Hayashi's career in car construction began in 1965 when he built a rebodied Honda S600 coupé known as the "Karasu" (crow), which won its debut race at the Suzuka Clubman Race despite Hayashi having no formal racecar-building experience. This was followed by the "Macransa" in 1966 — a modified Honda S800 — and the "Kusabi," a Formula Junior car completed in 1969. These early projects established the workshop disciplines and aerodynamic focus that would define Dome's approach.
In 1975 the company was formally incorporated and quickly moved into production car design. By 1978 Dome had created its first concept road car, the Dome Zero (童夢-零, Dōmu Zero), a Nissan L28-powered machine intended to be the world's lowest-riding sports car at 980 mm in height. The Zero debuted at the Geneva Motor Show and a production variant called the Zero P2 appeared at the Chicago Auto Show and Los Angeles Auto Expo, but Japanese government authorities refused to grant type approval and the road car never entered production.
Entering the 1980s, Dome established itself as a serious sportscar constructor, designing and building Group C Toyota TOM'S machines for the All Japan Super Silhouette Championship, the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, and the World Sportscar Championship. The Dome-built prototypes spanned the 83C through the 88C, giving the company deep experience in endurance chassis engineering and aerodynamic development that would inform all later projects.
Hayashi's cousin Masakazu Hayashi (of the Hayashi aluminum wheel concern) ran a parallel open-wheel manufacturing enterprise. Together the two cousins designed the Hayashi 803 Formula Three car, later followed by the Hayashi 320 in 1981, penned by Masao Ono — the same engineer who had designed the 1976 Kojima F1 car. The 320 won the All-Japan Formula Three Championship and a modified variant took the Macau Grand Prix driven by American Bob Earl. Subsequent iterations — the 321, 322, 330, and 331 — continued to compete in Japanese and British F3 with varying success through the mid-1980s before a downturn in the aluminum-wheel business led Hayashi Racing to step back from chassis construction.
From 1992 onwards Dome ran a Formula 3000 programme under its own banner. Marco Apicella drove the Dome-Mugen F103 to the championship title in 1994, and the F3000 effort continued until 1998 with drivers including Shinji Nakano, Katsumi Yamamoto, and Juichi Wakisaka.
Late in 1995 Tadashi Sasaki joined Dome and the company announced its intention to enter Formula One. The proposed car, the Dome F105, was designed by Akiyoshi Uko and was planned to use a Minardi transmission and hydraulic system. Marco Apicella was installed as test driver in 1996, with duties later taken over by Shinji Nakano and Naoki Hattori as development continued.
A planned entry into the 1997 World Championship did not materialise. A follow-up design, the Dome F106, was begun but never completed. The project suffered from an inability to secure adequate sponsorship, and Mugen declined to supply engines. The Concorde Agreement's membership requirements also created administrative barriers for a new constructor entering the sport. By 1999, as Honda committed its resources to a partnership with British American Racing, all Dome F1 development work was wound down.
From 1996 Dome turned its full attention to the Japanese GT Championship (later renamed Super GT), competing as a team while also supplying Honda NSX bodywork and aerodynamic kits to other factory-supported entrants. The company worked on aerodynamic development for the JTCC Honda Accord during the same period.
In 1999 Dome established Dome Cars Ltd. in the United Kingdom and opened the Dome Tunnel test facility in Maihara, Shiga Prefecture — originally intended to support F1 construction. In 2001 DOME Carbon Magic was founded in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, focusing on carbon composite development and manufacture. The company continued to operate in Super GT with Takata as its primary sponsor through much of the 2000s.
Dome returned to international prototype racing in 2007 by upgrading its S101 Le Mans prototype chassis to meet revised regulations, designating the updated car the S101.5, with examples supplied to Racing for Holland. In 2008 the company entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans under its own banner for the first time in 22 years, fielding the closed-cockpit S102 in the LMP1 class. A further development, the S102.5 powered by a 3.4-litre Judd V8, was entered in the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Dome self-funding race operations in partnership with Pescarolo.
By 2014 Dome withdrew as a Super GT team entrant to concentrate on constructing the Mother Chassis platform for the GT300 class, a modular base architecture intended to lower costs and broaden participation across the domestic series.
Dome's trajectory reflects the recurring ambition of Japanese manufacturers to break into top-level international single-seater competition — an ambition that was ultimately blocked by financial constraints and the commercial structures governing Formula One access in the late 1990s. While the F1 programme came to nothing, the company's long record in Japanese GT, its Le Mans prototype programmes, and its carbon-composite manufacturing capabilities represent a durable contribution to Japanese motorsport infrastructure. The Dome Zero concept car, with its extreme low-ride design and Geneva Motor Show debut, also gave the company a brief cultural prominence far beyond racing circles.