Toyota Chief Test Driver Dies In LFA Crash
June 24th, 2010 8:00 AM
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Toyota’s chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse, was killed today when the Lexus LFA “Nürburgring Edition” he was driving was hit head-on by a BMW on a rural road in the vicinity of the Nordschleife. And though this is hardly the time for levity (and so help me, I will ban the first person to crack an unintended acceleration joke), it must be noted that the ill-fated, $375k Toyota flagship supercar is referred to in this video as a “Nissan Lexus.” Sure, the Germans (local Wehrleiters in particular) have a natural contempt for non-European luxury brands, but that’s just embarrassing. Especially considering that this was not the kind of crazy legend-building crash that might have lent the LFA some man-eater mystique. What a tragedy.
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All the lines on the road were the same color. If his car was right hand drive, perhaps he was driving on the wrong side of the road. When visiting New Zealand, if there were no other cars around I'd find myself pulling onto the wrong side of the road. On the bright side, he lived a relatively long and undoubtedly interesting life, and died a (likely) quick death, doing what he loved. Not a bad way to go. Also on the bright side, that 3-series is a tough son of a bitch! It makes me glad to drive one.
My wife's boss just lost her 17 year old daughter who was driving on a country (gravel) road, on the way to band practice for graduating 18 year olds. Others on the road said she was not going too fast for conditions. EMS people, who took 3 hours to extracate her body, thought perhaps she had been distracted and hit the tree at speed due to texting or being on the cell phone. Her cell phone was found to be locked in the glove box of the car. The only thing we could think of was that perhaps "bambi" came out of a copse of woods to her left, and she instinctively swerved right to avoid the deer. Teach your daughters (and sons) that they must NOT serve to avoid bambi or other animals. You might save their life. Condolensces to the families in Germany and Japan. (The injured's families are also in mourning and shock, you know).
I happen to agree with many people. The man lived a good life and died doing what he loved (presumably) at a ripe age of 67. Still sad, but not a terrible tragedy. There is a lot more situations on the road that are a lot more tragic.
http://www.worldcarfans.com/1100 ... led-during-gallardo Another Bull car ate his Driver & passenger. Kind of sad.