What is Rodin Cars? The story behind the New Zealand company changing up the motorsport world

Rodin Cars founder David Dicker wanted to build the racing car of his dreams – so he went and built it

This week, racing car manufacturer Rodin Cars announced its latest hypercar for the racetrack: the FZero.

The 864kW/1026Nm V10-powered racing car is the new flagship product from the firm which has offices in the UK and New Zealand.

Only 27 examples of the new FZero are planned for sale, with the race car to weigh just 698kg with fluids.

Rodin Cars FZero top down image — The Rodin Cars FZero is a wild-looking thing

The V10 engine weighs 132kg and is a 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged unit with 130kW of electrical assistance. It revs to a ceiling of 10,000rpm.

What about the price? The new Rodin FZero will cost just over $3 million (£1.8 million) which, in the grand scheme of things, is actually quite the bargain.

A current Formula One car can cost up to $25 million to develop and build. It won’t be able to make the same power and torque as the FZero and takes a whole team to execute and run properly.

Inside the workshop of Rodin Cars in New Zealand

Gordan Murray has already penned the track racing version of his new T50 supercar that will cost those with the cash £3.1 million (AUD$5.3 million) … and they won’t even be able to drive it on the road.

The quick story behind Rodin Cars

Rodin Cars was officially established in 2016 in the south island of New Zealand, where Australian founder David Dicker built his own private racetrack to develop his sports and race cars.

David Dicker’s property and racetrack in the South Island of New Zealand

It’s a 550-hectare property that has three different track layouts and is the home of Rodin’s engineering and manufacturing centre, but it is also very remote, being hours away from the nearest city or town.

Despite the obvious challenges, the first car to be manufactured at the site was the Rodin FZed, which looks a lot like a modern Formula One car and was powered by a 3.8-litre V8 engine built by Cosworth. It has a max speed of 300km/h and can accelerate to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds.