RODIN TRACK
BY ENGINEERING NEWS’ MOTORSPORT EXPERT DR CHARLES CLARKE
When a car's been named after a sculptor graceful lines are perhaps a given, but the
Rodin FZed needs to thrill as much as it pleases the eye if it's to fulfil its role as the
ultimate track day toy. We visited the company's impressive New Zealand base to
check out this intriguing Lotus T12S-based project.
Ion plating systems, a full electrical
department, a large assembly shop,
plus everything else needed to build
racecars in-house.
Kinetic art
The first car all this kit is actually
there for is called the Rodin FZed;
named after French sculptor
Auguste Rodin - the brand imaging
is from his famous work, The
Thinker.
In Waiau, about 125km north
of Christchurch, there is now a
stunning 1450-acre motorsport
development set in typical Lord
of the Rings scenery. The facility
features a state-of-the-art factory
and a unique test venue with is six
kilometres of custom-built tracks,
large workshops, a pit garage with
hospitality and a driver training
centre.
This is all the brainchild of Australian
The real breakthrough for the
company came when Rodin
acquired the Lotus T125 design
in 2016. This single seater was
conceived by Lotus as a customer
car that looked like an F1 car and
even drove like one. Rodin then
shipped all the components and
designs out to New Zealand to form
the basis of the FZed.
The LotusT125 was designed to
offer mere mortals something that
was as close as possible to an F1
driving experience. Lotus Cars'
then CEO Dany Bahar formulated
the plan and, amid considerable
razzmatazz in the Louvre Museum's
basement on the eve of the 2010
Paris Motor Show, he unveiled a
David Dicker, who, with the help
of funding from his successful
IT business, has created this
impressive development as a manufacturing
and test base for his Rodin
Cars concern. The factory and
design studio has a range of stateof
the-art equipment and technology,
including industry leading CAD
modelling hardware and software,
SLA 3D printers, large titanium 3D
printers, CNC machinery, automated
robots, industrial autoclaves, PVD
MOTORSPORT
20 December 2019