A To Zenos

THE ZENOS E10 S IS A CLASSIC SPORTS CAR BUILT WITH MODERN FORD EQUIPMENT

- Matt Zuchowski

In 2012, a rumor circulated; yet another British sports car company had been born and set to shake up the market—shoulders shrugged. How often do we hear a group of British fanatics with an exemplary engineering background (but no business experience) has come up with a back-to-basics roadster to reignite the forgotten passion of driving? For once, though, the situation is different. Four years after the news spread, I’m actually walking through the workshop of that very company, looking at roughly a dozen from among more than a hundred carsbuilt so far. Not only are we talking about the newest derivative that has just been released, but even hearing about E11, E12, and E20 that will come at some point in the future. Zenos is here to stay, and it’s going to make it big—probably.

What differentiates Zenos from all the other automotive startups is a very solid foundation and a deep understanding of the market at a basic level. The company was founded by Ansar Ali and Mark Edwards, who had previously been senior employees at Lotus and Caterham. In the latter company, they played an instrumental role in selling the small British garage to the business mogul Tony Fernandes and subsequently taking it to Formula 1. Soon, their visions of the make diverged from Fernandes’ and the Brits decided to leave Caterham and start something new of their own.