Kojima

[WANHER]

the second japanese formula one but who build it
and why they're gone after 2 Grand prix ?

[Vitesse]

The Kojimas were built by Kojima Engineering of Kyoto, who had been involved in racing throughout the 70s in national categories and in F2 with March chassis. In addition to the KE007 and two KE009s which raced in the Japanese GP in 1976-7, they also built two examples of a BMW-engined F2 car, the KE008, one of which which won a top-class race at Suzuka in 1978 in the hands of Kunimitsu Takahasi.

Kojima's downfall was their unwillingness to race outside Japan and consequently they were starved of development. There were plans for the Kauhsen team to run a Kojima in 1978, but nothing came of these: nor was there any result from the rumoured Kojima-Honda F1 car.

The final fling was another F2 car, the KE011 driven by Didier Pironi, no less, but it was no match for the Marches which dominated Japanese F2 in 1979.

[Mekola]

About Kojima cars, there is a interesing link about the found of one of the Kojima F1 chassis, abandoned and later repaired. This web is in Japanese but the photo galleries about the car are great.
http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wa/ke007-f1/

[WANHER]

There was also a racing formula 2 car in Europe
but I'm getting old. I don't remenber the name of it
It was driven in the late 77 at rouen a japanese driver
at the wheel

[Chris Townsend]

Kojima brought a 532 chassis over for a couple of races in Europe in Summer 1978 (Rouen and Donington). Driver was Kazuyoshi Hoshino.
I remember seeing it at Donington where it ran comfortably in
midfield but never got near the front.

[allenbrown]

Wow!! Somebody's found a Kojima!

But I don't understand a word of Japanese - or even a letter. Can anyone tell me what it says about its discovery, where it had been, which car it is, who owns it and whether the other cars have been found?

Allen

[Kojima_KE007]

Just to let you know, we now have English version of the Kojima KE007 F1 Project running at http://www.btinternet.com/~K_Nvfr400/ .

[ghinzani]

Does anyone know if the cars Wiilibauld Kaushen ran were all new cars or updates of the 77 cars?

[Kojima_KE007]

They were the updated versions of the KE009s (1977 cars) with Ferrari 312T2 type front wings instead of the sports car nose.

We know that they never raced in a Grand Prix but does anyone know if they ever run in Europe at all (a test session maybe?)?

[ghinzani]

I am sure they did test with them - look on Atlas F1 nostalgia forum and do a search, theres even some pictures. So are u saying there were only ever three Kojimas - the 76 chassis which went to Heroes for 77 and the two 77 cars?

[Kojima_KE007]

Hi.

Right, let's start. (^^)

First of all, the 1976 chassis (KE007) never went to Heroes racing. After the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix, it went straight back to Kojima Engineering and stayed there until it was rebuilt using KE009 body kit to be taken round to all sorts of events in Japan and also, the KE007 and KE009 are completely different chassis although it looks very similar.

In terms of the two KE009s that went to Willi Kahusen's, they are most likely to be the ones that actually raced at the 1977 Japanese Grand Prix. They had F-2 style centre body part (without Ferrari 312T2 style air intake at cockpit sides) and wider track (by 50mm) together with the front wing that I mentioned yesterday.

However, after the race, Kojima Engineering had some extensive test sessions at Fuji Speedway (much to the annoyance of Bridgestone!!) and at one of the test sessions, Kunimitsu Takahashi crashed one of them quite heavily (crashing into barrier backwards). So, they "might" have built another one if it was unrepairable.

So, the total number of Formula One chassis built by Kojima Engineering are either 3 (most likely) or 4 in total.

Best regards

[ghinzani]

Sorry Heroes had a 75 Tyrrell... whoops!

[Kojima_KE007]

No probs. We all make mistakes. (^^)

Yes, Heroes Racing had a Tyrrell 007 (chassis number 5) for Kazuyoshi Hoshino for 1976 Japanese Grand Prix.

It was then sold onto Meiritsu Raicng Team (I'm not 100% certain on this and will get back to you again later) for it to be raced at the 1977 Japanese Grand Prix driven by Kunimitsu Takahashi and was also looked after and supported by Kojima Engineering for that race.

