Autoblog: BREAKING: Toyota's chief test driver dies behind wheel of a Lexus LFA in Germany

Kowalski

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We don't have much in the way of details yet, but according to a report out of Germany, Toyota's chief test driver has died in a crash on highway 410 near the Nurburgring after veering into the oncoming lane and colliding with two others test drivers driving a BMW.

While the two BMW test drivers survived the crash, the yet-unnamed Toyota driver died behind the wheel of the recently spied LFA Nurburgring Edition he was driving.

The report says that the driver of the LF-A was 67 years old and Toyota's chief test driver, which leads us to believe that he is Hiromu Naruse, In addition to being the company's chief test driver, Naruse is also Akio Toyoda's personal driver and the Godfather of the LFA.

BREAKING: Toyota's chief test driver dies behind wheel of LFA in Germany
 
That looks like a pretty blind turn, especially at high speed. Can someone find that turn on Google Maps or something?
 
This is very sad.
 
Rest in peace. It is a way to go, innit?
 
I mean respect for the dead and all that, but toyota, maker of the mr2 and supra, had in charge of testing its vehicles a nearly 70 year old japanese man? I mean he was 45 or 50 back when they were making cool vehicles, fair enough, but no wonder they make such boring cars these days. Maybe now they will bring back an affordable RWD car.

Also, isnt it shocking how much the LF-A looks like a lamboghini in yellow? The first thing my eye went to was the lexus, and the thought springed into my head "Ohh! He hit a gallardo! What an expensive accident!".

Also n'thing "If im gonna die, its gonna be at 70 years old in a 550 horsepower supercar of my own design, killing nobody else in the process. "In my sleep" is for COWARDS!"
 
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That's not what I call a "highway". That's a extra-rural road hardly wide enough for heavy vehicles.
 
wrong side of the road? and what a coincident...
 
I was thinking that as well, most of the damage seems to be on the lexus's right, and the bmw's right side as well (both from drivers perspective") which would put the lexus on the oncoming traffic side (not just a little bit in the oncoming lane) of the BMW. Not only on the wrong side of the road, but on the wrong side of the BMW! :O
 
According to the Spiegel, police reports that all three persons were wearing helmets. Also, the guys in the BMW sustained life-threatening injuries, one still is critical.

Must have been a pretty nasty crash.
 
Lots of intriguing information. Helmets? WTF?
Yellow LF-A does like like a Lamborghini Gallardo.
 
Lots of intriguing information. Helmets? WTF?
Well, they all were test drivers, probably on the way from, to, or on a test run.
 
not ernough trees on the inside?

Well, the police is saying the BMW was going from Br?cktal to Boos, and that the Lexus got off the road in a long left turn. There's a line of bushes/trees that would match the pictures next to the hand-shaped lake.
 
Well, the police is saying the BMW was going from Br?cktal to Boos, and that the Lexus got off the road in a long left turn. There's a line of bushes/trees that would match the pictures next to the hand-shaped lake.

ah, ok, i had focused on the next turn. and one can#t argue with the police. :D

and in the message from the police:
"Ein Gutachter zur Unfallrekonstruktion wurde vor Ort erstellt. "
wow, the cops have some secret beaming technology or something in use there...or some hot and horny action went down at the crash scene.
 
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