There is some electrical assistance to the powertrain but only a token amount – this is a car dominated by its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V10 that revs to 10,000rpm and produces 1,000PS (748kW) at 9,000rpm with torque peaking at 910Nm (671lb ft) at 7250rpm. There’s a 130kW starter-generator that fills in some gaps in the torque delivery and results in that headline 1,176PS (877kW) headline figure. The engine comes from the UK’s Neil Brown Engineering. It is all-new and, like much else on the FZero, designed and built specifically for this car. Weighing in at 132kg, it is claimed to be the lightest and most compact V10 ever built. The eight-speed transmission from Ricardo is just as bespoke, it weighs just 66kg, which is partly the result of a 3D printed titanium casing.
The rest of the running gear is as you might expect: hydraulic rear differential, carbon-carbon brakes with titanium calipers and 18-inch forged magnesium wheels wearing Avon slicks, 16 inches wide at the rear. It is all being put together around a carbon-fibre chassis (also produced in-house) at a purpose-built factory in the South Island of New Zealand. To see a car, however, you will not have to travel that far: Rodin has just opened a UK showroom at Donington Park. The first prototype is expected to be on the road by the end of this year, the first customer car 12 months from now.