Delightful Sports Car Featured On Top Gear And The Grand Tour Says Goodbye

Zenos, the Norfolk based manufacturer of British Sports cars formulated back in 2012 by a couple of ex Lotus employees, will be going out of business. The company just went into administration after a “recent downturn in trade” and cancelled orders at the end of last year which “resulted in a shortfall in funding, forcing the business to cease trading”, according to its appointed administrators. The announcement was made to its staff, which numbered more than 20 people, on January Friday 13th, and it entered administration the following Monday.

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You might have seen these cars before on both the new Top Gear and The Grand Tour. In Series 23 of new Top Gear, Chris Evans drove the Zenos E10S which has a 2.0 liter turbo Ford Focus ST engine. The lightweight Zenos had 250 brake horsepower and  can do 0-60 in 4 seconds with a top speed of 145 mph. Evans compares the stripped down racer, which lacks windows, a roof, and sturdy panels, to something that Darth Vader would drive on the weekends. On The Grand Tour, the Zenos was featured in the “Moroccan Roll” episode where the trio compared lightweight sports cars. James May argued that the Zenos is now the quintessential sports car as it has stuck with the main sports car recipe.

There is still a chance for this company to get back on its feet, as long as there are interested buyers. As Joint administrator Irvin Cohen stated “We are currently open to speaking with parties interested in securing a future for the business and would request that any inquiries are made directly with our London office.”

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According to the Eastern Daily Press:

(Zenos) founders set themselves the challenge of building a sports car for road or track use at an affordable price, with models starting at less than £30,000.

Last summer the company launched a campaign to raise £750,000 of private investment on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs, which it said it wanted to use to expand further and take on up to eight new staff.

In 2016, Zenos Cars had expected to build around 100 cars – double the previous year’s total – and was targeting raising production to around 500 cars a year by 2020. Around half the cars built are sold to Europe, America, Japan and China.

If anyone’s looking to get into the sports car business, now’s your chance!

(Source: Eastern Daily Press)