RE: Rodin Cars announces wild FZERO for 2023

[FocusOnThis]

hairykrishna said:

Not even good renders. How do companies like this get investment? Is it just people pissing their own money away?

The guy who runs it made his money in IT and tried to buy Williams F1 at one point, so best guess is he's got plenty of his own money to spaff.

[Bencolem]

Serious question, how could you possibly see over those front wheel arches? Visibility must be terrible?

[steven.owens1]

Beat me to it, for a track day car, if anyone hits an apex on purpose I would be shocked. One very expensive crash waiting to happen on an open trackday with that poor visibility. Also what track would you be able to use this at? I assume its noise emissions will write off most tracks where you might be able to use this in anger.

[Mark-C]

Sulaco said:

More than a whiff of Caparo T1 about it.

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

You can buy one of those for £190k if you want - at least it really existed --> https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1167283

I've not been in Norfolk for years but Stratton Motors had one in the window not long after they were launched - maybe the same one?!

[ate one too]

Rodin is owned by David Dicker.

Dicker Data, which has a market capitalisation of AUS$1.9 billion, is a hardware and software distributor. It acts as a middleman connecting vendors and resellers of IT hardware, software, cloud and IoT solutions.

The company has a 100 per cent dividend payout ratio, which resulted in its 35.5¢ per share of total dividends in 2020 netting Dicker a healthy AUS$21.5 million

I think he can afford to build what he wants and not be too bothered about selling many.

[LucyP]

BigChiefmuffinAgain said:

Maybe they could use the TVR factory to make it ?

Ginetta would be better. They have at least made a start, and are still hopeful..............

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motor-shows-gen...

[hairykrishna]

ate one too said:

Rodin is owned by David Dicker.

Dicker Data, which has a market capitalisation of AUS$1.9 billion, is a hardware and software distributor. It acts as a middleman connecting vendors and resellers of IT hardware, software, cloud and IoT solutions.

The company has a 100 per cent dividend payout ratio, which resulted in its 35.5¢ per share of total dividends in 2020 netting Dicker a healthy AUS$21.5 million

I think he can afford to build what he wants and not be too bothered about selling many.

He should probably get on with building them then rather than the annual press release about how they're going to have built one really soon, any day now, honest.

[chrisironside]

The two things that struck me (both already been said by others).
1. The renders are terrible
2. Looks like a Caparo T1 (to me anyway, an uglier one).

Hope it all works out though, certainly sounds exciting.

[LucyP]

He should probably concentrate on his data company. The shares are currently trading 32% below the year's highest price, so if you bought at the top, currently, you have just lost 32% of your money.

[anonymous-user]

Can’t see me getting round the local multi storey car park.

[Jon_S_Rally]

hairykrishna said:

He should probably get on with building them then rather than the annual press release about how they're going to have built one really soon, any day now, honest.

Part of selling a product is marketing it. I expect they're trying to generate interest to help justify producing it.

[mat205125]

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.

.... except that it won't be anything like that, as it'll never exist.

[Speed Badger]

Yes but will it be faster than a remapped 335d though?

[ZedLeg]

Of course not but it’ll be faster than a Delta S4 around Estoril.

[MountainsofSussex]

They do seem like a reasonably serious operation: https://youtu.be/ukOuwRHxnL0

[ate one too]

MountainsofSussex said:

They do seem like a reasonably serious operation: https://youtu.be/ukOuwRHxnL0

So is Dicker Data !

Edited by ate one too on Wednesday 10th August 13:26

[gruntmonster]

All it needs now is rich energy livery….perfect! :-)

[ZedLeg]

That's just an old formula car with the engine though?

The development work for the kind of car they want to build will go into the £100s of millions. There's a reason why GMA doesn't just build hypercars.

[GT9]

Polished brass louvered vents to rear wheel arches look ace.
Might swap them out for antique brass though, found a pair for £39.99 at ironmongery-r-us.

[EffettoSuolo]

MountainsofSussex said:

They do seem like a reasonably serious operation: https://youtu.be/ukOuwRHxnL0

They are.
They sponsor Lawson in F2, Chadwick in WSeries and young talents in F3, they have an enormous facility with top tech in New Zealand and a second pole in UK at Donington.
They have recently launched their own Rodin Cars Super GT Series as well.
The open-wheeler FZed is a fully operational track car quite a bit faster than current F2 machines, it is based on the previous Lotus T125 project but has been subjected to a wide range of modifications and improvements to engine, chassis, aero, weight, software, all carried out and developed in-house by the Rodin Team.
The owner and founder, David Dicker, is a multi-millionaire also owner and founder of IT facility Dicker Data (from the 80s), has an enormous passion for cars and is a proven Ferrari Challenge winner.
All of these activities, while impressive, are anyway 'side quests' compared to the development of the FZero, which is the real target for David and the facility and it has been in the works and in its development phase from many years.

Besides how the FZero will turn out to be in the future, on a general note I have to say that the irony and the low-level comments on the Rodin Cars firm that I read in this thread are quite disappointing and they indicate a sub-par general car knowledge from many of the posters here. And to say that the name of this site is PistonHeads, so I was expecting a lot better...

Edited by EffettoSuolo on Wednesday 10th August 14:32