Zenos E10 available now from just £24,995

The Zenos E10 is the first of three planned models launched by the new British sports car company co-founded by Ansar Ali and Mark Edwards. For nearly a year we’ve wanted to share with you its price, and now we can – at £24,995 it’s nearly half that anticipated for the forthcoming Caterham AeroSeven.

To recap, the Zenos E10 is a road legal track-focused step-in two seater with Elise type proportions powered by a 197bhp mid-mounted 2.0-litre Ford GDI engine driving the rear wheels.

The engine has an over square configuration with variable cam timing used to deliver the high-revving characteristics of a track vehicle whilst also remaining appropriate for road use.

A range of transmissions and final drives have been selected to match the various outputs developed for the engine package, while a kerb weight of 650kg results in a power to weight ratio of 300 horsepower per tonne.

Speaking on the opening day of Autosport International in Birmingham, co-founder Ansar Ali said “It’s been a huge day for Zenos Cars, as a major event for the UK sports car industry, Autosport International is a great place to make the E10’s presence known. We’re really glad to be here, and hopefully by the end of the four days more people will be familiar with the Zenos brand.”

“In designing the car, it was a fine balance; we wanted it to look aggressive without having an outrageous attitude. We’d already communicated the engineering of the car, so people knew what underpins it, but the reaction to the design and the pricepoint from the press, industry and potential customers has been really positive.”

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The E10’s cockpit has been designed to accommodate a variety of drivers from 5’1” (155cm) to 6’3” (191cm) in height, while both driver and passenger are seated in bespoke Zenos seats. It’s driver-centric focus is accentuated by a visual display directly behind the steering wheel that communicates essential driving information, whilst in the middle of the dash is another larger screen that will display a choice of road or track data.

Two further models are planned over the next 5 years – Project E11, a two door two seater roadster and Project E12, a 2 door GT Coupé. Each will use a forced-induction version of the Ford GDI engine, in various states of tune to suit their price and target performance.

Orders will be taken for the first 75 Zenos E10 ‘Launch Editions’ at this weekend’s Autosport International show with production commencing in Autumn 2014 and first customer deliveries in early 2015.

E10 Launch Edition

Zenos will produce 75 ‘Launch Edition’ versions of the E10 priced from £28,995. Their specification include a mixture of one-off features combined with options which would otherwise have added £5,755 to the £24,995 cost of the base E10.

The specification includes; a 6 speed manual gearbox, limited slip differential, quick release steering wheel, bespoke Zenos composite seats, 4-point race harness, OZ performance wheel pack with ZZR Avon tyres, footwell heating and the special red “launch edition” wings (as seen on the show car).