RE: Rodin Cars announces wild FZERO for 2023

RE: Rodin Cars announces wild FZERO for 2023

Wednesday 10th August 2022

Rodin Cars announces wild FZERO for 2023

Zero doesn't mean EV, either - this 700kg spaceship has a twin turbo V10


You’d have been forgiven for not expecting much from Rodin’s confirmation, back in 2019, of an 800hp V10 sports car. After all, plenty of British based companies have announced grand plans that have never come to fruition, leave alone those from New Zealand (that have a base at Donington Park). It’s hardly been the best few years for new ventures, either. Still, if you wanted a project to attract attention, then a sub-1,000kg track car with an all-new V10 and as much power as a Ferrari Superfast would do it. But the Rodin wasn’t actually going to happen, was it?

Well, here we are in August 2022, with confirmation from Rodin that its track car - now called the FZERO - will go into production next year. They’ve weathered the Covid storm and come out the other side with one of the most incredible cars we’ve ever seen, like if Wacky Races was part of the Marvel Universe. While the images released at the moment aren’t the finished thing, something that sticks close to this part Group C, part spaceship look will be something to savour.

Rodin has confirmed some important stats for the FZERO, though, and they’ll make your eyes pop just as much as the design. Allegedly this car, all 5,500mm of it, will weigh 698kg with all its fluids, yet produce 1,176hp and 757lb ft from all-new, twin-turbo, hybridised 4.0-litre V10 built as part of a collaboration between Rodin and Neil Brown Engineering. The engine itself provides 1,000hp and 671lb ft of the total, making peak power at 9,000rpm and going all the way to 10k. The hybrid element contributes 176hp and 86lb ft; it’s been built with Integral Powertrain, the same British company that did the motors for the VW ID R. As well as providing additional power and brake regen capability, the 130kW motor will operate as starter and alternator. Rodin believes the RCTEN engine, at just 132kg, will be the lightest and most compact V10 ever. Power will reach the road via a bespoke Ricardo eight-speed gearbox, itself said to weigh just 66kg.

The crazy numbers keep coming. The FZERO is said to be capable of up to 4,000kg of downforce, the top speed will be 223mph (when the aero isn’t set to provide four tonnes of downforce, presumably) and each cylinder has a bore and stroke of 86mm and 68.8mm respectively - the tiny latter number surely helping that big V10 spin all the way to 10,000rpm. Furthermore, in the attempt to be ‘the fastest car around track, without exception’ - this lighter than an AMG One, Valkyrie, or GMA T.50 Lauda - the F Zero gets slick Avon tyres, forged magnesium rims manufactured with OZ ‘produced to F1 standard’ and carbon-carbon brakes with titanium calipers. It’s surely going to be absolutely wild behind the wheel. ‘Building a car without restrictions of road laws or race series regulations, means it can be developed with no limits, allowing for performance that would otherwise be unobtainable’, reads the press release. Be quite quick around Donington Park, at least…

Rodin’s founder, David Dicker, added: “The Rodin FZERO is the physical representation of the ultimate heights in vehicle performance. Without the restrictions of building to a set of rules, we are able to make the car lighter, more powerful, and produce significantly more downforce. The only real restrictions we face are the laws of physics, and we have even pushed those to the absolute limit. We look forward to bringing the most intense driving experience conceivable to tracks around the world.”

Which all sounds tremendously awesome, right? Without wishing to get ahead of ourselves, the FZERO project does seem too far advanced now to not happen, with major bits of it complete, but we’ll reserve our enthusiasm just a little longer to be sure. Rodin says that 27 cars will be made and that the first ones will be finished next summer. Track days will never be the same again…


Author
Discussion

LotusOmega375D

Original Poster:

7,581 posts

152 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
At least they seem to have made one wheel.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Wednesday 10th August 10:26

Frimley111R

15,537 posts

233 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Made by Hotwheels/Matchbox?

