Billionaire’s astounding F1-beating creation has begun laying down laps.

FANTASY has become reality - the Rodin FZERO, a comic book crazy fighter jet and Batmobile marriage made public as a design sketch two years ago, has begun lapping its South Island lair.

The brainchild of New Zealand resident Australian and Rodin Cars founder, David Dicker, the FZERO is tasked to make a Formula One car look tame, in part by delivering top speed of 360kmh.

It runs a bespoke, currently twin-turbo 4.0-litre V10, is designed to weigh 605kg - including the driver - and is shaped to create 4000 kilos of downforce … at 300kmh.

Enough to Humble an Aston Martin Valkyrie. Which has always been the stated aim.

The project has been designed and developed from Rodin Cars’ factory and test track facility near Mount Lyford, in north Canterbury.

The facility includes three purpose-built test circuits and a high-tech production facility. All funded by Dicker; a technology billionaire and keen racer.

The boss personally took to the wheel of the FZERO for its first outing and says he was very impressed with the performance and durability.

In release shared by Rodin, he says: “While there’s a long road ahead of testing and development, running the FZERO for the first time gives me immense pride in what everyone at Rodin Cars has achieved in bringing this programme to life.

“The test went very well and we were able to work through our programme. We’re excited as the FZERO project enters its next phase. It really is a car like no other.”

The’s first run was like that for a formula racer. It undertook several installation laps, returned to the pits for a debrief and systems check then went out for more running. No lap times or speeds have been shared but Rodin says it was just the first of many important development kilometres.

Rodin’s reach is high. The stated aim is to deliver “outrageous levels of performance and dynamism” and challenge established track-only hypercars from Aston Martin, Gordon Murray Automotive and Mercedes-AMG.

Says the make: “The primary focus of the FZERO is to deliver a driving experience like no other, tapping into the raw emotion of speed and visceral performance.”

Dicker designed the twin-turbocharged engine, known as the RC.TEN. In past comment Rodin has suggested a targeted ultimate output of 1193kW. At the moment, it’s putting out 755kW at 9500rpm, while only using 11psi of boost. A naturally aspirated iteration is presently in development.

After two prototype engines were built in the UK by Neil Brown Engineering, the engine’s development and manufacture has moved in-house at Rodin Cars. They intend to offer it as a crate motor for motorsport applications.

The pitch for that venture starts at in the United States, at the Performance Racing Industry Show in Indianapolis, starting tomorrow.