In the 1980s, Japan lived in extreme madness. That is why they came up with “street Formula 1”, which never hit the streets.

The second half of the 80s was a good time for Japan. At least at first glance, because, as with any economic bubble, its consequences eventually overwhelmed a large part of society until the 90s.

In those years, the Asian country experienced tremendous growth. Investments in the country soared and so did its products. They sold like hotcakes. beyond its borders. As explained in Salmon BlogThe economic boom turned Tokyo into the world’s number one stock exchange and Osaka into fourth place, pushing the London Stock Exchange down to fifth place.

At the same time as this bubble, sales of sports cars increased. Truly fast cars that quickly followed each other and positioned themselves in the market as alternatives for all types of budgets. Japanese manufacturers bring cars, from the cheapest to authentic supercars, to the market for anyone who wants to spend their savings.

These are the years of the Nissan Silvia and Skyline GT-R, Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7 and other bombs such as the Honda NSX or Mitsubishi Lancer EVO, among many others.

But like any good bubble, it too burst. And ahead were wonderful cars, like the Toyota MP-2 or the great Avtozam AZ-1 from Mazda.

The same thing happened with Dome Jiotto Caspita.

Caspita! A cool supercar has appeared

Yeah, we couldn’t resist it horrible tell jokes.

As we said before, the late 80s were crazy in Japan. And if every young person wanted to have a sports car, he could not be both the boss and the top manager of companies whose value has skyrocketed. Just as the Autozam AZ-1 wanted to win over audiences for less money, so too kei carDome Jiotto Caspita sought its audience among the richest.

The name Dome refers to the company that developed the project. Dome is a company that grew up in competition and as a Japanese sports car trainer he has succeeded in getting them to compete in various categories.

However, their successes in competitions could not be repeated on the street… although they cannot be called failures.

How are they taken into account? Motor.es, The Dome Jiotto Caspita is not the first supercar released by the company. Already in the 70s, the company introduced the Dome Zero, a wedge-shaped supercar that never went into production, but, oddly enough, gave the company a powerful boost.

Although they never managed to get the car on the road, the success of the prototype was overwhelming, and they were able to make so much money from image rights (especially in toy production) that the brand was able to improve its financing and continue to grow. .

Success was knocking on the door, and the public wanted to take a good supercar into the garage, and Dome again tried to sell his own car.

Thus, in 1989 Tokyo Motor Show presented the Dome Jiotto Caspita, an impressive supercar that quickly attracted everyone’s attention with its shape, typical of a Formula C prototype. And that’s exactly what they wanted to achieve: a street-legal car that could be transformed, to compete at the lowest possible cost.

Given this silhouette, the car soon received the nickname “Formula 1 for the streets.” The problem, as you understand, is that he has never seen the street. It was a supercar prepared for maximum performance and with some technical elements directly inherited from Formula 1.

For example, it had an electronically controlled active suspension, and the rear spoiler, which was part of the body itself, was retractable. Aiming for maximum lightness, the chassis was constructed from aluminum and carbon fiber, tipping the scales at just 1,100kg.

This figure shone even more thanks to the 3.5 V12 engine producing 450 hp, which allowed it to accelerate from 0 to 100 in 4.7 seconds. The engine was the work of a combination of Subaru and Motor Moderni, who already had a flat-12 engine in Formula 1 and with whom they supported the modest Italian team Coloni, which failed miserably in that category.

The project attracted attention and the possibility of producing a very limited series of just 30 units. But the Colony team’s disaster ended Subaru’s ability to compete in Formula 1 and meant the car never saw the light of day.

A few years later, Dome tried again. Then he decided to equip his car with a Judd GV V10 engine, which was also inherited from Formula 1 and increased power to 585 horsepower. Weighing slightly more (1,240 kg) but still lightweight, the Japanese prototype boasted the ability to reach a top speed of 320 km/h and accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.2 seconds. Diariomotor.

But if the first time there was a failure in Formula 1, then in the second attempt I encountered the Japanese crisis of the 90s. Once the bubble burst, potential clients disappeared and the project became economically unviable, so it was abandoned.

Images | Toyotacoronaexsaloon

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