Tested: 2026 Zenos E10 – Full review, price & features
Matt Prior drove a prototype of the E10 RZ version last year and liked its urgency and sports-prototype-like track handling.
Zenos gave us the R2 to sample this time, which is still a very fast, beguiling and communicative sports car on both road and track, so has potential to be capable and compelling enough to drive to carry a six-figure price – although some work here remains to be done.
The E10’s chassis and steering are its greatest assets.
The ride is fully Lotus-like in its suppleness and dexterity on the road and lets you flow from corner to corner at plenty of speed, feeling superbly well informed about how hard the topography is working the axles and how much more the fairly modest 16in (front) and 17in (rear) wheels and Toyo tyres have left to give.
The heavy, unassisted steering feels at little at odds with the E10’s fluent body control and relatively tender grip level, although it does make more sense on track.
Here this is the kind of sports car that’s intimately sensitive to axle loading and weight transfer, so getting the best from it is a really engrossing task.
It tends to pick its nose up and push into understeer if you’re hasty with the power on the apex, preferring a smoothly steered corner entry and to be pointed and rotated on a trailing throttle.
Indeed, the rear axle can get quite lively if you brake late and enter quickly, the heavy steering calming and dampening your inputs, yet staying manageable enough to let you tidy things up.
Zenos is yet to add a rear anti-roll bar or a mechanical limited-slip differential to the car but will in both cases – and both devices should help stabilise the car.
The R2 version’s 2.3-litre Ford engine certainly doesn’t let it down in terms of outright potency, but it does a little with its slightly flat, boosty, blunt-instrument character. In a car this light and sensitive to throttle, you can’t help wanting something sharper and freer-spinning that you can deploy with the precision the chassis demands.
As it is, the E10 R2’s is an engine that you don’t feel too inclined to rev much beyond 5252rpm and comes on boost with little delicacy or linearity. Much as Zenos’s choices must be very limited, the E10 deserves better.
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