SUZUKA -RIJ- Japanese racing car constructor Dome shookdown their brand new Formula One car the Dome F105 Mugen-Honda at Suzuka Circuit on Friday (April 5.) Dome's Formula Nippon (Japanese F3000 changed the series name to Formula Nippon this year) team director Keiji Matsumoto, former Japanese F2 Champion and long time top formula driver, took steering wheel and run three laps on full course of Suzuka.
Then Italian Marco Apicella, 1994 All Japan F3000 Champion with Dome F1 04 Mugen, drove Dome F105 on Eastern Short Course of Suzuka Circuit as test driver. His time was 56s seconds on 2.24363 km length short course. Although Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace marked 53s seconds with their NASCAR Winston Cup cars at same course at tire test days on Wednesday and Thursday and some All Japan Touring Car drivers marked 51s seconds at test, Dome F105 was still just shakedown. It was remarkable topic for Japanese racing fans because there has been no Japanese Formula One car since Formula One Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway in 1977. There were two Kojima KE-009 Ford, driven by Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Noritake Takahara. KE-007 Ford and Maki F1 run in 1976 Formula One Grand Prix in Japan, too.
Dome was well known as "Super Car" builder in '70s. They built Super Car Dome Zero, then they challenged to Le Mans 24 Hours Race with Sports Prototypes Dome Ford Cosworth and Dome Toyota in '70-'80s. But Dome's president Minoru Hayashi has been dreaming to be a Formula One constructor and started to build domestic F3000 chassis to study Formula Car.
"Dome" is not English. When it is written in Japanese (Chinese characters,) it means "Children's Dream." They will test Dome F105 at Silverstone and Magny-Cours in this summer to check the performance and collect data for F106 which will be used in 1997 Formula One Grand Prix if sponsors will be found.
Dome started homepage and you can see real time picture of Dome F105 in factory. All words are written in Japanese, but you can see the digital picture, shot by video camera if F105 is in factory. (Please click "SHAKEDOWN" on Dome Factory Page. There are many pictures of shakedown at Suzuka.)