is a proper windscreen with electronic demister but you can take it off with a spare pair of hands in 15 minutes.
The carbon tub is very strong - just google the accident in manchester. triple digit mph with multiple roll over impacts and both driver and passenger survived. Wouldn't want to go through that in a coffin, sorry, caterham
I confess, the handling isn't up to lotus standards - and with the R it has a little bit of a sledgehammer approach but its all about charm. The 211 was a surgical instrument that had poise and control. Even though the 211 is heavier and under powered I suspect it would be comparable to the zenos on all but the fastest of tracks. the zenos is rawer and more edgy but I prefer it. No ABS, traction control, launch control, assisted steering, variable dampers - hell, not even assisted brakes. And it's all the better for it. It's not about winning trackdays its about pure driving fun. Before the whole world goes DC, its good to have something that makes a lot of wooshing and whistling converting dead dinosaurs into noise.
I get it's not everybody's cup of tea - world would be dull if it were.
I can confirm from personal experience that the crash structure does it’s job. Head-on collision with the barriers at Brands Hatch, expecting broken bones, but got out of the car with nothing more than a mild wrist sprain.
I shudder to think of the damage I’d have suffered in a Caterham.
I shudder to think of the damage I’d have suffered in a Caterham.
I attended a track day, three years ago that Zenos put on at Castle Combe and was very impressed with them.
It was a cold and very wet spring day, I first did a few road miles in an s, followed by a few sessions in the s and r on track.
I was super impressed with the car, best brake feel I have ever felt in a road car by a mile, and found it so fun when pushed on a bit. Really seemed to like being thrown around and was a real handful in the wet (especially the r without a screen!)
I have a e46 m3 which I love, the Zenos is the only thing that’s given me a bigger smile.
Fun on the road but if I got one it would be as a track car purely down to the simplicity of the thing.
Just my thoughts on it all, shame they went under.
It was a cold and very wet spring day, I first did a few road miles in an s, followed by a few sessions in the s and r on track.
I was super impressed with the car, best brake feel I have ever felt in a road car by a mile, and found it so fun when pushed on a bit. Really seemed to like being thrown around and was a real handful in the wet (especially the r without a screen!)
I have a e46 m3 which I love, the Zenos is the only thing that’s given me a bigger smile.
Fun on the road but if I got one it would be as a track car purely down to the simplicity of the thing.
Just my thoughts on it all, shame they went under.
SpudLink said:
I can confirm from personal experience that the crash structure does it’s job. Head-on collision with the barriers at Brands Hatch, expecting broken bones, but got out of the car with nothing more than a mild wrist sprain.
I shudder to think of the damage I’d have suffered in a Caterham.
Oh yeah I remember that one - the impact bent the aluminium spine iirc!. All damage located at the front and you got it repaired.I shudder to think of the damage I’d have suffered in a Caterham.
Note: this was after zenos went pop so was a good test of the support available.
Olivera said:
Um I've always thought the Zenos looks dreadful. I think it's the front that does it - piddly little headlights and a gaping mouth at the bottom. It's all very frog like.
I agree. It's like the elephant in the room nobody is discussing here. I'm sure it is fast and well engineered, but it's utterly hideous.ads_green said:
The engine is based on the Lincoln (again subtly different to the mustang).
Yes the head is different but the engine used in the E10R is a custom built unit by Hendy with completely bespoke management setup.
It is not an off the shelf unit but to the lay person it makes sense to compare with the focus RS as it's the nearest comparable unit.
As I understand it, the main issue with the RS units that did fail was down to the fitment of the wrong head gasket. The faulty units had ones that looked identical but had a different part number and different characteristics.
Yes apparently the gasket manufacture might have (Allegedly) supplied 2 different gaskets using the same part number so no one knew what was fitted where.Yes the head is different but the engine used in the E10R is a custom built unit by Hendy with completely bespoke management setup.
It is not an off the shelf unit but to the lay person it makes sense to compare with the focus RS as it's the nearest comparable unit.
As I understand it, the main issue with the RS units that did fail was down to the fitment of the wrong head gasket. The faulty units had ones that looked identical but had a different part number and different characteristics.
If you've a link to the engine details I'd be interested to see what they've done, cheers
WTFWT said:
Olivera said:
Um I've always thought the Zenos looks dreadful. I think it's the front that does it - piddly little headlights and a gaping mouth at the bottom. It's all very frog like.
I agree. It's like the elephant in the room nobody is discussing here. I'm sure it is fast and well engineered, but it's utterly hideous.RumbleOfThunder said:
Why do you assume it's crap?
It's a bitser, looks ugly, not that quick, companies gone bust. If they were any good people would have been lining-up to buy them, they didn't so bye bye Zenos. Pity the people/banks that invested in this company. As said before, if I had £30k burning a hole in my pocket I wouldn't buy this, much more around that makes more sense. If you want to put yur hard earned into this, then well done, but I stand-bye my original comment, it's crap.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff