Rodin Cars: The world’s newest hypercar brand

A New Zealand billionaire with a need for speed could become the world’s next Enzo Ferrari.

David Dicker built his fortune as a high-tech entrepreneur in the computer world in Australia and now he is looking to create a high-performance car brand called Rodin Cars.

He has already built a single-seater based on a Lotus grand prix car for track-day use and is moving rapidly towards two unique new vehicles, one for the road.

But he denies Rodin -- pronounced ‘Ro-dan’, after the famous Italian statue of The Thinker -- is just a vanity project for an ageing wanna-be racer who already gets his adrenaline rush from competing in the Ferrari Challenge one-make series in a 488 racer.

“It’s a commercial venture. That’s got to be the number one in anything you do,” Dicker tells carsales from his base in New Zealand’s South Island, about 90 minutes from Christchurch.

“I’ve never been a huge fan of hobbies. There has to be a commercial result.”

He has already proven the point with his success in computing and is going all-out on his car creation.

“There is nothing to say you cannot earn a living from something you enjoy doing,” he says.

“It's fun. I enjoy doing it. If I’d realised how long it would take and what it would cost, I probably would have hesitated.

“But what’s the point? Die with a million bucks in the bank? When I’m dead I’m not going to be bothered.”

Dicker is now commercialising his single-seater FZED, pricing it from just over $950,000 with the biggest target markets in the USA and Europe.

Despite the high purchase price, and the need for a back-up crew for track days, Dicker is trumpeting low running costs including a V8 engine that will run for 5000km on 98-octane pump petrol.

The Rodin project began when Dicker was convinced to pick up the pieces from the failed Lotus T125 program, which was intended to provide a turn-key track-day F1 car for wealthy drivers who wanted everything done for them. It came at the wrong time with the wrong brand and the wrong pricing, but the Kiwi could see the potential in the program.

His first car, based on the T125, is called the FZED and has been significantly tweaked from the British original as his design and engineering team lift the bar on everything from performance to quality and driving enjoyment.

“Initially I would have wanted to build a road car. You grow up with road cars. When I was a kid I wanted to build my own car.

“But the big advantage with the track cars is that you don’t have to fight all those regulations. There are no regulations,” Dicker says.

“A track car is a pretty easy marketing pitch. The FZED is not as quick as a Formula 1 car, but not far behind.”

With the FZED up and running, and a program that takes prospects up through drives in a range of cars from a GT Lotus to the single-seater, the focus is now on a two-seater version of the track car and then the first road car.

In between is the two-seater track car with a jet-fighter style canopy, tentatively called the Zero.

“Once we get the Z-Zero project on the road we’ll start on the road car straight away. Perhaps the end of the year. I hope to get that going not too far down the track.”

Dicker is going all-out on his Rodin project, even building a special factory and a private test track, as well as recruiting a team of experts in engineering and motorsport.

“We’ve got about 15 guys at the moment,” he says.

What about the budget?

“To be honest, I haven't even counted the money. I’d only get depressed.

“When you decide to do something like this, you cannot know what it will cost. You just have to be committed.

“Basically, on a project like this or any business project you’ve just got to put in what it needs to get to where you want to be.”

But Dicker is clear on his inspiration.

“I’ve been driving cars for nearly 50 years and had a huge interest in them right from the start. I’ve got tons of Ferraris and tons of this and that. I’ve got a lot of experience of the market and how things should be done.”

He’s also a hands-on leader, even at 66, keeping sharp by racing in the Ferrari Challenge one-make series and bringing the perspective of a potential buyer.

“I’ve got a clear picture of what I want done and how I want to get it done. To be competitive in the market you’ve got to do things the other guys don’t do,” Dicker says.

“I designed the F-Zero. I do the concept stuff and hand it over to the other guys.

“I do virtually all the test driving now. I’ve done almost all the test in the FZED because I’m closer to what the customers are going to be like.”

With the FZED now on sale, Dicker believes he has the price point right and a direction for the cars to come.

“Really, the price of this sort of thing is not a big deal. The road cars will be a little bit dearer,” he says.

“Really, I just want to do it. We want to prove it can be done, and done here.”