Ex-Caterham boss reveals Zenos plans Ansar Ali's new firm to create trio of lightweight sports cars. Launch of the open-topped ElO scheduled for January Words: Mike Duff m ANSAR All WAS never sub-frame holds the engine, gearbox transverse gearbox then drives the going to stay out of the and rear double wishbones. rear wheels via a limited-slip diff. sports car industry for long. And two years after Edwards (below) are Zenos's eo-founders leaving his role as Caterham's CEO 'by recycled carbonfibre over a core of business plan as making the car plastic tubes (think something like itself. and we're promised that we'll his small team have been working on. fast-food drink straws laid end-on). find the ElO's price 'very surprising' Zenos, eo-founded by All and According to Edwards, this is up to 70 when it's announced nearer the former Caterham Technology and per cent as strong as pure carbonfibre launch date. Zenos won't set up aUK Innovation head Mark Edwards, is set but far cheaper. and also means the dealer network ; instead it will sell cars sports cars. The first of these- a rootless, doorless special currently called the ElO- is slated for a debut at t he Autosport show in January. Production deadlines mean we 'WE'RE PROMISED WE'll FIND THE ElO'S PRICE "VERY SURPRISING" WHEN IT'S ANNOUNCED' ElO will weigh just 650kg. Bodywork directly via its website and 'pop-up' will also be made from composite and showrooms at events and trackdays. can't bring you a picture of the finished has deliberately been designed around 'We didn't want to be seen as one car, but we have seen both the multiple smaller mouldings rather than of those brands that turns up at the engineering prototype and renderings bigger clamshells, for ease of repair. RAC Club, rolls back the sheet and has of the final design at the company's This is a car intended to be used on a For m ula 1 driver there to endorse it,' base in Hethel, next door to Lotus. track as well as road. says Ali. The market we're going after And given both the project's clever 014 www.evo.co.uk As much effort has been given to creating the company and the mutual consent', here's what he and to build a range of three light, low-cost Top: ElO features lightweight bod y of recycled carbonfibre and plastic. Above: Ali and forme r Caterham tech guru Mark The tub and bodywork will be made out of a new material that uses The engine in all three cars will be is people who understand what makes engineering and market aspiration, a 2-litre naturally aspirated Ford unit, such a location is wholly appropriate. described as the closest thing the After the bare-bones ElO, we'll see All three cars will be built around Blue Oval still does to the Duratec the Ell, a roadster with doors. and then a good performance car.' a backbone chassis, with a rigid that All and Edwards introduced to the El2 coupe. Zenos hopes to produce 2.1-metre extruded-aluminium spine Caterham This unit will be tuned to between 150 and 200 cars in the first running down the centre of the car and produce around 200bhp in the ElO and year, building up to annual production a composite tub sitting on this. Front cooled by a front-mounted radiator of 500 cars once all three models suspension components are mounted that passes its pipework through the are on stream. Those are numbers . directly to this spine, with double central spine. More powerful versions Ali admits are 'bullish ... but we're wishbones and pushrod-operated are possible, including ones using confident we can achieve them when springs and dampers. At the back. a forced induction. A five- or six-speed people see the car and the price.' EJ
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