Question:

Does anybody know about the Dome F1 prototype?

by  |  earlier

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Its from 1997, never heard of it until looking through you tube, doesn't look too far away from reaching a qualifiable time at Suzuka 97, with a reasonable driver would they of been remotely competitive?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6gWXRdXWJcA

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3 ANSWERS


  1. I read the question on the main board and thought "that was years and years ago"! 1997 was it? Interesting that the one in this video is white, the one I saw back then was black. This started as a Honda "workers project" if I remember rightly. Honda encourage their workers to take on personal engineering projects, and those which get to a certain stage can receive financial and equipment backing from the company. Some Honda engineers thought it would be fun to build an F1 engine in their spare time, and once they had it running on the test bed DOME were approached to build a test chassis. The project was shelved once Honda decided on a works return to F1 (which they eventually did with BAR, having considered running a Honda factory team first).

    EDIT

    Anyway, that's where the engine for that video came from; the chassis was either the original one from DOME's own F1 project or one which had been designed specially. Here's the story about DOME's in-house F1 project: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/artic...


  2. Apparently they weren't too far off Minardi... and that's with little experience and a fairly mediocre driver in Naoki Hattori... with some development chassis and engine wise... they would've been wise to have a shot at it... in testing they were 7 seconds off Villeneuve's pole time at Suzuka... faster than Lola lol but with more testing and investment, plus a better driver that could've been brought down a lot more..

    It would've been interesting but Honda became more interested in their own team, then BAR...


  3. That's a very rare video.

    The driver is not taking any risks, he's too slow into 130R but then again that is one of the fastest corners in the world, not for everyone.

    He's also hitting the rev limiter, the car has not been optimized for setup, perhaps they're trying to save the engine as well.

    Your post rang a bell, although I never followed that project in much detail there was interest in the news back then until it was scrapped, it was not a secret project.

    I never thought though that such a vid would end up on youtube.

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