ZedLeg

12,278 posts

107 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
If that comes out next year I'll donate my entire year's salary to charity.

996Keef

435 posts

90 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all

hairykrishna

13,159 posts

202 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Not even good renders. How do companies like this get investment? Is it just people pissing their own money away?

Jon_S_Rally

3,385 posts

87 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Cheerful lot, aren't you?

Looks absolutely bonkers and, if it is anything like the spec they're claiming, it will be as fast as it is mad to look at.

daveco

4,122 posts

206 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner ner...BATMAN!


Dr G

15,159 posts

241 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Who's got a copy of the "we're building a supercar" press release? rofl

MontyPythonX

486 posts

115 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
ZedLeg said:
If that comes out next year I'll donate my entire year's salary to charity.
Quoting that for evidence laugh

matrignano

4,346 posts

209 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
LotusOmega375D said:
At least they seem to have made one wheel.

Edited by LotusOmega375D on Wednesday 10th August 10:26
To be fair, it also seems they managed to cast one engine block and head

simonrockman

6,843 posts

254 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
They used to run regular ads in EVO, I looked at them and hoped that the publishers were keeping a close eye on the credit control for that one.

hairykrishna

13,159 posts

202 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Jon_S_Rally said:
Cheerful lot, aren't you?

Looks absolutely bonkers and, if it is anything like the spec they're claiming, it will be as fast as it is mad to look at.


They've been claiming it's imminent since 2019. They promised a driving prototype by the end of 2020. They can claim whatever spec they like because it doesn't exist and, I suspect, never will.

silva bika

93 posts

126 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
To put this into perspective the GMD t50, which actually exists, was designed by the man who has a long history of developing light weight cars. The t50 weighs 957kg dry against 700kgs for the FZERO - approximately 25% lighter. Really?
Or is 700 kgs just the weight of the renderings?

Sulaco

20 posts

25 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
More than a whiff of Caparo T1 about it.

That car was hot news for a while. It was the next bright thing…

LucyP

1,698 posts

58 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Dr G said:
Who's got a copy of the "we're building a supercar" press release? rofl
It's on the Sniff Petrol website. They just had to Tipp-Ex out the word "British" and insert "New Zealand". The rest of the SP template is ready to use, including silly name, unrealistic release date, and ludicrous BHP and performance figures.

Perhaps they will sell it from their "dealership" at Donington Park, where you can buy their track-day single-seater. I wonder if they have ever sold one. The "showroom" is never open when there is an event on at Donington, so they obviously don't believe that motorsport people are their customers.

Perhaps you have to press the bell and wait for the salesman to come from New Zealand?

It has taken Mercedes AMG 5 years from concept to commencement of production of the One. They already had the F1 tech that they have adapted and the F1 engineers.

BigChiefmuffinAgain

1,054 posts

97 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Maybe they could use the TVR factory to make it ?

Silvanus

5,147 posts

22 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Anyone got a list of all the failed supercar/track cars from the last 10 years, might want to add this one? It's actually getting a bit boring now. I'd be more impressed with someone coming up with a modern day peoples car that's good value for money, safe and efficient with its power train. It seems they are far more difficult to design than something like this.

rampageturke

2,622 posts

161 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
996Keef said:
I was going to say, the Nintendo C&D letter is probably already in the post hehe

rampageturke

2,622 posts

161 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
hairykrishna said:
Not even good renders. How do companies like this get investment? Is it just people pissing their own money away?
Hey man, render time costs money, and Fusion360 has free cloud based render time for students wink

Silvanus

5,147 posts

22 months

Wednesday 10th August 2022
quotequote all
Jon_S_Rally said:
Cheerful lot, aren't you?

Looks absolutely bonkers and, if it is anything like the spec they're claiming, it will be as fast as it is mad to look at.
It won't look like that as it will never get produced, nothing about being cheerful or not. Even if they do build any they will fail.