The Zenvo story with founder Troels Vollertsen
March 8, 2021
It's no secret that creating a hypercar from scratch is no picnic.
This passion didn’t waver throughout my career engineering, tuning and inventing new technologies for a number of different companies, but I couldn’t quite shake this urge to do it all myself. It’s no secret that creating a hypercar from scratch is no picnic, and I knew I was making things harder for myself by insisting on doing it not only in Denmark but my hometown of Præstø. People were sceptical, but Modena is hardly a bustling metropolis, is it?
People were sceptical, but Modena is hardly a bustling metropolis, is it?
This was 2007, and the idea snowballed to the stage where I had a bare chassis in the workshop and a drivetrain mapped out in my head. This become the ST1, so named because of the supercharged and turbocharged 6.8 litre V8 with a system unique to us. After joining forces with Danish designer Christian Brandt, who had played a part in such stunning designs as the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, the ball was rolling. His design was just as I’d hoped, not detracting from the car’s grand tourer nature but alluding to the animal that lay beneath.
Design was not detracting from the car's grand tourer nature but alluding to the animal that lay beneath.
The ST1 was unveiled in 2009 to pretty rave reviews, with the idea of a bespoke Danish hypercar catching people off guard. Fast forward to 2012 and the first customer car was delivered and I began looking to the next car, and new innovations. It would be remiss of me at this stage to not mention a heated moment on Top Gear, where our naivety in answering a phone call from the world’s biggest car show and saying yes to everything they said when the car wasn’t finished caused a bit of a stir. At the time this seemed like the end of the world, but in all honesty this early mistake (one so common in this game but not often publicised) just spurred us on – we’re fine with being the underdog.
We had produced the world's fastest single clutch gearbox, but I wanted to make our next car a touch rawer.
This new car, the TS1 GT, now featured a twin supercharged set up over the previous turbo and superchargers: this would go on to be my favourite set up. Keeping the V8, now 5.8 litres, these two superchargers gave us 1,102 bhp and 1,139 Nm of torque, all in a revised but still very Zenvo body. Of course, I had to keep trying new things, and I had often dreamt of making my own gearbox using the ‘dog engagement’ technology usually found in race cars which allows lightning-fast changes, but traditionally sacrifices smoothness. So, we got to work and made our own in-house ‘dog’ box with helical cut gears, giving our TS1 GT that race car feel without the race car headaches. This fit so well with the TS1 GT that we had some interest in a more hardcore model, and once again we got back to work.
This fit so well with the TS1 GT that we had some interest in a more hardcore model, and once again we got back to work.
This patented design expands on the principal of active aerodynamics that we now see commonly in supercars.
So we now had this new technology, had learned exactly what limits we could reach in a track car and how to make a grand tourer. This led us to create our flagship offering, the TSR-S, which is effectively a road legal version of our TSR track car. This car was unveiled at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show and is without doubt our most recognisable model, boasting a 1,177bhp twin-supercharged V8, a 0-62mph time of 2.8 seconds and a 0-124mph time of 6.8 seconds.
We're still proud to champion Danish design and still produce all our cars by hand.
