Love at first sprint

A sports car doesn’t argue; it seduces. A promise right at the front of the starting grid of our desires, instantly setting our imagination racing.

Nobody buys a supercar for practical reasons. You fall in love with it. And love, as we know, tends to spread generously to the rest of the family – to the estate car, the saloon, the SUV and the people’s van next door. Whoever captures a heart gets at least the chance to win over the whole household.

This is precisely the path DENZA is taking, and with remarkable enthusiasm. There are a hundred ways to launch a young premium brand in Europe. DENZA chose one of the more appealing ones: a fully electric supercar. Welcome to the DENZA Z. Or better still: inside the DENZA Z.

The setting was, of course, Goodwood. That gentle English hill where automotive history flexes its finest muscles every year, whilst people sit by the wayside with their picnic baskets, as if driving at full throttle were a garden party. It was there that the Z made its world debut as a coupé and a racing model, with the previously unveiled Spider completing the trio. Anyone making their debut on the Hill of Legends is serious about having fun.

DENZA sounds like an Italian aperitif, but it comes from BYD, the Chinese conglomerate that is currently reshaping the automotive world at some pace. Founded in 2010 in partnership with Daimler, DENZA is now wholly owned by BYD. The name itself sets out its aspirations: Diverse, Elegance, Novel, Zenith, Aspirational. A brief five-word manifesto that first needs to be lived up to. Though the order is rather telling: first came the name, then the meaning. After all, coming up with an acronym after the fact is an art in itself. At the helm of the design is Wolfgang Egger, formerly of Audi and Alfa Romeo. A man with a European flair and, it seems, little fear of making a bold statement.

That’s what’s needed, too. ‘Premium’ doesn’t come about simply because someone writes the word on a presentation slide and raises the price accordingly. It requires identity, recognition and significance. Desire rarely stems from reason; it needs a good story, a distinctive character and a reason why this particular car, and no other, should be in the garage.

This is where the Z gets interesting.

Three electric motors deliver 1,604 PS and 1,240 Newton metres. The coupé reaches 100 in 2.25 seconds; the racing version takes 1.96. Its aerodynamic package generates up to 1,060 kilograms of downforce. These are figures from a category where, at some point, the brain simply stops making sensible comparisons.

However, performance alone is no longer a big deal. The electric world has democratised horsepower; nowadays, a well-charged battery is often all it takes. So the Z has to be capable of more than just speed.

And that’s exactly where the fun begins.

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→ Read the full article on DENZA in the new ramp #71 ‘Yabba Dabba Doo!’