As I turn out of the chicane, I plant the throttle, and immediately feel as though my brain has fallen out of my ears.
I don’t have time to check the speedometer, conscious that if I miss my braking point before the next corner, bits of me will end up in Kent. But suffice it to say that for a car to feel this blisteringly quick on the wide-open main straight of the historic motor racing circuit at Goodwood, it’s got to have power of a different order of magnitude to anything I’ve driven before.
And indeed, it has. This is the Denza Z, a new electric supercar – or should that be hypercar? – from Chinese manufacturer BYD, a car it hopes will be a bona fide competitor for the Porsche 911.
Our experience of the Z so far has consisted of three laps of Goodwood. Hardly enough to get properly under the skin of this car, so we’ll bring you a full review when we’ve had a chance to get it out on the open road.
But the stats alone are enough to make your eyes water: 1,583bhp, 0-62mph in 1.96 seconds, and (if you opt for the Racing version - pictured - with its mildly comedic rear wing) 1,060kg of downforce at a top speed of 217mph. That’s like having a whole Ford Fiesta plonked on top of you, pushing your tyres into the Tarmac.
Mind you, it’s not cheap. Prices for Denza's flagship will kick off at £142,900, with the Racing model rising to £172,900.
And yet, even for that sort of money, there’s nothing out there that even comes close in terms of sheer power-per-pound.
Then again, you could also argue that nobody really needs 1,583bhp out on the road. And that got us wondering: if you’re prepared to accept a fraction of the power, for a fraction of the price, what options do you have?
Could we, for example, find a used car on CarGurus that delivers half the power, for half the money? That is to say, 792bhp for £71,450?
As a matter of fact, we can: almost. And rather than an attempt at aping a Porsche, this one’s the real deal: a Porsche Taycan Turbo S, to be precise.
It dates from early 2024, which means it gets 751bhp . Not quite half the Denza’s power output, perhaps, but it’ll still rattle off 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds, which is plenty quick enough to cause your digestive system to attempt to vacate your body via the seat back.
Having done just 25,000 miles, this example’s barely run in. And because it comes in at £71,495, it’s £3,688 below its CarGurus Instant Market Value (or IMV, which is what our data says a car is actually worth), so it’s an awful lot of car for the money.
