Who would have imagined that the Zenvo ST1->ke3693, a Danish supercar->ke177, would come from a place mostly known for its windmills, pastries and low crime rates? Denmark might be a fantastic country to live in but nobody would have dreamed of it producing a supercar, let alone a devil's plaything that pumps out 1,104 horsepower.

That power number puts the new Zenvo ST1 in the same league as the Bugatti Veyron->ke1112 and the Koenigsegg CCXR->ke567. Amazingly, many have still not heard of this brilliant machine. The concept has been around for a decade and it finally got the green light for production in 2005. In those 10 years, not many news stories have been published around the ST1. (Somebody needs to hire a new marketing team.)

Delays aside, the Zenvo ST1 has arrived. That's the most important thing to remember for a supercar that promised so much and has finally delivered on those promises. What it's legacy will be in the years to come has yet to be determined, but for now, let's just sit back and see what the ST1 does from here.

Continue reading to learn more about the Zenvo ST1.

2010 Zenvo ST1

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: 2010 Zenvo ST1
  • Engine/Motor: V8
  • Horsepower: 1104 @ 6900
  • Torque: 1054 @ 4500
  • Transmission: 7-speed F1 paddle shift
  • [do not use] Vehicle Model: Array
Pros
Cons

Exterior

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If the ST1 entered a beauty contest, I’d like its chances. The front end is stunning, as if it was designed by people with some real-life anger issues. The ST1 just looks mad all the time. That’s a good thing for a $1.8 million supercar because people who are willing to fork over that much money on an exotic would want for said exotic to at least look the part.

In that sense, the ST1 comes up aces. The sharp edges on the hood play well with the angular headlights, creating that menacing look that seems to be an important requirement for supercars these days. Those lights are housed by large air intakes that double as brake cooling ducts. These intakes also flank what Zenvo claims is its trademark hexagonal grille. Not to be burst its bubble, but every time somebody says it has a trademark grille, I just snicker and shake my head. Unless its those BMW->ke178 kidneys, a lot of them pretty much look the same.

Move to the side and you’ll see even more lines that cut along the length of the doors to give that nuanced muscularity. Those lines have since been refined to be less audacious than the ones in the prototype we saw back in 2009, but traces of it remain.

The rear end looks tame by comparison and the overall configuration seems to have been inspired by the Lexus LFA. That said, the Zenvo's differs by having the twin exhausts just under the taillights. The rear diffuser dominates the profile at the back, which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering how important a part it plays in helping the ST1 stick to the ground when it’s going balls-to-the-wall.

Exterior Dimensions

Overall length

4,665 MM (183.66 Inches)

Overall width, without mirrors

2,041 MM (80.35 Inches)

Overall height

1,198 MM (47.16 Inches)

Ground clearance (when hydraulic lifted)

110 MM (4.33 Inches) (160 MM (6.29 Inches))

Wheelbase

3,055 MM (120.27 Inches)

Weight (kg)

1,688 MM (66.45 Inches)

Headroom front (mm)

998 MM (39.29 Inches)

Legroom front (mm)

1,109 MM (43.66 Inches)

Shoulder room front (mm)

1,395 MM (54.92 Inches)


Interior

The interior of the ST1 is awash in more carbon fiber that's generously complemented by fine leather and Alcantara. This gives the cabin the right kind of exotic vibe that justifies its exclusivity.

The configuration is pretty straightforward, too. It has room for two, as it should if it’s carrying a ginormous engine in back. The instrument cluster is completely digital, showing all the important information needed by the driver.

Save for a few buttons and knobs on the central console, there aren’t really a lot of parts inside the ST1 that stand out. The multimedia system has touchscreen capabilities and performs a plethora of useful functions, including GPS, Bluetooth connectivity and hands free telephone.

Even the steering wheel, despite getting its own carbon-fiber love, looks rather ordinary, at least relative to what you’d expect from a supercar.

Zenvo did promise potential buyers the option to customize the interior of their ST1s, so if the standard setup comes across as too plain-looking, there’s a way around it, albeit at added cost.

Drivetrain

The Zenvo ST1 is powered by a 7.0-liter V-8 engine that’s both supercharged and turbocharged, ensuring that it has immediate throttle response no matter how low or high the revs. That feature is particularly useful for a car that boasts of 1,104 horsepower at 6,900 rpm and 1,054 pound-feet of torque at 4,500 rpm.

Top speed has been estimated at 233 mph, and its 0 to 60 mph time clocks in at just 2.69 seconds. Those are supercar numbers worthy of acclaim so on that end, the ST1 does its exotic label proud. All that power is sent to a six-speed Ricardo manual transmission, which then links up to Zenvo’s own twin-plate clutch and a traction control system.

