DOME COSWORTH 1979
JAPAN WITH AN ENGLISH INPUT
The white car with orange/black stripings stops near the guardrail. The pilot opens the little plexiglass that surrounds its cockpit and gets himself out of the car. He removes gently his multicolor helmet and slowly opens the long backside cover. Multiple times he checks over and over agin; his dream ends here after 5 hours in the race. The fuel supply is out of order. The end of the Dome Zero RL Cosworth in the 24 hours of Le Mans 1979. The day had actually started earlier in Japan.
But who was this team that would tackle the most famous endurance race ? Dome is up till now a known factory with a design bureau, a wind tunnel, the possibilities to make carbon fibre pieces. And they had produced the Honda NSX and some LMP1 cars for Le Mans. So they had Japanese ambition!
At the annual car exposition in Geneva in 1978 the were four engineers presenting the Dome Zero: the brothers Hayashi, Kenji Mimura( ex-Maki F1) and Akihiro Iramajiri (ex-Honda). The car was already a huge success in Japan. Minoru Hayashi, the boss, understood that, especially when toy manufacturers wanted to make the Dome, he could probably go further and realize his dream. Because, his real passion was competition.
So he decided to build a race car and conquer Europe. He already had made a car with the Honda S600 as base for Hiroshi Fushida in 1965 and a monoplace car, the Macransa, with a Honda S800 engine. After that he constructed with his brother Shoichi the Hayashi Racing used for constructing F3 cars. And he had in his Dome factory Masao Ono, the engineer behind the Maki F1 in 1974 and the Kojima F1 in 1976.
Birth of the Dome RL002
The Japanese did not underestimate the endurance race. Hey hired the famous British engineer Len Bailey. The construction was done in Japan and two cars were sent to Europe for intense training. In November 1978, they presented their new car to the Automobile Club d’Ouest. Under the name of Dome RL 002, they presented a maquette of a prototype with 2 seats for the Groupe 6 with a V8 3.0 liter Ford Cosworth engine and a Hewland LT200 gearbox.
They wanted a 2 car entry; one car to race and one car for training and spare parts. And for Kenji Mimura, the drivers they wanted must have endurance race experience. When the ACO published the entrance list in April, there were indeed two cars on the list with drivers: Chris Craft, Gordon Spice, Keke Rosberg and D.McMillan.
In came very early Chris Craft. He was chosen to develop the Dome chassis. Rumours were that the second driver could be a Frenchman. The French Racing magazines got wind of it, so they wote: “le Soleil Levant sera au Mans en 1979. An anonymous Japanese firm is working since months on a race car with a normal engine and the drivers shall be European.”
The Zero RL (Racing Le Mans) was designed with the Sarthe and the long Hunaudieres in mind and so, the car featured special dimensions. The car was long and wide (5000 mm and 1700 mm wide).The wheelbase was 2600mm with track width in front 1341mm and 1350 mm at the rear, which was smaller than the conventional group 6. This weird body-shape gave the car a particular look with no openings in the front and lateral radiators with two large air ducts. The bubble canopy, somewhat reminiscent elite Renault-Alpine A442, was designed to maximise aerodynamic effect and, with the strategically-placed slot, afford the driver an undiworted view of the track. However, the pilots tended to be roasted due to the large amount of glass surrounding them, and the slot proved large enough to set up uncomfortable turbulence in the cabin, so the canopy had to be “chopped”. In other design respects the cars were entirely conventional, with aluminium twin-tube monocoque hulls, and Cosworth DFVs (by Shinji Kondo) as fully-stressed members delivering the power through a Hewland T12-200 close-ratio drive-train.
First race: the 6 hours Silverstone
Beginning of May in a race with both Group 5 and 6 cars, Chris Craft and Gordon Spice (#9) would race the car as a general practice and check their performance to the opposition. On paper, it was a good start. The car seemed competitive with a third place in qualifying, but if you look closer they did a 1.27.70 while the Porsche 963 did 1.20.13. In the race, they ran fifth but could not keep up because of extreme tyre wear and understeer. They ended 12th after a gearbox change mid-race and extra problems with the brakes.
