Dome (constructor)
Encyclopedia : D : DO : DOM : Dome (constructor)
Dome (童夢 - dohmu upon translation) 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.
Hayashi would also have success as a single seater constructor from 1980 onwards building. The company's first car was the Hayashi 803 Formula 3 car, designed by Masao Ono, who had also designed the 1976 Kojima F1 car. That was followed by the Hayashi 320 in 1981, with which Osamu Nakano won the Japanese Formula 3 title. 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. Hayashi would soldier through the next two years without any success, until, in 1987, the team reverted to its Dome name, having the intention to go into Formula One. Therefore, it switched to its domestic Formula 3000 championship, with Jan Lammers driving a March 87B.
In 1988, the company 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 compet 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 Wakisaki but without much success.
Formula 1
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 meant that 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
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 would also build the S101 customer sportscar racer and still continues to build and race the NSX in the recently renamed Super GT series.References
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.