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Home / Sport / Motorsport / Formula 1

World's 'fastest track car' project in quiet corner of NZ close to completion despite setbacks

Kurt Bayer
By Kurt Bayer
South Island Head of News·Herald on Sunday·
24 Jun, 2017 05:00 PM4 mins to read

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David Dicker with his GP2 racing car at his Waiau factory.

David Dicker with his GP2 racing car at his Waiau factory.

He's been rocked by earthquakes and frustrated by development delays and budget blow-outs, but the Australian IT tycoon building the world's fastest track car in a quiet corner of rural New Zealand, is close to revealing his spectacular prototype to the world.

Mega-millionaire David Dicker plans to unveil his ultimate mega-millionaire boy's toy at the world-renowned Dubai International Motor Show in November.

The Rodin FZero supercar, designed as a track-day car as fast, or faster, than a Formula One car, with top speeds in excess of 300km/h, is nearly complete.

The Herald on Sunday got an exclusive sneak peek at the remarkable lightweight, full-carbon design this week.

Sitting in his sprawling factory complex at Wandle Downs, near Waiau in remote North Canterbury, the car looks like a cross between a fighter jet on four wheels and the Batmobile.

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It has a completely-closed cockpit, high aerodynamic front wheel arches and sleek and sharp lines. The pricetag could top $1.2 million.

The final body parts - rear fenders - are due to arrive next week from expert boat builders and composite specialists, McConaghy Group, which has operations based in China.

"It has come out all right... It should be rolling on its own wheels in another 2-4 weeks," said Dicker, the 64-year-old behind hardware distribution company Dicker Data Ltd.

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"We're making good progress but it's taken much longer and cost a lot more than I'd have hoped, but what do you do? If something isn't right, you have to change it."

The rich-lister now employs 10 full-time staff and is making his own 4-litre V10 engines from scratch.

His high-tech, bespoke Waiau factory and private test track is near the epicentre of last November's earthquake that caused so many damage to land, roads, rail, and property in North Canterbury and southern Marlborough.

Dicker, who divides his time between Waiau, his native Sydney, Jumeirah Beach in Dubai and Italy's Dolomites mountain range, said the earthquake made for "not the most enjoyable of nights".

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Super rich-lister to build super cars

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The millionaire chasing down F1 glory in a quiet corner of rural NZ

13 Aug 06:47 AM

Ceilings collapsed in two of his workshops and caused widespread damage to his track. The sealed 3km stretch of asphalt suffered 60 cracks "from edge to edge", with cracks varying in width from 3mm to more than 450mm.

"We probably wasted a month cleaning up the mess. It was really unsatisfactory... a giant pest," Dicker said.

"But when I first came here, I knew earthquakes were a possibility, so I could never complain.

"I never considered giving up on it. We're not going to give up that easily."

Last year, after the Herald revealed Dicker's self-confessed "vanity project", legendary British sports car manufacturers sold Dicker its T125 project - a V8-powered lightweight single-seater racer.

Dicker rebranded the cars Rodin FZed and over the last year has built a test and development from the ground up.

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"We've been running it and had no major issues. It fires up, runs well, doesn't leak or smoke or rattle. The quality of build is far ahead of what the other guys are doing."

Dicker tests the prototype cars himself and has done more than 3000km on his track.

Stage 3 of the track, including a 1km-long straight, is complete.

In a Ferrari Challenger racer, he's reached a top speed of 256km/h, with an average lap speed of 153km/h.

But he's "methodical, not moronic" about testing.

"You don't want something going wrong at those speeds," he said.

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So despite the setbacks, quakes, and extraordinary cost - he won't reveal how much he's spent - Dicker's lifelong dream is finally approaching reality.

"We've got a good group of guys, we have most of the equipment that we now need, and are making way more headway," he said.

"I'm as confident as ever that this will be a success."

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