I Took A Roofless Track Car On A 1500-Mile Nurburgring Adventure

I climb over the doorless bodywork, lower myself into the surprisingly cosseting bucket seat, and set to work fastening the four-point harness. As I approach the iconic yellow barriers that signal the entrance to the Nordschleife, the sun is beating down into the roofless cabin. I place my lap card against the receiver, and as the light goes green, the barrier lifts. The weather is perfect for a balls out lap of The Green Hell, but Mother Nature hasn’t been quite so kind over the last 12 hours and 400-plus miles…

The journey began at 3.30am, a short distance south-west of London. CT Community Manager Jake Orr and I groggily stepped out into the freezing cold morning, and removed the ice-covered protective canopy from the Zenos E10 S.

You see, the Zenos doesn’t have a roof. Or doors. Or anything in the way of luxury. There are no heaters - though we did have a heated windscreen, and you can option heated seats - no entertainment systems, and very little in the way of storage. We’re each wearing multiple layers of clothing, and Jake is sharing the passenger seat with four days-worth of luggage.

With all that in mind, you may be wondering what my motivation might be for bringing such a car on an epic road trip from England to the Nurburgring in Germany. Well, the idea behind cars like the Zenos E10 S is that you can have fun on the road driving to a track day, put in a bunch of laps, then drive it home again. I decided it’d be fun to test that to the extreme with a ‘Ring trip, and to be honest, I hadn’t bargained on some of the coldest weather ever recorded in the south of England at this time of year…

Fortunately, in around 90 minutes time we’d be at the Channel Tunnel with the rest of our convoy, and could unload our stuff into their more practical rides, giving us space to enjoy the trip. At least, that was the plan.

"After 10 minutes of rain the hail began to pummel us, and we fitted the roof in defeat"

Over the next four days and near enough 1500 miles, the car impressively didn’t skip a beat. Whether it was mile upon mile of 70mph cruising, or lapping the Nurburgring with everything my bravery could muster, the little Zenos soaked it all up. Except for freezing temperatures. The one mechanical hiccup we encountered occurred shortly before 4am as we entered the M25, London’s ring road.

As I accelerated onto the slip road, I suddenly became aware that the car was no longer responding to my right foot. A few downshifts to try to coax it to life, and it was apparent we’d entered limp mode; limited to about 3000rpm, we could barely push above 50mph. After cruising along well below the limit for what seemed like forever, we eventually spotted a wide section of the hard shoulder, pulled in, and did the classic ‘off and on again’ quick fix. It worked and we were on our merry way, albeit pushing our luck to catch the train to France in time.

Again, Lady Luck gave us the middle finger, and as we watched our estimated time of arrival drop to less stressful levels - courtesy of what I’ll refer to as ‘enthusiastic’ driving for legal reasons - the motorway’s overhead signage delivered the message: ‘Incident: Slow Down’. Our hopes this would be a small tyre blowout or similar dwindled as we turned a corner to be faced with a thick plume of black smoke, and row upon row of stationary brake lights illuminating the horizon.

As the firemen got to work on the large truck fire ahead of us, we brightened the 5am commute of many weary travellers as they snapped photos of the two muppets in an open top sports car, wrapped up like they were going on an Arctic expedition. With the fire out, the police sent us off into the now-daylight, and we eventually caught a later train, exactly one hour after the rest of our crew had departed England.

Northern France is rather dull, so marks a good time to talk facts and figures. The Zenos E10 S is the middle model in the small manufacturer’s range, with the naturally-aspirated 197bhp E10 below it, and the bonkers, Focus RS-engined E10 R at the top, packing 347bhp and an even more lightweight body.

‘Our’ S gets 247bhp from its mid-mounted Ford Focus ST-sourced 2.0-litre EcoBoost engine, but here its character is about as far removed from its hot hatchback donor car as is possible. The E10 S weighs in at a quite incredible 725kg (or about 1600lbs in American money), so as you’d expect, it’s a frantic little thing.

Whenever you accelerate, you’re initially overwhelmed by induction noise coming from right behind your head. Then, as you accelerate through the rev range, turbo whistle starts to filter through, before a low grumble begins reverberating through the base of the car as the engine becomes dominant. The highlight, though, is the hilarious wastegate sound on liftoff, which genuinely never stops being fun. It’s all thrilling stuff, and with a claimed 0-62mph time of less than four seconds, bloody fast.

As France gave way to Belgium, the sky opened up and we started to get soaked. The E10 S does come with a temporary roof, which folds down behind the seats when not needed, and slots into the top of the windscreen when it is. We’d committed to only using it if absolutely necessary, and after 10 minutes of rain the hail began to pummel us, and we admitted defeat. Slotting the roof home and hooking it up at the rear is quick and effortless, and back out on the motorway, we were impressed by how well it held up to motorway speeds.

