[1]When it comes to making enormous amounts of horsepower, nobody does it as well as Americans. We invented the muscle car and hot rodding, and no country has focused so much energy on going fast as America has. That is why it comes as little surprise when exotic car companies the world over design ridiculously expensive automobiles, only to power them with a common American engine cranking out silly amounts of horsepower.
Case in point; the Zento ST1. With a $1.25 million price tag, the Danish-made coupe is amongst the most expensive cars in the world, reports Autoblog [2]. Of course, it features a 7.0 liter Corvette engine nestled into its mid-engine setup, making over 1,100 horsepower.
[3]The Zento ST1 is another addition to the ever-increasing range of exotic hypercars that seem to be all the rage among the rich and famous. As one might expect, the builders spared no expense on this car, equipping it with lightweight carbon-fiber body panels, a race-inspired light steel frame, and six-piston calipers on huge brake rotors all the way around.
That is all well and good, but what we really care about is the engine. The 7.0 liter LS7 engine is most commonly found in the 505 horsepower Corvette Z06. Not bad for a naturally aspirated engine, and an outright bargain in terms of performance cars. Zenvo went a little crazy though, more than doubling the 7.0 liter V8’s horsepower through use of both a supercharger and a turbocharger. The twin-charged engine makes 1,104, horsepower and 1,050 ft-lbs of torque, enough to motivate the ST1 from 0-60 mph in just 3 seconds. The top speed is an electronically-limited 230 mph – not quite in Bugatti Veyron territory, but fast enough, we suppose. We’d rather have the Zenvo’s American-made engine than the Veryon’s Volkswagen-sourced quad-turbo W12 anyway. Just 15 examples will be built every year.
Now that’s exclusivity.