Running with the Wind, Going Electric--Reminiscences and Challenges of Masao Ono, F1 Designer (1994)

Running with the Wind, Going Electric--Reminiscences and Challenges of Masao Ono, F1 Designer (1994)

In the fall of 1994, as the environmental business was beginning a new wave of activity, a man tells a story that connects his past and future. His name is Masao Ono. He is the president of Tokyo R&D. He was an engineer at the dawn of Japanese motorsports, designing cars for F1, Le Mans, and F3 during the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1973, Ono participated in the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race in a car of his own design, and from 1974 to 1975 he took on the challenge of F1 as a private team. At the time, there were no real F1 teams in Japan, and most of them were private teams from the UK. He was challenging the European stage with a "home-built car" equipped with a Ford DFV engine, armed only with his own technology, money, and persistence.

This historical background is important because the 1970s was a time when Japanese motorsports finally broke through to the international level, but without sufficient funds, facilities, or recognition in Japan. Japanese companies regarded F1 as "an extension of their hobbies," and Ono recalls that "work came second, and it was almost like personal participation. There was no "systematic accumulation" of technology or human resources to support the teams, and there was no system to immediately reflect the experience gained from racing in research and development.

Nevertheless, he did not give up, and he took on Le Mans again in 1979-1980, and in 1981 he was involved in the development of Formula 3 and formula cars. Eventually, he felt he had reached his "limit. In Japan, racing itself is not recognized, and scientific technical development is not possible. The decisive difference between Japan and other countries was organizational strength. He decided that he wanted to "give back to society with his technology," and in 1981 he established Tokyo R&D.

This company was more than just a design contracting company. In 1984, he accepted an invitation from the National Institute for Environmental Studies and embarked on the development of electric vehicles. At that time, the world was still searching for alternative energy sources in the wake of the oil crisis, and the "ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle)" concept was taking shape in California, USA, and Germany.

In 1994, his electric scooter, the ES600, was selected as a Good Design Product by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), and was highly acclaimed. The "lightweight" and "aerodynamic design" techniques he had honed in racing were directly applied to the development of electric vehicles, which were successfully fused with the simplicity of the structure and the environmental characteristics of zero emissions. Although there were still some issues to be solved, such as price and cruising range, his vision was no longer a "dream" but had already entered the stage of social implementation.

The "enthusiasm" of the 1970s and the "calm technological innovation" of the 1990s. Masao Ono's trajectory is a testimony of one of the few Japanese who bridges the two, and shows us the unexpected connection between motorsports and environmental technology. His narrative is imbued with a conviction and melancholy that only someone who has cut through the winds of the times can bring out.