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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...
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