The Zenvo Aurora hybrid hypersport, which has been revealed so far as a prototype, offers up to 1,874 horsepower thanks to a quadruple turbocharged V12 and three electric motors. It will be available in two variants, and the price is as stunning as the performance – it starts just under 87 million crowns.
The Zenvo car company does not have a long history, but the performances of its cars are all the more extreme. The older TS1 offered up to almost 1400 horses, the new Aurora takes it a good bit further. Its powertrain is well over a megawatt of power – it produces 1378 kW, i.e. 1874 horsepower.
However, not all of them are behind the internal combustion engine. The latter in itself is remarkable – it is a forked twelve-cylinder with a volume of 6.6 liters, doped with four turbochargers. It is close to the magic megawatt itself, giving 1266 horses, i.e. 931 kW, and 1400 Nm – at least according to the car company’s estimates. What would you name such a thing if you were a car company from a Nordic country? Mjølner, which is Mjollnir in Danish, Thor’s hammer. How else.
“If aliens landed on a race track and heard a few of our twelve-cylinders, their hair would stand on end and tears would start to flow from their eyes. We are emotional beings and sound has meaning.” said Jens Sverdrup, head of the automaker. Currently, according to him, is the last chance to produce such an extravagant engine.
In order for the car to meet the Euro 7 emission standard, the addition of a hybrid system was necessary. However, this is not only due to emissions – it has the form of three electric motors of approximately two hundred horses each. One is integrated with the engine and gearbox in the middle of the car and helps drive the rear wheels, the other two belong to one front wheel each. According to Zenvo, this combination can shoot the Aurora to 100 km/h in 2.3 seconds.
The automaker revealed two Aurora variants at once – Agil and Tur, from the words “agile” and “touring”. The second one is more luxurious and intended more for traveling than for racing circuits. It is a bit heavier – dry, i.e. without liquid fillings, and the driver should weigh less than 1.45 tonnes – but it benefits precisely from those two electric motors on the front axle. Thanks to less downforce and the associated lower air resistance, it should also be able to handle a top speed of 451 km/h.
Zenvo Aurora
The Agil variant is supposed to be sharper and lighter with the two front electric motors, which means a dry weight of under 1.3 tonnes. The twelve-cylinder otherwise remains unchanged, so the total output is 1,469 horsepower according to the automaker. Acceleration to 100 km/h is two tenths worse, and due to the pressure of almost nine meters at a speed of 250 km/h, the top speed is estimated at 365 km/h.
Zenvo did not publish specific data about the battery capacity, nor whether the car is a plug-in hybrid or “just” a so-called full hybrid. According to the fact that it is supposed to be able to drive up to 34 km on electricity, it would look more like the first option. “It’s becoming less and less socially acceptable to start a twelve-cylinder at five in the morning,” Sverdrup pointed out, partly in jest.
Despite the astonishing values of power, acceleration and top speed, however, according to him, the aurora should never have been about those numbers. “We don’t care how fast it is at the Nürburgring, because of course it will be very fast. For me, it is more important if it is easy to get on and off. That’s worth more to me than a second in lap time.” Sverdrup realizes that entering and especially exiting hypersports is often an acrobatic discipline and that the target group of customers does not only include young athletes.
The car manufacturer approached the development of the chassis in a similarly realistic manner. She prioritized mechanical grip over the fact that aerodynamics would somehow significantly help tire adhesion. “I don’t need downforce when I go for a drive on Sunday morning,” says Sverdrup.
Still, aerodynamics are extremely important to the aurora. In both versions, vents run along the sides of the carbon monocoque, which forms the basis of the car. These reveal both significant parts of the monocoque and some parts of the suspension. “We have nothing to hide,” says Sverdrup.
In addition to the rear wing, the tremendous downforce of the Agil version is also due to a number of other minor changes compared to the Tur variant, which in turn is sleek and elegant. Both are connected by wing doors, a hallmark of many a top hypersport.
Zenvo Aurora
In the interior, almost everything is focused on the driver’s thumbs on the steering wheel. The central screen is completely missing, infotainment is instead projected onto one of the displays in the instrument cluster. Support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is a matter of course. As far as the differences between the versions in the cabin are concerned, the Tur version is more comfortable, with a larger share of leather upholstery, etc., while the Agil version focuses on lightness.
Zenvo plans to start production of the Aurora in 2025 and wants to produce only 50 units of each variant, i.e. 100 cars in total. Prices should start at 3.6 million euros (86.7 million crowns) and the personalization options will, as is usual with similar cars, be limited only by the thickness of the customer’s cutting board.
2023-08-17 16:52:00
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