When you think of New Zealand motorsport, names like Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Scott Dixon probably spring to mind. What probably doesn’t, is a purpose-built factory hidden among the sheep paddocks of Canterbury that’s quietly trying to build a race car capable of embarrassing Formula One. Yet that’s exactly what Rodin Cars is doing.
The company, founded by Kiwi tech entrepreneur David Dicker, isn’t interested in building another supercar to cruise Ponsonby Road, Rodin has one obsession and that is building the fastest track cars on the planet.
“What if there were no rules?” That question led to the Rodin FZED, an open-wheel race car that gives wealthy enthusiasts something remarkably close to a modern Formula One experience (minus the politics, team radios and million-dollar repair bills every other weekend).
But the real headline grabber is the Rodin FZERO. Powered by a bespoke twin-turbo hybrid V10 producing around 1,176bhp, weighing less than 700kg and capable of generating approximately 4,000kg of downforce, its goal isn’t simply to be quick, it wants to be quicker than Formula One.
What’s perhaps even more impressive is how much of the car is built in-house. Rodin designs and manufactures everything from the carbon-fibre chassis and suspension to titanium components, gearbox and even its own V10 engine.
And while many manufacturers are adding electric assistance, autonomous features and increasingly complicated touchscreens, Rodin has doubled down on the one thing motorsport fans really care about, outright performance.
The company has also expanded into driver development through Rodin Motorsport, supporting young racing talent across international single-seater categories. It’s another reminder that as well as building extraordinary machines, Rodin is about creating a complete motorsport ecosystem.
New Zealand has always punched above its weight in engineering. From Bruce McLaren building championship-winning race cars to innovators creating world-class yacht technology and aerospace components, we’ve developed a habit of proving that great ideas don’t need to come from Detroit, Stuttgart or Maranello. Now Rodin Cars is adding another chapter to that story.
Will the FZERO ultimately achieve its ambition of outperforming Formula One? Time (and a stopwatch) will tell. But one thing is already certain. Somewhere in the Canterbury countryside, a group of Kiwi engineers are giving the world’s biggest motorsport names something they probably didn’t expect, Competition.
Motorsport – Dave Mcleod