Toyota pays tribute to famed test driver Hiromu Naruse with farewell video

He directly contributed to or helped inspire nearly every sport model by Toyota and Lexus over the last four decades. And here Toyota is paying tribute to its famed test driver Hiromu Naruse, who died tragically in an accident earlier this year.

Naruse was the Japanese driver who logged the most amount of time on the Nürburgring circuit but when he first began working for Toyota back in 1963 they made him an accountant because he was exceptional at math. He worked his way up to become the chief test driver for the Toyota and Lexus brands.

"The flavor of a car is created on the track," Naruse would say.

He lived for that, taking cars onto the track even on his days off.

He died this past June in an accident on a highway close to the Nurburgring circuit while at the wheel of a Lexus LFA. A passenger alongside Naruse also perished in the crash.

Naruse was 67 years old.