First of all, Zenvo is a Danish company which builds a supercar called the Zenvo. They aren’t as famous nor have I actually heard of them until I actually watched an episode of Top Gear. And in that episode of Top Gear did I see the Zenvo catch fire.
It went up in flames.
It did not look that good. But it was praised by “The Stig” and it was incredibly fast although the car did a lap in bad weather. What probably gotten them annoyed was when Jeremy Clarkson highlighted the fogged up headlamps, had issues with the car, set a lap slower than the BMW M5 and worse of all, burned up in flames.
It really didn’t bode well for the car maker.
Honestly as a viewer, it didn’t come up well in the episode. But here is their rebuttal.
‘The Stigs supercar’ at the Top Gear show.
After being named ‘The Stig’s supercar’ and credited for staggering performance in Top Gear Magazine in 2010, the car faced problems in its appearance at the Top Gear TV show. The car however, also achieved good results during the tests.
In the first visit, the clutch of the car burned out after an hour of extreme drifting by Top Gear drivers. In the second visit, a faulty intercooler fan caught fire after more than one hour of intensive high speed testing and 50 liters of fuel consumed. The source of the fire, has been traced back to a defect in the fan delivered by an acknowledged automotive supplier. After this incident, Zenvo Automotive is conducting thorough testing of all fans before mounting them in the cars.
Two unofficial tests were conducted by Top Gear during filming.
First, limited by the length of the straight line section of the track, the car reached 304 km/h (189 mph). This was the highest speed measured on the Top Gear test track in recent times.
Second, Top Gear clocked the 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) acceleration time at 2.69 seconds on a damp tarmac.
These results did not air on the show.
Instead Top Gear presented a lap time with the Stig conducted on a day when driving was not recommended in many parts of Britain due to low temperature and extreme rain. The weather conditions and the amount of water on the track severely reduced the traction on the car’s 345/30 ZR20 rear tires resulting in a lap time that does not reflect the true potential of the car in dry conditions.
Zenvo Automotive is looking forward to making a more realistic lap time in dry weather conditions.
The Zenvo ST1 has a listed price of 660.000£, not 800.000£ as was stated in the show.
I am very sure they aren’t the first car company to complain to Top Gear but I still find a car which is capable of burning, no matter the situation to be something of a death trap. Porsche is also currently going through that issue at the moment and they have suspended deliveries of their car.
