According to reports, Toyota's chief test driver, 67-year-old Hiromu Naruse, has died in a crash on highway 410 near the famed Nürburgring race track in Germany. He was driving the recently spied Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition (above) at the time of the accident, and reports say he veered into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with two others test drivers in a BMW. The two BMW test drivers survived the crash, though one is reportedly still in critical condition. German video of the crash scene after the accident took place can be viewed below. Police are investigating the crash and have yet to determine its cause.

Naruse was heavily involved with the development of the Lexus LFA supercar he was driving, along with many other past sports cars from Toyota's history since he joined the company in 1963. Enthusiasts today call him the "Godfather of the LFA," though he was involved in the development of sports cars for Toyota going as far back as the storied 2000GT from the late 1960s. The prototype of a special edition version of the LFA that he was driving when the accident occurred was reportedly worth 1.5 million euro.

Taken from autoblog.com. R.I.P Hiromu Naruse.

Rip

http://www.skiddmark.com/sad-n ... a-crash-near-nurburgring/

Poor BMW. Proofs they're safe though.

Not for his family and/or friends?

Uhm. Strange he didnt survive that to be honest. From the video it doesnt look that big of a crash. Well, RIP.

Also, apparently there was a passenger in LFA too and he died also.

Old guy driving, suddenly veers into oncoming lane for no apparent reason.

Heart attack?

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Heart attack?

It's a good guess, along with fatigue, but one of the many gadgets in the car could've catastrophically failed as well...

Uhh, horrible. :tombstone

it looks like they tried to pass each other on the wrong lane. Can someone help with translation?

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Old guy driving, suddenly veers into oncoming lane for no apparent reason.

Heart attack?

He was Japanese, they drive on the other side...

RIP

Quote from DevilDare :

Uhm. Strange he didnt survive that to be honest. From the video it doesnt look that big of a crash....

+1 It's amazing when you see a car completely destroyed and people survive wihtout a single injury, while in accidents like this.... people die

No excessive damaged doesn't mean fatal injuries. The human body can't handle big smashes and can cause death. Makes me remember of a dude at Bonneville... He drove of, started rolling.... not much damage but he didn't survive because the body just couldn't handle all those hits

But also the passenger in the LFA didn't survive so there might have been some issues with the car as it was a test drive and probably was a "beta" product..

RIP, he was a great engineer and is a great loss...

RIP

You gotta remember the horrible after effect "looks" can sometimes be what save the people inside. Although the car looks worse, that is adding cushion to the drivers/passengers - keeping them safer and from absorbing the impact. That looks like a pretty solid impact if you ask me.

Nearing 70 years of age, driving one of the hottest supercars of the moment on some nice roads. There's worse ways to go...

Quote from Osco :

Nearing 70 years of age, driving one of the hottest supercars of the moment on some nice roads. There's worse ways to go...

+1. Most people of that age usually die in either a hospital bed if not their own bed, sadly.
If I had to choose my death, it would be in a motor racing crash at a rather advanced age.

Thoughts from accross the internet:

A special Nurburgring edition is likely to have a harness - these are done up *very* tight which makes looking over junctions etc quite hard - a lot of people who run harnesses on the ring don't bother losening them to grab some fuel and so just don't wear them for 5 minutes.

Helmets were in the car - could of become projectiles.

Helmets were worn on the ring, perhaps the airbags had been disabled.

However the most likely cause looking at the road positioning was that the LFA was on the wrong side of the road - I doubt the driver was pushing hard tbh (as if you were going to, you'd do it on the Ring you've just been to...) but he could still of had a mechanical issue. And of course the last thing... the driver is Japanese, where they drive on the left. He could simply of become disoriented...

Quote from Jakg :

Helmets were in the car - could HAVE become projectiles.

Helmets were worn on the ring, perhaps the airbags had been disabled.

However the most likely cause looking at the road positioning was that the LFA was on the wrong side of the road - I doubt the driver was pushing hard tbh (as if you were going to, you'd do it on the Ring you've just been to...) but he could still HAVE had a mechanical issue. And of course the last thing... the driver is Japanese, where they drive on the left. He could simply HAVE become disoriented...

But why did he end up at the wrong side of the road? If he was a professional driver he wouldn't have made that mistake. I think he had a heart attack.