Zenos E10 R, car review: How to get to 62mph in 3.0 seconds for just £39,995

Zenos and the cars it makes are a feather in Britain’s cap

If you’ve read beyond the headline (which you obviously have), you’re either already interested in the Zenos E10 or you wonder what it is.

If you’re the former, you can skip this paragraph. Zenos is a small, Norfolk-based company whose mission is to make lightweight and affordable sports cars. Its mid-engined E10, which is just that, has sold about 80 units in 2015 and next year it’s on track to beat that by 50%.

The E10 R has a bigger engine (Ford’s 2.3-litre Ecoboost unit, with a wider intercooler and a performance ECU) and kicks out 350bhp through a six-speed manual box. With a dry weight of just 700kg, that means a 0-62 time of around 3.0 seconds.

Zenos E10 R

Price: £39,995
Engine: 4cyl, 2261cc, turbocharged petrol
Power: 350bhp at 6000rpm
Torque: 349lb ft at 4000rpm
Gearbox: 6spd manual
Dry weight: 700kg
Top speed: 155mph
0-60mph: 3.0sec (est)
Economy: 21.6mpg (combined)
CO2/tax band: N/A

Further enhancements include a 3” diameter exhaust, bigger brakes, lightweight wheels and composite seats. Zenos intends to use stiffer springs on the production model, to give it better traction: the car we tested was a prototype running the suspension from the standard model, and to be frank we didn’t see much wrong with that.

It was thoroughly wet when we drove the vehicle, but we just nailed it at full throttle and its back wheels held the road in a vice-like grip as the speedo blazed its way past the ton.

For obvious reasons, we’ll do the decent thing and leave handling to one side for now. But hey, this is a track-focused 700kg mid-engined two-seater with 500bhp per tonne, so you can probably take an educated guess.

Zenos thinks about 25% of its customers are going to buy this model, and most of them will indeed have track use in mind. They’ll pay £39,995 a pop – or £43,995 if they go for the Drive Edition model, which among other things adds adjustable shocks.

Whether this still counts as ‘affordable’ depends very much on whether you can afford it. Which to be blunt not many people can – especially for a car with no windscreen.

But if you want to launch yourself past the 62mph mark in three seconds, you won’t find many ways of doing it that don’t involve spending an awful lot more than this. For that reason alone, Zenos and the cars it makes are a feather in Britain’s cap.