The ST1’s engine has three modes: normal, sport and race. In normal mode, only 650 horsepower is released.

That’s the setup Zenvo describes as ideal for the ST1 to function as an everyday road-car. If that gets a little too mundane for a driver’s liking, the switch to sport mode unleashes 850 horsepower or better yet, race mode, which opens up the floodgates to all 1,104 ponies.

The latter two engine modes do come with some trickery since traction control, especially in race mode, is eliminated, leaving the driving entirely up to the driver. Suffice to say, if a driver isn’t up to the task of corralling the ST1, then he’s going to have a difficult time maximizing the ST1’s full potential.

Drivetrain Specifications

Type

Hand build centre mounted 6.8 litre V8 engine

Max. power output

1,104 HP @ 6,900 RPM

Max. torque

1,054 LB-FT @ 4,500 RPM

Top speed

375 KM/H (233 MPH) (electronically limited)

Acceleration 0-100 km/h

3.0 seconds

Hp/weight

654 bhp per tonne

Power modes

Wet (650 hp)
Sport (850 hp)
Race (1104 hp)

Gearbox

7-speed F1 paddle shift with auto mode

Differential

Limited slip differential (Torsen)

Clutch

Two disc 240 mm carbon clutch


Prices

The Zenvo ST-1 doesn’t come cheap. That much was established when Zenvo announced that only 15 units of the ST-1 will be built. Fortunately, it won’t come with the $1.8 million price tag that was initially thrown out back in 2010.

Unfortunately, the ST-1 is still going to burn your wallet to the tune of £ 660,000, or about $1.02 million. Granted, that number can still vary depending on what kind of add-ons are included in a specific order.

But you’ve been warned. Even by supercar standards, the ST1 will cost you an arm and a leg.

Competition

2013 Lykan Hypersport

One gaudy and flamboyant supercar deserves another, right? In this case, its Middle Eastern counterpart, Dubai’s Lykan Hypersport->ke4607.

The Hypersport has generated a lot of publicity in the early part of 2015, most recently when news broke that the Abu Dhabi Police added a Hypersport to its fleet of bad-guy-chasing police cars. Before that, the Hypersport was also seen jumping from one skyscraper to another in "Furious 7". Make what you want of that one.

The point is, the ST1 and the Hypersport have a lot of things in common. Both are supercar ventures from countries that don’t have a lot of history of building this type of vehicle. Both were introduced in the early part of the current decade amid much hysteria. Both were even subjected to a lot publicity, strictly on their obscene price tags.

To be fair, Zenvo has since dropped the price of the ST to a little more attainable amount. As for the Hypersport, well, let’s just say that if you don’t have $4 million at your disposal, don’t even bother.

The Hypersport is as audacious-looking a supercar as currently on the market. But the Hypersport takes aggression to a whole new level, with its enormous rear section and assortment of bedazzling stones that can be installed in the car. Take your pick. Diamonds? Yellow diamonds? Rubies? Emeralds? Each of these stones can be added to the headlights of the Hypersport. That goes a way toward answering the question on why this supercar is so expensive.

The ST1 doesn’t have a jewel fetish, but it does have a bigger and more powerful engine than the Hypersport. That’s not to put the kibosh on the Hypersport’s own mechanical might because it still has a Porsche-sourced and RUF-tuned twin-turbo 3.8-liter flat-six that produces 750 horsepower and 750 pound-feet of torque, good enough to propel it to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds and on to a top speed of 245 mph.

Only seven models will be built of the Hypersport, less than half the 15-unit total of the ST1. As far as exclusivity goes, you won’t find many supercars that are in this “rare” class like the ST1 and the Hypersport.

Read our full review here.

Conclusion

The Zenvo ST1 may end up being one of the most memorable niche supercars of this decade. Certainly, it’s already been one of the most talked-about, and we still have the second half of the decade to look forward to.

Whether it deserves the flak it’s gotten or not is irrelevant at this point. What’s important is that news of it going up in flames -- on more than one occasion -- is out there for everyone to see. When you’re asking that much for a car and the first thing you see upon typing “Zenvo ST1” on Google is an image of it in flames, well, that’s not a good thing.

The ST1 has the credentials to be an all-conquering supercar. It’s got the looks, the power and the performance to match its otherworldly price tag. But we live in a world where information is more important than it’s ever been.

Anybody can do research on the ST1 and it’s almost impossible to do it without seeing reports of its so-called “reliability issues.”

No matter how Zenvo tries to spin it, I personally wouldn’t want to spend that much money on a car that whose image of it burning is splattered all over the Internet.