[Kojima_KE007]

Here is another untold story.

Kojima KE007 was on Dunlops for the 1976 race and went quite well but when it switched to Bridgestones for the 1977 race and it did not show the kind of pace it had the previsous year.

After the race, Bridgestone blamed the lack of pace entirely to the team (cars). The team owner, Mr. Matsuhisa Kojima did not agree with that. So, he hired Fuji Speedway and asked then a World champion to be Keke Rosberg one day to see if it was just the cars' fault or not paying for all the costs himself.

Rosberg went out on a KE009 fitted with Bridgestones to start with but came straight back into the pits after just one flying lap claiming that there was something wrong with the tyres and asked Mr. Kojima to change them to something else. He even said to Mr. Kojima and described them (Bridgestones) as a "soap" like tyres.

Mr. Kojima had purchased one of Tyrrell P34s from 1976 season and had kept it in a garage at Fuji Speedway. He took the Goodyear rear tyres from his P34 (and fronts from somewhere else presumabably) and quickly changed them.

Rosberg then went out in a Goodyear shod KE009 and went a massive "1.8 seconds faster" than when it was on Bridgestones straight away. Note that they only changed the tyres and nothing else, even the gear ratio taking into account that the radius of the tyres were different between two tyre companies.

The test proved that the lack of speed during the 1977 Japanese Grand Prix was not only down just to the cars but it was visa versa and it was Birdgestone that was at fault.

After the test session, Mr. Kojima asked Bridgestone to pay for a half of the cost but Bridgestone not only declined that but did not even admit that their tyres were responsible for the lack of pace. In 2001, Bridgestone were interviewed about it and they are still blaming Kojima.

I can not help but imagine if KE009s were fitted with Goodyears or even Dunlops for the 1977 race... If Kazuyoshi Hoshino went a second faster, he would have been on the second row of the grid...

[ensign14]

This is great info. Kojima was one of the great what ifs.

What were the other Kojimas? The KE001-006 and 008?

[ghinzani]

If ever there was a man who should have been a GP driver on a regular basis it was Hoshino. He was tough, fast and physically up to driving F1 (the latter trait is what Satouro was arguably not). He would have been a great F1 driver IMHO - Honda let him down terribly in 87 by not running him in Japan - I also thought they would have replaced Mansell with him after Nige's practice shunt in 87.

Interesting story about the Dunlops - Im surprised not one of the european teams stuck a set on in 77 based on the Kojima performance the year before.

[Kojima_KE007]

I also agree that Kazuyoshi Hoshino should have been chosen instead of Nakajima for the 1987 season to partner Ayrton Senna at Lotus Honda. He was so angry that Honda did not choose him, he did not watch a single Grand Prix even on TV until 1999 when he went to see Eddie Irvine at Belgian Grand Prix at Spa that year.

According to Mr. Matsuhisa Kojima and Mr. Masao Ono, Masahiro Hasemi was a better driver than Hoshino.

One of the reasons why KE009 did not perform was, as I mentioned before, the tyres (Bridgestones) and the first thing that Keke Rosberg told the team to change was the air pressure of the tyres.

The team sent Rosberg out with 1.3 bars of air pressure (same as Japanese GP 1977) first but came straight back into the pits and told the team that it was not sufficient enough. So the team put 1.8 bars and sent him out again and recorded much better lap times. Hoshino could not even suss that out and both Mr. Kojima and Mr. Ono agree that if Hasemi would have pointed it out straight away and rectified it as he also had the experience with Dunlops.

Hasemi even had a firm offer from Theodore Formula One team for 1978. The team offered him a drive with a very reasonable amount of money, probably the same sort of amount as European drivers had to pay to get into Formula One but he could not even secure that sort of backing from Japanese companies at the time. It was't only Theodore who were interested in him. Williams and others were also intersted in running Hasemi for 1978 as well.

I will get back to you with some details of Kojima chassis later. (^^)

[Kojima_KE007]

In terms of Formula One chassis, there were three in total. They were; KE007(1976), KE009(1977) and KE009B(1977-1978).

