DOME Cars Limited is DOME's affiliated company established in Britain in December 1999, as the main base for our sales operations and racing services in Europe.
For the first year we undertook preparatory operations at a temporary office in London. Currently the company rents, for use as a head office, part of the premises of Activa Technology Ltd. in Chessington, located to the south of London close to the M25 motorway.
The President of the company is Tadashi Sasaki, who is a Director of DOME.
The main businesses of the company include sales of DOME racing cars and after-sales services, as well as outsourcing arrangements and purchase management in Europe related to the racing car development activities of DOME Headquarters.
We flatter ourselves that we are the only full-scale racing car constructor in Japan. Then how come there is only one racing car constructor in Japan? Why hasn't DOME tried to enter foreign markets despite its more than 26-year history? These are questions often asked by those involved in European and American racing circles.
The answers to these questions are not simple. To be brief, the prime reason why there is only one racing car constructor in Japan (as a constructor regularly engaged in the development of top-category racing cars and equipped with sufficient personnel and experience, a network needed for racing car development, and essential facilities such as a wind tunnel, CAD and autoclave) is that Japanese car manufacturers focus on engines and they still insist that a chassis is merely a housing designed to contain an engine.

Remembering all the racing cars with Japanese car manufacturer names that have competed successfully in races outside Japan, most were powered by Japanese-made engines mounted on chassis made by manufacturers of other countries. This indicates that in Japan there is no demand for a Japanese-built racing car chassis and therefore no reason for racing car constructors to exist. The purpose of our recent decision to expand our activities overseas is rather more complicated. During the years DOME was competing in the Le Mans 24-hour races with the ultimate ambition to participate in the F1 Grand Prix, all motor racing circuits around the world were filled with Japanese competitors, whose country was in the midst of a bubble economy. At one time there were four Japanese teams in the F1 field. These teams were "Japanese" only because Japanese investors financed them. For the Europeans in racing circles in those days, the Japanese seemed like easy prey. For example, whenever we, just a small constructor of racing cars, told any racing car parts manufacturer that we wished to visit it, we were given the red carpet treatment, making us feel like an Arab oil magnet, and somewhat embarrassed. On our frequent visits to overseas circuits to watch various races, we gradually came to feel uncomfortable under such a situation. This led to our commitment to "Making Inroads into Overseas Races with Wholly Japanese-developed Technologies." We have developed our own way of approach to various advanced fields of technology where once Europe was ahead of the rest of the world; for example, we began aerodynamics development with the construction of a new wind tunnel, and have developed our own distinctive CFRP technology in collaboration with a Japanese material manufacturer. Racing car design includes gearboxes, braking systems and many other components containing expendable parts, which are in general commercially available items of proven quality because they have to be available anytime, anywhere. In this regard, we have continued and will continue our efforts to use as many parts made with Japanese-developed technologies as possible. As for the development of human resources, which are the most important resources, we have fostered top-class engineers by giving motivated new graduates sufficient experience; this has been our only way of developing human resources, since there is no racing car construction industry in Japan and therefore little opportunity for headhunting. However, for the same reason, DOME's designers have little chance to change jobs. This has resulted in the company being able to maintain a stable staff within a solid organization. This is the one advantage of being located in this Oriental island country, although it is, however, cost effective in regard to racing car development and will, we believe, become our strongest selling point. In contrast, European racing car constructors can be likened to a good restaurant, which, when visited again, you find serves less tasty dishes due to a new chef. Actually a number of unsuccessful products are developed in Europe due to changes in personnel and unstable technological competence.

We admit that we still need more time to be widely recognized by overseas motor racing industries. When seen from the barren market environment in Japan, European and American markets look to us like a paradise. We will surely face fierce competition, but it is a million times better than the uneasiness arising from non-competition conditions. Although somewhat belatedly, we have made some inroads into overseas markets, we are sure that, with our sufficient history and experience combined with state-of-the-art facilities and advanced technology, DOME will, in the foreseeable future, become an integral part of the European and American racing circles.

Tadashi Sasaki (Principal)
Roebuck House Cox Lane Chessington Surrey KT9 1DG
TEL.+44(0)20-8397-9099　FAX.+44(0)20-8397-6830