Danish supercar maker Zenvo has created an innovative sequential gearbox that has two shift modes and an electric boost for its 1,177hp TSR-S, which also gets new carbon wheels to reduce unsprung mass. The road legal track car, best known for its tilting rear wing, has gained an extra forward gear thanks to the technical upgrades, which have improved on-road refinement as well as on-track shift speeds to match those of fully-fledged race machines.
Zenvo said the new electric motor not only provides a boost but also handles reversing, meaning the backwards cog could be ditched, allowing space for an eighth forward gear. That, as you might imagine, has allowed for a tweak to ratios, meaning the flat-plane cranked supercar can now sprint from 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds and 0-124mph in 6.8 seconds – with the latter being a whole second quicker than a McLaren 720S can manage.
The new ‘box’s use of an electric motor also helps smooth out shifts in its normal street mode, allowing engineers to turn up the forces involved in track mode shifts so the speed of gear changes is on par with thoroughbred racing machines. That should offer quite the visceral increase, given that the pre-update TSR-S – which PH drove last year – and its highly boosted 5.8-litre motor has never lacked in the excitement department.
Furthering the improvements are the addition of new, full fragmented carbon fibre wheels, which are created in house (each takes a week to make) and save 15kg compared with the previous aluminium rims. On a car as highly strung as this, that’s liable to make a notable difference, particularly on circuit when hundredths of a second are being hunted in a car not far from the pace of GT3 machines. There’s also more exposed carbon on the car’s skin, which helps to emphasise the further honed performance on offer.
If that all sounds jolly good, Zenvo is continuing with its production run of five cars per year, with each example of its 2020 model starting from €1.45 million plus taxes. That’s comfortably more than one and a half million in Sterling, which is a slight increase on before. but buyers of this aren’t exactly the sort to be counting pennies. Expect Zenvo to have no trouble sourcing five willing recruits for its latest run of wing tilting monsters.
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