In Le Mans with two cars
The highlight of this race was the presence of Paul Newman in the Dick Barbour Porsche 935. There was not much interest from the press in the Japanese project. Maybe because the drivers were not French after all. The driver line-up comprised Chris Craft and Gordon Spice in No 6 and Tony Trimmer and Bob Evans in No 7 with Keith Greene as team manager.
During the first qualifying runs, the Dome cars ran regular, but in the dark they encountered electrical problems. A technician of SEV Marchal changed all the electrical wiring during the night. At the end of the first qualification however, Chris Craft was P15 with a 3’49”26 while the second Dome was P18 with 3’51”24. (This was 20”of the pace of the Porsche 936 from Wollek-Ickx). The top speed was excellent: the #6 was clocked at 340km/h, close to the Ford M10. All good for the next day. But the heavy rain meant that fast times could not be made. A it was good, because there were some problems.
Craft and Trimmer were the designated pilots to start the 24 hour race. After the first lap, Craft is twelfth and Trimmer 19th. Second lap, no passing of Chris Craft ! He is stopped at Arnage with a blocked accelerator and the start of a small fire. He can rejoin the pits, but lost already three laps. When he comes out into the race again, he is P49. In the meantime, Trimmer got up to fifth place after 1 hour in the race. This performance does not goes on. From the second hour onwards, the engine is overheating. That results in a head-gasket breakdown in the third hour. The other Dome climbed up to P21, got than again problems with the accelerator. In the fifth hour of the race, the car stopped with fuel supply problems. The electrical pump of the second fuel tank refuses to work. Gordon Spice did not even took the wheel. He said later: ”This was probably the most dangerous car I ever drove at Le Mans.”
The Dome team discretely left the circuit with one promise: we come back next year.
Participating in Le Mans again in the following years
And they did. Just one car was entered in 1980 with Chris Craft and Bob Evans as drivers (#12). The car was shorter and wider in order to optimise the behaviour. They qualified in P08 (3’49’8”). In the race, they had to change the bevel torque in the first hour. Pitstop: 3h18’. They drove always last in the race and were classified P25 with 246 laps completed.
The Zero RL returned to Le Mans with a new chassis in 1981, again with Craft and Evans as the drivers (#23). This time, the car was painted blue with yellow striping. The promised improvements were not giving results. The qualified P20 (3’47”43), and climbed up to P08 at the 2hour mark. Despite electrical and ignition problems, they managed to get to the 15 hours mark, when they had to retire due to engine problems.
Dome returned with the DFL 3.3L-powered RC82 chassis according to of the Group C regulations with RC82 chassis (Craft-Eliseo Salazar, #36). Again they did not see the finish, due to chassis problems. Last attempt in the 1983 24h Le Mans, this time with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason next to Craft and Salazar (#38). The clutch decided the end of the race at hour 7.
Last attempt in 1984 with the Dorset Racing (#38). Nick Faure,Mark Galvin and Richard Jones had to park the car in the 15th hour, oil pressure and engine problems. There was also the Dome RC83 with a Cosworth DFL 3.9, a car for the Japanese championship. In the qualifying sessions, the accelerator blocked and Stanley Dickens destroyed the car at Tertre Rouge even before it could race.
Still alive
Since then the company has thrown its lot in with Toyota, and has effectively disappeared from the scene as a separate racing entity, concentrating on the production of monocoques for other teams. Dome returned to Le Mans with the S101 under the impulse of Jan Lammers (2001-2007) and a Dome LM P1 raced in 2012. It was entered by Henri Pescarolo and driven by Sébastien Bourdais, Nicolas Minassian and Seiji Ara. Later the name was found on the Strakka Dome in LMP2 and LMP3.
