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Porsche 911 rival finally surfaces in what appear to be undisguised winter testing images.
The long-awaited Denza Z Coupe, a model previewed by the Z Concept at last year’s Shanghai Auto Show, looks to be edging closer to its reveal after seemingly official images surfaced online.
The two images, which depict a more extreme track-focused model alongside what appears to be the standard version, were published on X by ThinkerCar though it’s not clear where their images came from.
They are the first undisguised images of the 911-rival seen so far and confirm that the production model barely differs from the concept, which featured the more extreme appendages from the track-focused version.
It’s expected to feature chassis-by-wire technology, whereby steering, braking, power, and suspension, are all controlled without mechanical linkages, and could cost from less than $45,000.
BYD Sets Sights on Porsche
China’s history with coupes is rather limited with the Yangwang U9, Hyptec SSR, SSC 01, and Neta GT the only real volume production sports cars of note, but the arrival of the Z seems to demonstrate the increased confidence of Chinese brands on the global stage.
With Chinese brands holding the world top speed record for production cars, and the top two times for production EVs at the Nurburgring, it’s clear that the wider Chinese automotive industry increasingly sees performance cars as an area in which to flex their engineering muscles.
BYD in particular, having claimed the title of world’s largest EV maker and boasting over 100,000 R&D engineers on its books, appears to see the category as a proving ground for their latest developments, with the Yangwang U9 Extreme at the pinnacle.
The Z looks likely to feature much of the same capability and more on top, with the Disus-M suspension capable of adapting each corner of the car to the road conditions, and steer-by-wire debuting on a BYD group model for the first time.
Spec to rival supercars
Expected to sit on the e3 platform that underpins the Denza Z9 and Z9 GT, the Z will come equipped with at least three electric motors and potentially will make use of Yangwang’s boxer engine to work as a range extender in some variants.
The Z9 itself is no slouch, offering up to 952bhp and a 0-100kph time of just 3.4 seconds, and so the Z should at least match that output and manage to trim the acceleration further by virtue of being a lighter car, though a more powerful version certainly can’t be ruled out.
The reveal of two models, one with a large fixed rear wing and one without, suggest a more tame version with less aggressive aero will be joined by a more stripped-out, track-focused model that could look to take on the Porsche GT3 RS.
The Z Concept came with 22-inch, touring car style alloys with built in cooling channels and shod in Pirelli tyres, with large dual brake calipers on both the front and rear brakes.
Boasting a large front splitter, bonnet and front wing air outlets, intakes around the side, a large diffuser at the rear, and racing harnesses and a roll cage inside, the Z Concept appears to preview the track-based version, whereas the red model in the images seems to do without some of these features.
It’s also unclear whether the Z will come equipped with the Z9’s rear-wheel steering and pivot-turn ability, but we certainly wouldn’t rule it out.
With the official launch expected in the next month or so as China builds up to the Beijing Auto Show in April, it won’t be too long before the Z’s full technology details are revealed, and some European brands might be looking a little nervous.