During the Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix, a race organized this weekend in the capital of Denmark, a Zenvo ST1 supercar suddenly caught fire.
In this video shot by an amateur from the side of the track, you can see how the blaze originates in the engine compartment The driver stops and vacates the supercar, moment after which flames engulf the cabin and the front of the vehicle as well.
The funny thing is that Top Gear's former presenter Jeremy Clarkson reviewed the Zenvo ST1 back in 2014. During the test, a yellow example of the £800,000, 1,104bhp speed machine suddenly caught fire as well.
Zenvo later released a statement saying that the "clutch of the car burned out after an hour of extreme drifting by Top Gear drivers. At the second visit, a faulty intercooler fan caught fire after more than one hour of intensive, high-speed testing and 50 liters of fuel used. The source of the fire, has been traced back to a defect in the fan delivered by an acknowledged automotive supplier."
The Danish supercar company also highlighted the fact that its ST1 was clocked on the Top Gear track at 304 km/h (189 mph) which was the highest unofficial speed measured on the straight. But it seems Jeremy was right about the fire thing all along!
The tech side of the supercar
There's little doubt that while it might not be 100% safe, the Zenvo ST1 is an exotic car. The body is made entirely out of carbon fiber, while the chassis is a mix of steel and aluminum. With a dry weight of 1,688 kg (3,721 lbs), this rarity is only 48 kilos (105 pounds) heavier than a Porsche 918 Spyder.
The engine is a 6.8-liter V8 that is both supercharged and turbocharged, being capable of producing 1104 horsepower and a beastly 1,430 Nm (1,054 lb-ft) of twisting force.
UPDATE: Zenvo has told us what happened on the day of the fire. The ST1 you see in the video is a development prototype that used a brand new gearbox and "many new features being tested." Preliminary inspections point towards a fuel line failure, which unfortunately caused a fire underneath the car. However, a full inspection will be carried out over the next couple of days to find the cause of this problem.
They assure us that this does not affect the production cars they have already built. Let's not forget how Porsche recalled the 918 Spyder on multiple occasions.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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