Japan Grand Touring - JGTC Is Coming To America

Dome made their mark as a car manufacture back in 1978 with their first creation the Dome Zero. The car debuted at the Geneva Auto Show and from there they were jumping into many different motor sports starting with Le Mans 24 hour race. To this date, Dome uses their S101 chassis to battle with the dominant Audis in the series. The list of motorsports Dome is involved with is a long one and if there is one thing that gives them dominance, it's their top-notch race facility that is spread out into three different buildings.

Their headquarters is located in Kyoto, which is also were the beginning of the car creating starts. It is here were the down-scaled scale models are designed on a computer and then made in foam on a 5 axis mill. First the mold is created; then it is sent off to Dome's carbon facility, Carbon Magic, in Mishima. At Carbon Magic the down-scaled model is made out of 100 percent carbon fiber and is cooked under extreme pressure in one of the many auto claves at this facility. From here the model is tested at Dome's wind tunnel facility in Shiga. The prototype design is tested for aerodynamics at high wind speed. Considering the tunnel itself is about 300 feet long for a down-scaled tunnel, it makes you wonder how large a full scale wind tunnel would be. According to Dome, the down-scaled is extremely accurate in comparison to a full scale. The tunnel's trend mill belt, which runs under the prototype model to simulate the vehicle in motion, adds even more aerodynamic accuracy. Necessary changes are made to the model before a full racecar is built to ensure design accuracy. Then the process starts all over again but this time a full scale car is created. On a side note, the wind tunnel facility is also a step through Dome's race winning race and street cars. From the first vehicle they built from scratch, the Zero, to last year's JGTC NSX, the facility is filled with vehicles that Dome has created.

As we stated earlier, Dome is a racecar manufacture and while they do designs racecars for many different types of motorsports from open wheel to GT cars, they also campaign their own made-from-scratch street cars. While the Zero is their first attempt to create a car from scratch, the Caspita is the second street/race design. There were two models made-one being a horizontally opposed 12 cylinder and another equipped with a V10 platform. Considering the car was designed in 1989, the styling gave even Ferrari a run for its money. The Dome tunnel-or should we say car museum-also has many race winning racecars and even the F1 prototype, which ran a Mugen V10 engine.

It's pretty much hands down to say Dome is one of the best racecar shops and they do mostly everything in house, with the exception of building the engines for their cars. From race cars to high performance street cars-not to mention their wind tunnels and carbon facility-Dome lives up to its name: in English it stands for "A Childs Dream." How true it is.