The new Zenos E10 weighs 790kg. Its price, unfortunately, has gone in the opposite direction. At £115,900 before options, Britain’s revived flyweight now costs the sort of money that buys a very serious Porsche, a comfortable grand tourer or enough track days to make your helmet smell permanently heroic.
That sounds absurd until you look at what has happened to performance cars. Everything is bigger, heavier, more insulated and increasingly determined to provide 17 ambient-lighting themes. The E10 offers two seats, no roof worth mentioning and bodywork that appears to have been shrink-wrapped around the suspension. In 2026, simplicity is no longer the cheap option. It is the exotic material.
The old recipe has been rebuilt properly
This is not merely the original E10 dragged from storage and given a modern dashboard. Zenos says the car has been comprehensively reengineered, retaining an extruded-aluminium spine and carbon-fibre tub while adding a full carbon body. The front still uses pushrod suspension with inboard dampers; coilovers sit at the rear, attached to the subframe carrying the engine and gearbox.
There are new lights at both ends, new weatherproof switchgear, a current-generation driver display and carbon-fibre seats developed in-house. Buyers can choose a small race wind deflector or the extravagance of a full windscreen and wipers. That last option is a wonderfully British concession to reality: even the purest sports car eventually meets drizzle.
The shape remains recognisably E10 — low, open and slightly insect-like — which is the right decision. A tiny manufacturer returning to production does not need to spend millions disguising its best idea. It needs to make that idea reliable, buildable and sufficiently special to justify the invoice.
Choose between plenty and ridiculous
The entry point is the E10 r2, using a turbocharged 2.3-litre four-cylinder engine with 300bhp and 425Nm. Zenos estimates 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds and a 150mph maximum. Power reaches the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox and limited-slip differential.
Then comes the rZ, for drivers who consider restraint a clerical error. Its 2.0-litre turbo produces 380bhp and 510Nm. At the same quoted 790kg, that means roughly 480bhp per tonne, with an estimated 3.2-second run to 62mph. The maximum remains around 150mph, a reminder that this car is about acceleration, braking and corners rather than autobahn bragging rights.
Both versions use pleasingly small 16-inch front and 17-inch rear wheels. Four-piston front brake calipers grip 315mm discs, while the steering is a bespoke rack-and-pinion system. The specification reads like a rebellion against the swollen modern performance car: less rotating mass, less assistance, less furniture.
£115,900 changes the argument
Zenos says the range starts at £115,900 and can be reserved now, with deliveries due from the second quarter of 2027. Road-registered and track-only cars will be offered in Britain; overseas customers are limited to the track version. Just 50 cars are planned for the first full production year.
Scarcity helps explain the price. Carbon components laid up in Britain, low-volume development and hand assembly cannot be spread across tens of thousands of cars. A niche maker pays for tooling one buyer at a time. The E10 is therefore less a bargain track toy and more a compact piece of specialist engineering.
But rarity does not make £115,900 disappear. At this level, buyers will expect immaculate finish, dependable electronics, strong parts support and a company that will still answer the phone years from now. The E10’s lightness is compelling; the ownership proposition must be equally well developed. A fragile cottage-industry romance becomes tiresome when a sunny track day is lost to a sensor nobody can source.
Expensive, excessive and oddly necessary
The revived E10 is easy to mock because its philosophy sounds so simple. Remove weight, add power, expose occupants to the weather, then charge six figures. Yet designing a genuinely light car under modern expectations is difficult, and very few manufacturers bother. Horsepower is cheap; subtracting mass everywhere is expensive.
Zenos has returned with a machine that treats 790kg as the headline and 380bhp as the punchline. That is the correct order. The price confines it to fortunate enthusiasts, but the idea deserves to survive: a sports car should make every kilogram defend its place. The E10 may be painfully costly, but at least none of that cost has been spent making it numb.
Sources
- Auto Express: revived Zenos E10 pricing
- Zenos Cars: 2027 E10 range
- Zenos Cars: E10 reservations and deliveries
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