Kojima KE007

Information

For the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix, Kojima Engineering prepared a sole chassis to compete. Kojima didn't had the intention to run the entire season, just his local race. So the Kojima KE007 was built to adapt the Fuji Speedway characteristics. The car was tested in August and September in preparations for October 24th 1976. During the practices session The KE007 was in 4th place, surprising everyone. On first qualifying session the KE007 driven by their only driver Masahiro Hasemi qualified in P10. During the 2nd qualifying session, Masahiro Hasemi was going faster, predictions said that he was gonna do a mid-higher 1:12 (Andretti's pole position was 1:12.77) which could have put him, ON POLE! but on the last braking zone he had a left suspension failure, which sent him to the wall at +250 KPM. Fortunatly Masahiro Hasemi had no injuries, but the car was completly destroyed so they withdrewn from any session until the race in favour to repair the car (KE007/2).