DOME S102
Unfulfilled
promise The record books do not do the Dome S102 justice, but maybe the future will… by SAM COLLINS
A
sleek, white Le Mans Prototype sits in the entrance hall of a large engineering facility in a little known town near Kyoto, Japan. It only raced once, finishing as the last classified car at Le Mans in 2008, but even in that short racing career, the Dome S102 attracted its own mythology – ‘It’s a toe-in-thewater exercise for Toyota or Nissan,’ the rumour mill claimed.
www.racecar-engineering.com • Le Mans
But the truth was it was Dome showing off its capabilities as a constructor, in an attempt to attract a major customer. At Le Mans the car impressed many by qualifying eighth, the second fastest petrol runner that year, but the project was abandoned soon after when the world was hit by the economic downturn of 2009. Or so it seemed. But quietly, work on the S102 continued, bringing
the design into line with the latest regulations, featuring the mandatory fin and small rear wing. ‘There are still some enquiries about this car,’ reveals Hiroshi Yuchi, project manager at Dome. ‘Mainly we talk to teams from Europe, but it is difficult to make it happen because the exchange rate is not good, and this is an expensive car anyway. ‘We have installed the current rules rear wing on the car, but
have not put the fin on yet because that requires further modification to the bodywork. Everything is designed and has been tested in the wind tunnel though, so if someone came along with enough money we could go racing.’ AdvAnced concepts One of the most striking elements of the S102 was its use of advanced aerodynamic