Denza Z contra Porsche 911: 1.583 CV i càrrega ultraràpida, però encara sense prova

This is the car that China reckons is going to take on the Porsche 911 Turbo and Taycan and things like the Aston Martin Vantage. And this is essentially a Porsche Panamera from the Far East or possibly a Taycan Cross Turismo. Welcome then then then to the world of Denza. Coming up, we learn how to park like a crab, crab, crab, get surprised about boot space, watch this. Hello. this. Hello. this. Hello. And get excited about magic suspension. Recognize this bunch? Probably not if you're from Europe, but this is Denza. Now, it started off in 2010 as a joint venture between Chinese megacorp BYD and Daimler. It produced its first car in 2014, but now it's 90% owned by BYD again, which obviously thought it was a great company to keep hold of. And BYD does have a couple of daughter sub-brands. So, you currently get BYD making normal cars and YangWang making really mad hyper and luxury stuff, like the floating U8 SUV and the U9 electric hypercar, the one with 3,000

horsepower in its extreme version. Then there's Denza, there's Denza, there's Denza, which is supposed to be a technology-focused luxury brand. Think Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and Porsche. So, a bit more normal than YangWang, but a bit more premium than BYD. Amongst some very average cars coming from China into the UK at the moment, the first two from Denza seem to be really quite interesting. And if you want bang for your buck, then you need this. It's called the Denza Z, which Nissan's own Z sports car might feel put out by. out by. out by. And you can have a Denza Z in three flavors. This coupe, a spider, and a racing version that doesn't go racing. This thing is actually very closely related to the Z9 GT because it's based on the same EQ platform as that car. And yes, this car will be coming to the UK in 2026. So, from the front, is it a little bit generic? Well, I think so because I always see ghosts of other cars in these things. I can see bits of Jaguar, maybe Lamborghini, bit of Corvette. But, that's the way with a lot of sports cars these days. They all have this low nose with a big splitter, maybe a vent in the side or an intake rather, and then there's a a vent on the top surface of the bonnet that allows the air flow from the front to go straight out over the windscreen. But, as soon as you get down the side of this car, it gets more interesting. I mean, take this front wheel arch for a start. It's got this really crisp line that flows down through the doors and then reappears in the rear haunch. And it frames these realistic 20-in wheels really nicely

over big brakes. And then as you move down the side of the car, the first thing you notice is it's actually quite low. Carbon fiber roof by the way. And then there's all these nice lines that come down. Denza calls it a silk line into these kind of slash cut air curtains that tidy up the air flow over the rear wheels. But, one thing I wanted to point out is just this profile. If you look how the roof sweeps down the back of the car, then it's got these kind of funky little vents here, and then a little ducktail. And it's got lozenge-shaped rear lights that remind me of a Continental GT, big venturi. This is actually a really good-looking car. The track bias version of this car, the racing, comes with a massive tea tray on the back. Now, that's a wing, which is also adjustable. So, it tips forward for situations. That's good for 1,060 kg of downforce at 217 217 217 mph, which is good to know if not that practical. But, I reckon this wingless version looks much more elegant. And the

spider looks good, too. It's a three-motor setup, so two at the back and one at the front, and it's got a 76-kW 76-kW 76-kW blade battery, and it's LFP chemistry. Now, the interesting thing about that battery is that it can be flash charged at up to 1,500 kW DC, which means if you can find a big enough charger, this thing will do 10 to 80% in roughly 4 minutes, which is pretty quick. That three-motor setup gives it 1,583 1,583 1,583 brake horsepower and 929 lb feet of torque. torque. torque. Now, with a curb weight of 2,230 kg, it is not a light car, but that's a heavy amount of horsepower and enough to give an ought to 62 mph in 2.25 seconds and a standing still to 124 in 6.36 with a 186 mph plus top speed. This car is fast in all the ways. So, let's have a look at the interior. But first, one other bit of mad tech. Now, this is next-level stuff, even if we have seen versions of it before. Basically, Deesis M is a chassis by wire system that integrates magneti-rheological damp and uses sensors and cameras to read the road, allowing it to instantaneously firm up the suspension to deal with lumps and bumps. It's a bit similar to Rolls-Royce's magic carpet system, but this version also takes care of steering, braking, and powertrain and has self-leveling and height adjustment, as well as the obvious stuff like an auto lift mode to get over obstacles

without scraping anything. It helps with handling and cornering, but also extreme situations. If you get a blowout on this car, it'll actually keep that wheel off the floor for a bit and slow you to a safe stop. If you put all that together with the extreme rear wheel steer, the individual control of each of the three motors, and Denza's vehicle motion control ESC system, you're talking about a car that could ride like a 1960s Citroën DS and perform like a track car. At least that's the theory and the promise of all those CGI videos. The proof will only come when we drive it. it. it. And when you get inside, it gets even better because Denza just hasn't tried to be too wacky. There are going to be three versions of this car, a convertible and a track spec one that's got a massive rear wing and a half roll cage, but this one is the one I think I'd choose. I'd choose. I'd choose. Couple of things. Some of the bits are a little bit plasticky, but you can move the vents by hand, which I always quite like. The stitching is absolutely millimeter perfect. I really like the fact that it's got manual controls for the

