, literally "child's dream", is a Japanese
-based racing car constructor, involved mainly in open wheel and sports car racing.
Background
In 1965
Minoru Hayashi built his
first racing car, a rebodied
Honda S600
coupe. Belonging to
Tojiro Ukiya, it
was called the "Karasu" (crow in Japanese), due to its shape. Built
on a small budget and in a short time, the Karasau emphasized
weight reduction and aerodynamics using
FRP materials. The car went on to
win its debut race at the Suzuka Clubman Race, despite Hayashi
having no experience in racecar construction. In 1966 he went on to
build the Macransa, a more extensivey modified
Honda S800 to compete at the
Japanese Grand Prix, this was followed
by the "Kusabi" three years later, which was a
Formula Junior racing car, and the "Panic" in
1971.
In 1975 at
Takaragaike,
Kyoto, Hayashi formed Dome with an intention to
manufacture cars with small production runs, using racing machines
to develop the technology. Three years after the company's
formation in 1978, the company produced its first concept car
designed for road use called the
Dome Zero
(童夢-零) powered by a
Nissan L28 engine and made its public debut at
the
Geneva Motor Show of the same
year. For the following year, Dome produced the production version
of the Zero called the Dome P2, which was exhibited at
Chicago Auto Show and
Los Angeles Auto Expo. However, the
car was refused type approval by the Japanese Government and was
unable to go into production.
Dome continued as a sportscar constructor building cars for
Toyota's motorsport department
Tom's to compete in the
All Japan Super
Silhouette Championship, then later using
Group C cars at the
All Japan Sports
Prototype Championship which was also used to compete in the
World Sportscar
Championship until the end of the decade when Dome switched to
Honda.
Minoru Hayashi would also assist his cousin Masakazu Hayashi
establish his own formula car manufacturing concern (Masakazu of
the self-named Hayashi aluminum wheel company). After producing
cars for Japan's Formula Junior 1600 category for 10 years, the
first F3 car was the Hayashi 803
Formula 3
car, designed by the two Hayashi cousins. That was followed by the
Hayashi 320 in 1981 designed by Masao Ono, who had also designed
the 1976
Kojima F1 car. In a
Hayashi 320 Osamu Nakako won the
All-Japan Formula Three title. A 320
was also modified for the
Formula
Atlantic category and won the
Macau
Grand Prix driven by American Bob Earl. A further development,
the 321, saw action briefly in Japan and England. Ono then switched
to Dome to work on the sportscar designs and Hayashi Racing
switched to
Ralt chassis to win the Japanese F3
title with
Kengo Nakamoto.
In 1984, the followup Hayashi 322 was a success and helped
Shuji Hyodo to win the Japanese F3 championship.
In 1985 the Hayashi 330 won a single Japanese F3 race but finishes
were good enough to place driver Syuuji Hyoudou third in season-end
standing. A development of the 322, the 331, appeared in a handful
of Japanese F3 races in 1986 without success and disappeared
quietly. A downturn in the aluminum wheel business is credited in
causing Hayashi to abandon racing.
In 1988, Dome would return to production car design establishing a
design studio called Jiotto Design to design cars with its own
quarter scale windtunnel to build the
Jiotto Caspita supercar, which never went into production due to
the recession.
Dome continued to compete with Lammers,
Keiji Matsumoto,
Ross Cheever and
Thomas Danielsson, driving until 1992,
when
Marco Apicella was signed to
drive the new Dome-
Mugen F103,
taking the title in 1994. The Formula 3000 program continued until
1998 with
Shinji Nakano,
Katsumi Yamamoto and
Juichi Wakisaka but without much
success.
Formula One
Late in 1995, Tadashi Sasaki, joined Dome and that autumn the
company announced its plan to enter F1 with a car designed by
Akiyoshi Uko called the Dome F105 using a
Minardi transmission and its hydraulic system.
Apicella was installed as test driver 1996 and the test driving
duties was later taken over by Nakano and
Naoki Hattori. The planned 1997 World
Championship effort came to nothing and the follow-up car, the Dome
F106 never materialised due to lack of sponsorship and Mugen's
refusal to supply engines. The
Concorde Agreement also delayed the start
for the team. By 1999, all develepment work would fold after
Honda's involvement with
British
American Racing.
Current projects
A Dome S101.5 run by T2M Motorsport in
2007.
In 1999
Dome established Dome Cars Ltd in the United Kingdom
and the Dome Tunnel in Maihara, Shiga Prefecture
, which was originally intended for F1 construction
and also focused its effort in the Japanese GT Championship, which
they had been since 1996 and also competing as a team as well as
building the Honda NSX for other factory
supported teams. They also worked on the aerodynamics on the
JTCC Honda Accord.
In 2001, DOME Carbon Magic was formed in
Mishima, Shizuoka
Prefecture
, specifically for carbon composite development and
manufacture. They continue to build and race the NSX in the
recently renamed Super GT series.
Dome also upgraded their S101
Le Mans
prototype chassis to meet new regulations for 2007. The new car
has been dubbed the S101.5. The S101s were supplied to
Racing for Holland etc. In 2008, Dome
introduced a closed-cockpit prototype called the
S102 for the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) class
and entered in the
2008 24
Hours of Le Mans as an entrant after an interval of 22 years
from
1986.
References
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