MOTORSPORT
wheels for our FZero project see
box out, and we are currently
developing a relationship with a
manufacturer,' says Dicker. 'We've
elected to use a resin infusion
process rather than prepreg. The
centre has eight spokes and we've
worked out a way to create them
with unidirectional fibres, so that
each fibre is orientated optimally
with regard to the direction of
the load. The problem with using
prepreg is that there are wasted
fibres running at 90-degrees to the
load path.'
Target market
To a certain extent the parts of the
FZed are 'Iifed', but not in the same
sense as they are in F1, because
the FZed is much more durable than
an F1 car. A lot of components are
also bigger and stronger than their
F1 counterparts. Which brings us to
the reason Dicker's doing this.
The FZed is aimed at the kind of
person who would like to buy an old
F1 car, but doesn't really want to
suffer the consequences of having
to maintain it. Formula 1 cars by
their very nature are quite fragile and
they were never meant to last more
than one season. Also, they change
from year to year, so there isn't a
bottomless parts bin for these kinds
of machines.
'What we've done with the FZed is
to produce a car which is maintainable
over the medium to long term,'
says Dicker. 'There will be changes
over time to various parts, but we
will ensure that every development is
backwards compatible to the original
vehicle.'
March of time
Dicker knows what he's talking
about here, for in many respects
he's just the sort of person Rodin is
looking to sell its cars too. 'I used to
have a 1989 Leyton House, but it's
not very practical for me because
I'm quite big and it was never
designed to do a lot of miles,' Dicker
says. 'If you buy a car from Ferrari,
they will maintain it for you, but it is
astronomically expensive. They really
want to keep the cars in Maranello
and control the whole thing, which
doesn't always suit customers
outside Europe.'
His Leyton House had a Judd
engine with Zytek engine
management. 'We rang up Zytek
for support for the ECU and the
guy on the other end just laughed
at the prospect of supporting a
product that was so old and was
never used again; says Dicker. 'He
basically said "we built that thing so
long ago we can't do anything for
you at all". He didn't even have any
old design documentation for the
ECU, so you would be better going
to a TV repair shop for support. So
for the Leyton House if you wanted
to have any control over the engine
you would have to change the ECU
to something else. And as soon as
you do that the authenticity of the
racecar goes out the window. You
could still send the engine back to
Judd, but it would be much more
difficult to refurb the gearbox, and so
it goes on.
'The other issue is that you've got all
sorts of brackets and components
all over the car that are custommade,
some are done in titanium,
some are done in aluminium,' Dicker
adds. 'As soon as you break one, or
heaven forbid you crash and break
several, you have a serious sourcing
issue. It had 6mm rod ends on the
suspension that they would replace
after each race, but now they are
impossible to get:
In short, the Leyton House was a
racing car built for a single season,
so consequently longevity was
not designed into it. 'The FZed is
exactly the opposite, it's much more
durable, it weighs a bit more, but
its performance is far better,' Dicker
says. 'This is just a more practical
way to get the same kind of driving
experience. The only thing you're
giving up is that you don't have the
association between the car, the
period or its original driver. From
every other standpoint you're in
much better shape:
Which includes the availability of
spare parts for the car. 'We can
supply all the parts should anything
break or get damaged,' says Dicker.
'We can also supply engineering
support. There's a guy in Bahrain
who has got a Lotus T125 which he
bought from Lotus, but he gets all
24 December 2019