rearview mirrors. It's got a camera mirror or a normal mirror, and then this steering wheel with a flat bottom has lots and lots of buttons on it, but they all make sense. So, there's one for voice control, one for your phone, a boost button, which is I I assume is a bit like a push to pass, and then a mode change button here. This is the drive gear selector and there's a little driver's display in front of you, which gives you all the information you need. 50 W charging for your phone, and then a little set of buttons here, which are in Chinese. Now, I have put a translate on these and this one is the mode selector. So, you can go from normal to eco to snow, sport, and they're your modes for the drivetrain. This one just changes a little icon in the dash from standard to larger. And when I put it through the translation, it said, "Get back." Now, I think that's a little change for the brake regeneration, regeneration, regeneration, um which is handy, but you can also do that through the touchscreen. Now, the touchscreen touchscreen touchscreen just isn't a massive swathe of OLED. It's a really crisp, small screen, and then you've got physical buttons underneath for off-to-use functions. So, there's the demist, there's the fans, and then these ones here are the e-cued settings. So, if you go into that, it shows you where your drive modes are coming from, um what the kind of efficiency ranges are, charging, all that sort of stuff. And then if you go into this one, because it's got active suspension, you can adjust the height. So, if you're going down a rough bit of road, you could jack it up a bit. And then if you go into suspension settings, you can change again the the drive modes, and then the comfort control, and it's even got motion sickness relief.

So, you know if some people get a little bit motion sick in a car, well, you can you can set this car up so that it puts a little bit more kind of visceral stuff in, and it alleviates motion sickness discomfort for driver and passengers, which is quite interesting. Then you can change the steering assist, the brake assist, assist, assist, all the things you need to do. And look how crisp this screen is. It's really fast, and it's really clear. And then the rest of it is actually quite practical. So, you've got a big sort of storage section down here. You've got a cup holder here, and your passenger isn't forgotten, isn't forgotten, isn't forgotten, because they have their own cup holder. Then in this center console is a small fridge, much like you'd find in a student bedroom. But it gets even better because it does actually have back seats. Yes, they are very much a 2 + 2, seats. Yes, they are very much a 2 + 2, seats. Yes, they are very much a 2 + 2, so it's kids only. Okay, but they also fold down, and it's got quite a big boot. Watch this.

But if you want something a lot more practical, then how about this? The Z 9 GT. It's kind of a five-door shooting brake type of estate. And in China, you can have it as either a plug-in hybrid version or a full battery electric. In fact, it's based on exactly the same bones as the sports car, the EQ platform. And the first car that we'll get in the UK is the full BEV. So, that means two motors at the back, one in the front, except that this estate car has 952 brake horsepower and 848 lb feet of torque. As you might expect, it's quite quick. 0 to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds before hitting 149 mph, which is plenty. Under there is a 122 kWh LFP blade battery, good for 391 mi of range, and they're megawatt capable of flash charging. So, if you put it on a 1,500 kW charger, it would add 250 mi of range in 5 minutes. The obvious issue being that there aren't any megawatt chargers in the UK, yet. There are quite a few in China, and Denza says that as the cars appear this year, there will be a significant amount of chargers in the UK, which will be power bank to stop them blacking out the nearest town. And yes, you'd still have some guy with a Dacia Spring trying to charge on one, which would work, just no faster than the car could handle. And as for the styling, I can't quite work it out. It's got these massive headlights at the front that are super intelligent full LED, the whole works, but it kind of reminds me of an MG4. And as you come down the side of

the car, I think the profile is actually quite sweet. It's got a big slash down here, but that's a fake vent. They don't actually do anything, but look at the window line. It's actually really nice. And then the spoiler kind of works. The problem I've got with it, there's a there's a lot of feature lines. So, this thing comes down here, there's a triple thing that comes down here, another bit of trim that rips around here. Then the spoiler's got two sweeps there, there's a cut line here, here, and here. There's another one here. And then while I quite like the rear lights, you get to the rear bumper and they said, "How much styling would you like?" And they just said, "Yes." said, "Yes." said, "Yes." But hey, the proportions are fun, and I'm all for interesting cars. And the big thing about Denza's is that they're very techy. This thing can crab walk, where the rear wheels use the rear steer system to drive the car diagonally, spin in tight circles called pencil turns, where the rears counter steer each other as the fronts turn, and do all sorts of interesting things, like the blowout safety function. The battery is top notch, and

again it's cell-to-body mounted as part of the chassis, so it should be super stiff and more compact than usual. It's got all the tricks. And as with the sports car, the interior looks pretty well sorted. Now, this is a Chinese spec car, so we're not going to dig into it too much, but generally the quality looks really good. It's got really lovely seats, loads of physical controls, controls, controls, but because this is a more practical car, it's got a driver's display, passenger's display. Although I do think the much bigger central touchscreen does look a little bit stuck on. But this car is more about practicality. It's got loads of space in the rear. Decent boot. And if you're wondering what this odd lump is here, it's the onboard fridge, obviously. If this thing undercuts a Cross Turismo or RS5 or any of those fast estate-ish things, I think there'd be a place for it, for the novelty and tech value if nothing else. So there's a very quick lowdown on the two Denza's coming to the UK in 2026 as confirmed by Denza's vice president Stella Li. Apparently, there is a little bit of tweaking to be done to make these cars suitable for European taste, but my interest is piqued. So tell me, would you fancy a Denza in the UK? Let me know in the comments.