Here at Dome Co.,Ltd. we are currently developing a GT-300 class "Ferrari 360 Modena" for next years All Japan GT Championship. In actual fact, this "development" started from a private relationship between Minoru Hayashi of Dome (myself) and an old friend Mr. Kenji Tanaka. So you can say that it's virtually a hobby.

Thirty odd years ago, Mr. Tanaka raced with cars that I made the "Kusabi" and "Macranssa", but as he had to concentrate on his business he no longer had any time for racing and stopped. For a long time he completely lost touch of racing but around 1997 when his business and private life allowed him more free time, he started racing again in the "Ferrari Challenge Cup", and nowadays he is a regular contender in the JGTC as "Team GAINER".

When he started off he kept saying that it was just a hobby, but as you continue you start to want more. In time whenever we meet he would say, "Make me a fast Ferrari at Dome". But nowadays you just can't make a real racing car for peanuts, so for a long time we're at the stage of "Hurry up do it", "No No, impossible". However, having been the one that sold "Macranssa" and "Kusabi" to him, he had the upper hand and I just couldn't bring myself to reject this proposal altogether. While I was wondering what could be done Oku, who is one of the directors here, started to show some interest and before I knew it Mr. Tanaka and Oku were working together and trying to make it happen.
According to Oku. "Dome will only act as producer and divide the real work amongst the companies that cooperate with us so it should be possible." But as this is strictly a hobby, the funding is limited so if they are going about this seriously, there should be a lot of difficulty later on.
So with the basic concept that "We'll get it done somehow", development work started. After a while the model room sported a windtunnel model for the "Get it done somehow" Project of which there was no trace whatsoever in the planning stage. The rear wing, which at the planning stage was supposed to be something from one of the other cars we had built previously, was mysteriously shaped to be an exact fit to the Ferrari tail line. Seeing all the traces of both feet firmly stuck in the bottomless pit called "race car development", I asked around and was told that Oku had said that "with the other way, you can't win".
Ｉ no longer have the courage to ask how much this project went over the budget, but without heed to my worries I hear that the "JIM GAINER Ferrari 360 GT" will have it's first shakedown around the time the season is opened for Matsuba Crabs (around the beginnning of November).
Although it is basically a hobby it will designed with the same kind of components as the NSX GT car so I hope to see it perform well in the JGTC.

After the car is finished it will be entered by Mr. Tanaka of "Team GAINER" in next years JGTC GT-300 class, so I think he will be making an announcement later about the team organization.

Minoru Hayashi