Zenvo unveils 1,850hp Aurora V12 hypercar

Most powerful production V12 gets you from zero to 186mph in nine seconds - and is Euro 7 compliant...

By Cam Tait / Wednesday, 16 August 2023 / Loading comments

Feast your eyes on the new Zenvo Aurora: a twelve-cylinder, quad-turbocharged hybrid hypercar that not only promises to be the fastest offering from everybody’s favourite Danish carmaker, but also features the most powerful V12 ever fitted to a production car.

We’ve heard this kind of claim before from boutique hypercar firms, but anyone following the breadcrumb trail of teasers over the past few months will know that Zenvo is doing its due diligence. The company has partnered with German manufacturing giant Mahle to develop an engine capable of pumping out the sort of numbers that’ll have even the most powerful of EVs shaking in their boots - while somehow meeting the stringent Euro 7 emission targets in the process.

What Mahle has come up with is a 1,250hp, 6.6-litre V12 with four turbochargers bolted to it. It’s paired up with a brace of 200hp electric motors that power the front wheels, along with a seven-speed ‘hybridised’ gearbox that lumps a further 200hp into the mix. Do the maths and you get 1,850hp, plus one hell of a soundtrack as you chase down the 9,800rpm redline.

The ludicrous numbers don’t stop there. A 0-62mph time of 2.3 seconds is impressive, 0-186mph in nine seconds is astonishing and a 0-248mph time of 17 seconds is downright absurd. Keep the throttle pinned and the Aurora's top speed is rated at 280mph, with carbon ceramic brakes bringing you back down to Earth in an instant. That’s for the more GT-focused – and more slippery - Tur spec, while the track-honed Agil has a slightly lower ceiling of 227mph and loses the front electric motors. It does, however, produce 880kg of downforce at 155mph and benefits from an active airbrake that’ll put a stop to the madness even quicker.

When it’s stationary, you can get a proper look at how the intricate aerodynamic package works. Both the Tur and Agil generate downforce through a series of underbody tunnels and active aerodynamics, while the latter benefits from a deeper front splitter, a rear wing and additional creases in the bodywork to finetune the airflow.

I say bodywork, but it’d be better described as carbon fibre skin that thinly veils the skeletal chassis beneath. In fact, 70 per cent of the chassis is left exposed, allowing you to peak through what little bodywork there is to see the exposed pushrod front suspension and rear double wishbones. There’s even less bodywork on the Agil, exposing the inside front wheels and the carbon fibre shrouds that house the Formula 1-style brake ducts.

Speaking of F1, Zenvo says its ZM1 modular carbon fibre monocoque uses “Formula 1 levels of structural safety and composite crash structures” to help dissipate energy in the event of a high-speed shunt. It does that while weighing just 120kg, or 1,300kg if you take everything else into account with the Agil-spec car. Tor is 150kg heavier, though that does include the front electric motors and a decent amount of leather for the cockpit.

“We just wanted to build an uncompromised drivers’ car, which delivered on every level, but without any one aspect negatively impacting another”, said Zenvo commercial chief Jens Sverdrup. “It was approached in a very Danish way, meaning every part is carefully considered, and we wanted to introduce this style and design philosophy to the hypercar segment. The outcome has given us two models, which complement each other, deliver true driving pleasure and, almost as a by-product, offer incredible performance.”

It all sounds very promising indeed. The only issue is we’re in for a bit of a wait. Zenvo doesn’t plan on starting Aurora production until 2025 and, when it does, it’ll only be making 100 cars: 50 Turs, 50 Agils. No word on pricing yet, but it’s worth earmarking several million pounds/euros/dollars before making an enquiry...