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In early 1975, Minoru Hayashi established Kabushiki Gaisha Dōmu. Dōmu literally translates to “child’s dream.” And considering Hayashi’s end goal, it was an appropriate name. Race car construction might not have been in the cars, but perhaps he might have better luck with road vehicles. He and his team set out to develop, build, and sell their very own model: the Zero.
Dome started in a section of the Hayashi Racing headquarters. There was a blood bond between the two firms. Minoru’s cousin Shoichi established the company, which built its own race cars and even fielded a team at the time. It was probably known for its iconic wheels, though.
Minoru Hayashi had years of experience designing race machines, but creating a production car came with its own unique challenges. A Hemmings article has an excerpt from the series A Quiet Greatness: Japan’s Most Astonishing Automobiles for the Collector and Enthusiast. One passage details some of the roadblocks that the team encountered, which included creating the bodywork itself, crafting the massive front screen, and ironing out the bugs in the retractable headlights.
Hayashi and his team had wrapped development up by 1978, but the trials were far from over. Now they’d have to display the Zero in front of thousands of showgoers in Geneva. Dome’s fate was now in the hands of the public. So how did they take to it? Quite well, in fact. There weren’t too many other high-profile debuts at this show as far as I could tell, so the Zero had much of the spotlight to itself. The company also received 20 preorders on the spot. This would give the emerging automaker an early boost, provided that the certification process went well.
SOURCES
www.barchetta.co/dome-zero-sources
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 INTRO/KARASU
2:47 OTHER EARLY CARS
3:56 DOME ZERO DEVELOPMENT
6:01 DESIGN OVERVIEW
9:08 GENEVA MOTOR SHOW DEBUT
11:12 DOME ZERO P-II
13:31 ROAD AND TRACK FIRST IMPRESSIONS
15:48 DOME ZERO RL/OTHER RACE CARS