Fortunately, the weather brightened up a bit around Brussels, and after negotiating the city’s notorious ring road system, we decided to take a break. A quick phone call to our convoy revealed they were well ahead of us, and we gave up all hope of catching them. With bladders emptied and caffeine levels replenished, it was back to the open road.

A couple of uneventful hours, one more downpour, and another toilet break later, we were cruising through Germany with the roof down. Google Maps was indicating we only had an hour until we hit the track, the sun was shining, and we were feeling better about life. We had one more fuel stop needed before arrival, and we’d be sorted. The E10’s onboard fuel gauge is, quite frankly, totally useless. It stays around 80 per cent full for longer than is feasible, then once it drops below 50 per cent it can read anything from half full to completely empty depending on, well, we never quite figured that out.

Of course, you probably won’t be doing many epic road trips in this car, but it is a small annoyance. Particularly when you head out on to the longest race track in Europe with half a tank, then notice it’s fluctuating between empty and a quarter full only halfway round…

It’s also rather annoying when you search for fuel stations along your route from the motorway into the Nurburgring only to notice that there aren’t any for miles. This isn’t the first time this has caught me out, and we had to take a 20-minute detour to find fuel. Brilliantly, entering a snow storm in the process. The windscreen wipers are about as much use as the fuel gauge, as once you go above 50mph they start to lift, meaning they don’t work particularly well when it comes to actually wiping the windscreen. Useful in a blizzard.

Fuel tank topped up, we bombed back through the bizarrely-isolated snowstorm, and carved our way through the forests that surround the Nurburgring. The Zenos came alive. The dry roads twist through the trees like they’re trying to show off to the Nordschleife - you could come here, never go on track, and still enjoy some of the best driving you’ll ever experience.

Almost exactly 12 hours after we’d left, I pulled into the Devil’s Diner car park that sits beside the Nordschleife entrance. I spotted Alex with Phil, Sam from Seen Through Glass with our long-term Honda Civic Type R, and GTA Wise Guy in his flame-spitting Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. It was go time.

Our intention was to join the Destination Nurburgring track day event, which would have seen us sharing our lap with the likes of Chris Harris and other very capable drivers, but by the time we’d stretched our legs it was the end of the session, so we hung around until the Touristenfahrten laps began. The weather was warm, the skies were clear, and the track was dry. And best of all, since it was a week day and the track had been closed to the public all day, the tourist session was basically empty.

And we’re back to where we started, four-point harness holding me firmly in place, Nordschleife instructor beside me, and I’m driving out onto the iconic circuit. Joining at the end of the long straight, I plant my foot in second. The intake begins sucking air from beside my right ear, and the car fizzes with life as I rocket towards the limiter with barely time to catch my thoughts. Into third, and I continue accelerating down the hill through the left-hander. The shift is solid without being memorable, with a decent throw making slamming gears home simple.

The first section is twisty but fast, and the speed with which the Zenos changes direction is delightful. There’s no power steering, so every twitch is registered in lateral g-forces. With such little weight to fling around and sticky track-spec Avon ZZR rubber, you can carry silly speeds through each bend.

Because of that violent power delivery, you’d expect the rear to get twitchy on full bore upshifts or when powering out of a corner, especially when it comes to the Nordschleife and its varying cambers, but the Zenos E10 S is supremely planted.

Over the course of the lap, it becomes clear that the only limiting factor is my knowledge of the track - I know most of the major corners, but there are so many blind crests and corners that drop into unsighted apices that often self preservation is the only thing keeping me out of the barrier. And later that weekend, on a wet, icy track, I’d discover that the E10 S is surprisingly easy to catch when the rear end does get loose.

With the man beside me pointing out lines and braking points, I’m able to really make the most of my short time on track. Out here, all the rain and snow that tried its best to demoralise us is forgotten, and I’m in my happy place. Figuring out the car’s limits would take a lot more time than I have; as my confidence grows I start chucking the car about at far higher speeds, and yet still never manage any truly heart-stopping moments. Ridiculously capable, this thing.

So, if the purpose of this test was to find out if stripped back track day weapons are as capable when driving to the track day as they are out on the circuit, the Zenos proves they can be. The bucket seats encouraged wonderful posture, resulting in no back pain while still offering excellent cornering support, and unless you’re seriously short-tempered, driving something so different is still an event after 1300 miles. Sure, it’d be nice not to get so wet when the skies turn grey, but the average owner won’t be driving this car in winter anyway.

And the Zenos specifically? Mighty impressive. This company works out of a small industrial unit near Norwich, England, so the fact this car managed so many trouble free miles is highly commendable. The limp mode incident was fortunately an isolated event, and aside from that we didn’t have any problems. Considering it’s probably never been driven consistently at motorway speeds for half a day - we actually doubled the mileage of the test car in just four days - it handled the trip better than I ever could have expected.

Sure, you have to make some compromises to on-road comfort by throwing out creature comforts, but when you get to the kind of roads that give petrolheads the fizz, it all makes perfect sense.