Supercar Maker Zenvo Challenges Us To Figure Out Where Their Marker Lights Come From

We’ve talked about Danish supercar maker Zenvo before here; they’re building a very striking-looking carbon fiber-monocoque supercar with a bespoke hybrid drivetrain containing electric motors and an incredible four-turbo 6.6-liter V12 engine making an absurd total of 1,850 horsepower. It’s all very important stuff, so when I got a chance to talk to their designer and CTO, I knew the important things to ask about: the marker lamps.

That’s right, the side marker lights. Well, the side marker lights and the rear reflectors and the third brake lamp. These are legally-required lighting elements for the American market, and they can be very expensive things to develop independently and get official DOT approval for, so most supercar makers – who deal in low-volume cars for very price-conscious buyers – tend to use pre-approved and developed units from other cars or from parts catalogs of established suppliers.

This process often ends up with an unpleasant juxtaposition: multi-million-dollar supercars, carefully engineered and designed down to the very last detail, but with cheap, crappy marker lights that were just picked out of a catalog at the last minute slapped on. Just look at this 2014 Pagani Huayra, for example:

That has zero design harmony with the rest of the car; how embarrassing! Luckily, Christian Brandt, the head of design at Zenvo, understood that this kind of half-assery on such an otherwise meticulously-designed car just won’t work. So, when it came to finding DOT-approved and compliant marker lights and reflectors for the Zenvo Aurora, he knew he had to do better. And I think he did!

There’s a pre-production Zenvo being used for testing, but with the production styling, including the marker lights. You may not have noticed them right away, which is part of the point – they look very well integrated into the car, and not some tacked-on afterthought.

Zenvo didn’t make these lights themselves. Christian, who, incredibly, actually was happy to discuss the side marker lights of his supercar with me and not simply give the security guards a knowing look and have me dragged out and flung into the parking lot, spent a lot of time looking around at the sorts of lights and reflectors on other production cars before finding just the right ones for his vision.

 

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It wasn’t easy! While the sort of marker lamps he settled on – the type that hug the wheelarch – aren’t necessarily uncommon on production cars, getting the right ones, ones that matched the radius of the wheelarch and still sat at the same angles as their donor cars so that the reflector angles still met the legal requirements was a massive challenge.

But he did it. And I want to know what cars these lamps came from.

Christian wouldn’t tell me, but he did agree to something: if we, the Autopian Hive Mind, can figure out where we think these lights came from, he will confirm if we are right or wrong.

The Zenvo people, while amused at my confidence and interest, don’t think we can do this. I think we can. I think we can teach these Danish supercar makers to never underestimate the astounding power of automotive geekery that the Autopian Collective is capable of. So let’s show them.

I only have one real clue: these lighting elements come from three separate cars. Also, my initial guesses: the new Chevy Blazer or the Mini Cooper – are not correct. So let’s look at these lights and reflectors, starting with the front side marker lamps:

There they are, hugging that wheelarch, with curved and angled ends, slightly different from one another. What car donated these? Now, for the rear:

Very similar to the front; I suspect these marker lamps are both from the same car, but the following items, the rear reflector and the center high mount stop lamp (CHMSL), are from two different vehicles, for the total of three donor cars. Here’s the CHMSL:

That’s a tricky one! Very thin, with a lone row of LEDs.

And, finally, the rear retroreflectors:

This one almost feels like a sabre or scimitar or similar sword, but definitely didn’t come from the Reliants that share those names. This one may have a bit of a hint here that could make this easier:

Is that a Ford logo? Maybe? Are these Mustang ones too straight, or might they fit, rotated 90°?

I’m not sure it’s those, but maybe it’s a place to start?

Anyway, let’s show these supercar makers that when it comes to absurd lighting minutia, they can’t put one past us! I know we can figure this out! I believe in you and your beautiful geekery, Autopians!