The age of plucky privateers taking on manufacturer giants at Le Mans has well and truly passed. But the influence of Japanese manufacturer Dome extends far beyond its underdog efforts prior to the modern World Endurance Championship, as its last assault on La Sarthe can lay claim to being the spiritual predecessor of Toyota's first hybrid LMP1 machine
Earlier this month, Toyota wrapped up this year’s World Endurance Championship manufacturers’ crown with another convincing display on home turf at Fuji. It marks the fifth time in a row, and sixth in total, it has come away with the silverware, including the occasions when a teams’ title was awarded instead of a manufacturers’.
In fact, so close were the links between Toyota and Dome towards the end of this period that the latter’s short-lived but fondly-remembered S102 LMP1 car of 2008 can be described as the “elder sister” of the TS030 HYBRID according to its creator, Hiroshi Yuchi. And for a period of time, Dome was in line to mastermind Toyota’s long-awaited return to La Sarthe.
Dome’s LMP900 project was given the go-ahead in late 1999, and its first step was to acquire the BMW V12 LM that Team Goh had raced at Le Mans that year and totally revamp its aerodynamics. The modified car never raced, but the lessons learned were then applied when Dome started designing the S101, which would make its debut in 2001.
“Mr Hayashi always said pole position was the target, because to establish good reliability requires far more budget than we had,” Yuchi admits. “We would have had to have done a lot of endurance testing. He told us, we can’t guarantee reliability for 24 hours, so try and do the quickest lap in qualifying. Some people would say this is not the right attitude for endurance racing, but we were operating on a tiny fraction of the budget of Audi.
In 2005, Dome unveiled a revised version of the car known as the S101Hb - designed as a ‘hybrid’ between the new LMP1 and previous LMP900 rules - and entered what amounted to a factory team to run it, under the ‘Jim Gainer International’ banner. It would be driven by Seiji Ara, a Le Mans winner the previous year with the Team Goh Audi effort, and compatriots Katsutomo Kaneishi and Ryo Michigami, both making their second starts.
The distinctive polka dot-liveried S101Hb qualified fourth, only just behind the quickest of the Audi R8s“We started some development work on the hybrid systems around this time,” Yuchi recalls. “We knew the performance of the S101, and we could see the difference between it and the Audi in the same race, which was important for Toyota to collect data. The S101 was a good benchmark in this respect.
This was a busy period for Dome, which after the 2007 running of Le Mans had made the decision to produce an entirely new model, the S102, with the budgetary assistance of Toyota. Unlike the S101 and its variants, it was a closed-top car, but it was powered by the same 5.5-litre Judd V10 that was installed in the Racing for Holland-run S101.5 for 2007.
Daisuke Ito set the S102's best lap in qualifying of 3m26.928s, which would have been enough for pole even in 2006Still, Ito’s time was second-best of the non-diesels, behind Stefan Mucke in the Charouz Lola-Aston Martin, whose road car-derived engine was more potent that the Dome’s Judd unit.
By this time, the packaging of the power unit and hybrid systems were close to the final form used on the TS030 Hybrid. But Toyota had withdrawn from F1 and needed a new project for the 150 or so staff it retained at its Cologne base. Senior figures from TMG such as technical boss Pascal Vasselon made regular visits to Japan at this time, and for Dome, the writing was on the wall.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Heroin addict ploughed into Leeds taxi, injuring its occupants as he fled in stolen Toyota AygoA heroin addict smashed into a Leeds taxi while driving a stolen Toyota Aygo at speed to shake off pursuing police.
Read more »
Evans: Catching WRC title favourite Rovanpera is “not impossible”Elfyn Evans says it\u2019s \u201cnot impossible\u201d to deny Kalle Rovanpera a second World Rally Championship title, but believes he will likely require errors from his Toyota team-mate.
Read more »
After rainy start for some, nice weather on tap this weekThe remnant low of what was Tropical Storm Ophelia is moving south of the region today, and is the cause of our areas of rain, onshore flow and cool, raw feel to kick off this work week. Additional rainfall totals of up to 0.25 inches south of the Mass. Pike are possible, with lesser amounts the further north you go…
Read more »
Abortion clinic buffer zones to start from FridayIn 2022 the Stormont Assembly voted for a bill to place 'safe access zones' outside abortion clinics.
Read more »