Below are the list Kojima Engineering entered cars that I know of;

KE-FJ2(1972), FL500
KE-FJ3(1974), FL500
KE-FJ1300(1974), FJ1300
KE-March 742(1976), F2000
KE-March 753(1976), FJ1300
KE-March 76S(1976), GC
KE008(1978), F-2
KE011(1979), F-2

There probably are more Kojima Engineering manufactured or entered cars and I do not know whether there are such things as KE001, KE002 etc or some of the cars that I listed above were called at that for sure.

[ensign14]

Good stuff. Great site. Nice that someone cares about a little piece of F1 history.

[Kojima_KE007]

Thanks. Do drop us a line or two on our forum as well if you like.

I will keep trying to update as often as possible even a little things.

Kojima KE007 F1 Project

[ghinzani]

Kojima did u see my note on ur site about FW and his slough/Maki mix up? Want Ono-san involved in the Maki and the Kojima? probably where the confusion arose. I was reading a 1979 JAF gp report last night where Pironi drove a Kojima f2 - there was also another Japanese home grown F2 car in that race which Id never heard of (not a Nova).

[Kojima_KE007]

Hi, ghinzani

Yes, thanks for your message. I have already replied to your message in our forum.

As you rightly mention, Sir Frank Williams got mixed up with Maki Engineering (F101/C) which was also designed by Mr. Masao Ono.

It is perfectly understandable considering that it has been 26 years since the last Kojima Engineering car run in Formula One and only contested two Grands Prix (championship race) between the two teams (Maki, none and Kojima 2).

Is it "HAYASHI" that you are thinking about? Do you know which driver it is driven by?

[Kojima_KE007]

Originally posted by Vitesse
Kojima's downfall was their unwillingness to race outside Japan and consequently they were starved of development. There were plans for the Kauhsen team to run a Kojima in 1978, but nothing came of these: nor was there any result from the rumoured Kojima-Honda F1 car.

Kauhsen's failure was nothing to do with Kojima Engineering and the "Kojima-Honda F1" was just a rumour generated by European media and nothing more than that.

Mr. Kojima always wanted to race at overseas venues and was even ready to go to the first round of 1978, the Brazilian Grand Prix as Kojima Engineering without any assistance of Kauhsen or any other team.

If I am to suggest reasons why it "looked" as if Mr. Kojima did not want to race outside Japan was because he wanted to involve as many Japanese organizations as possible to educate them (One of the reasons why he chose KAYABA, Dunlop and Bridgestone) to bring Japanese to a higher level, but the understanding of motor racing by Japanese was very poor at the time (This will also eliminate the possiblity of Kojima-Honda). That is why Kojima never had a "real" sponsorship deal even with those fantastic performances. So it was more of Japanese not willing to do it rather than Mr. Kojima himself.

He also had his versions of theory that, if you can not win in your home ground you will not win in other grounds (outside Japan). Being a former works Suzuki motocross rider himself at international level, he knew exactly what was required to compete at that level. Again, this is one of the reasons why Kojima competed well when it was designed by Mr. Masao Ono, who also created the "not very good (to put it lightly)" Maki F101/C.

[ghinzani]

Apologies I havent checked back at your excellent site. IIRC Masao Ono was only part designer of the Maki so cant be held fully responsible? The first Maki was an amazing thing with strange radiators everywhere. Shame it didnt work. The car Trimmer drove at fuji was described as very unsafe, apparently the monocogue being attached at the front by a couple of brackets. The constructors assoc decided it was too dangerous too run I think!

[Kojima_KE007]

ghinzani

No need to apologise.

Yes, you are absolutely right that Masao Ono alone can not be held responsible for the disastrous Maki F101/C. It was designed by Kenji Mimura (cheif designer) and Ono. Considering that the even more disastrous F102A (1976) was also designed by Mimura, he may be the one to...

Anyway, the F101 was way too heavy (by about 150kg) and the cooling was said to be none existant. That's why they had to abandon the distinctive radiator configuration. I think Howden Ganley had quiet a bit of input in making the evolutionary F101C and Ono came up with that more conventional design, but even that was too heavy even to qualify for a race...

The 1976 Maki F102A was even worse. As you have said, it was decided unsafe even to run... If I remember correctly, other teams protested against it to be run... It "looks" unsafe, doesn't it?