#HiromuNaruse

If given the choice, a lot of people say they’d prefer dying doing what they love. That is exactly the fate that befell Toyota test drive Hiromu Naruse this past June, when he crashed testing the Lexus LFA supercar.

Toyota has just released a short video tribute to Naruse, who is credited for having inspired every Toyota and Lexus sports car over the past 40 years.

Hit the jump for the video:

Several months ago the first reports of a “baby” FT-86/FR-S rear-drive sports car emerged and now that project is taking shape. Toyota has reportedly begun the work of building this lower cost alternative to the FR-S as a tribute to chief test driver Hiromu Naruse, who died recently while testing a Lexus LFA in Germany.

Hiromu Naruse, Toyota’s chief test driver and the man widely regarded as the father of the Lexus LFA, died in a car crash today on a German highway near the Nurburgring race track.

According to reports, Naruse veered into an oncoming lane while piloting a prototype of the Lexus LFA Nurburgring edition and hit a BMW 3-Series, being driven by two other test drivers. The BMW drivers survived the crash but one reportedly is in critical condition.

Hit the jump to see a German news report on the incident.

[Source: Autoblog]