Toyota’s Chief Test Driver Dies in Crash in Germany - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

 

Wow, that sucks.

I wonder who screwed the pooch and crossed the centerline? Their are guardrails on both sides so its also strange neither driver was able to leave the road instead of getting into a head on unless it was a case they both compensated in the same direction till it was too late.

Judging by the crumple on the beemer it doesn't even look like that bad of an accident from that angle. We are probably not seeing the worse of it but both car's passenger compartments look relatively intact in the above pic.

 

I had a Porsche Boxster drifting towards me once on the road near the Nordschleife entry, downwards to Adenau village.

some people, especially test drivers, go nuts around there.

I read about it on my Blackberry, they mentioned the Lexus test drivers were wearin helmets


EDIT:

on the German newspaper site is a video about the accident

http://www.rhein-zeitung.de/regional...id,102517.html

cliffnotes:

-FD chief gives an interview about the accident

-he keeps saying "the Nissan Lexus" what made me LOL

-its unclear how the accident happened except both cars collide frontal in a left turn

-an investigator was ordered from Koblenz, Police is also securing and investigating


Map:

http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&sourc...7,0.41851&z=12

Point B is village of Boos, in the upper left corner is the Nürburgring....the FD chief in the video mentioned that the accident happened on road K94 which is at the lower edge of the map.....the route between the Ring and Boos is the L94.....not sure where exactly the accident happened because the K94 is not that close to the Ring.

 

ib4stuckgaspedaljokes

 

That's a horrible mishap. I wonder if they will enforce strict testing rules on the manufacturer shops around that area now.

I heard that too.

 

I don't think that will happen because there were already several accidents with test mules in the last years, not around the Ring.

A Porsche Panamera crashed on the Autobahn, driver died.

a Mercedes test driver was running maximum speed on the Autobahn when a mother swerved on his lane in her KIA, saw the Benz coming, overreacted and steered the car off the road, what killed the woman and her daughter......but this happens to me alot too. people just don't use their blinkers and rear view mirrors anymore, soon or later it will go wrong with me involved.

These ignorant people don't know how it feels like to slow down from doing 149 mph to 65 mph within seconds, just because they can't wait 2 seconds longer behind a truck to let me pass.

usually the Japs are calm drivers off-track, I saw them several times with GT-R prototypes and they were never speeding outside the track.

I honestly do believe the BMW test drivers did something wrong, young guns maybe.

 

Damn, RIP

 

Crazy. That passenger side of that BMW is fawkd.

 

According to another AutoBlog article, he also was behind everything good Toyota ever made; 2000GT, Toyota 7, first gen Celica, all of the Supras, MR2, etc. etc. This man deserves much respect.

 

Car's that benefited from Naruse's touch:

Toyota Sports 800 (1965)



Toyota 1600 GT (1967)



Toyota 2000GT (1967)



Toyota 7 (1970)



Celica (1970)



AE86 (1983)



MR2 (1984)



Supra (1994)



Altezza (199



MR-S (1999)



Second Generation Prius (2007)