Triumph & Tragedy — Remembering the Godfather of the LFA
Hiromu Naruse always dreamed of beating the Europeans, and his obsessive work on the Lexus LFA made it a reality.
A little over 13 years ago, Toyota’s chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse had just wrapped up yet another test session at the famed Nurburgring behind the wheel of a Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition. Over his 47 years with Toyota, Naruse had done that a lot. In fact, he accumulated more laps at the ‘ring than any other Japanese driver, and he had, at the time, spent a full decade developing the car he was driving, and now, it was nearly ready.
Naruse’s dream had always been to help create a Japanese supercar that could take down its European foes at the Nurburgring, and now, he was incredibly close to making that dream a reality. But as the Toyota team prepared to pack it up for the day, Naruse noted that the car’s dampers needed a slight adjustment, so he decided to make the two-mile trek to Toyota’s nearby engineering facility.
Sadly, Naruse never made it to his destination, as most probably remember. The Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition he was driving along Highway 410 crashed, head-on, into a BMW 3-Series – also a test vehicle – seriously injuring the occupants of that car as well. Naruse tragically died on the scene, bringing to light the story of his remarkable accomplishments that were previously relatively unknown outside the walls of one of the world’s largest automakers.
Godfather of the LFA
Naruse had a hand in the development of many high-performance Toyota vehicles over the years – everything from the 2000GT to the MR2, Lexus IS, and of course, the LFA. In fact, he was nicknamed the “Godfather of the LFA” for his work creating one of the greatest supercars ever conceived. But Naruse actually started out as a temporary mechanic, working his way up the ranks by demonstrating a tremendous feel for cars and how to fine-tune them to perfection.
“He was always touching the vehicle,” Toyota development leader Hiroyuki Koba told Road & Track in an interview back in 2017. “Naruse said on the shop floor [that] if you attach reinforcement material here, then the movement of the vehicle would dramatically change, and you can grasp how the car will move.” At the same time, Naruse was constantly making minute changes to the vehicles he was driving, always in the endless pursuit of perfection.
Naruse famously had no hobbies and didn’t smoke or drink. He did reportedly like to cook, and that bled over into his life’s work. He often likened the development of a vehicle to developing its “flavor,” much like a chef creates the layers of an award-winning dish. Things like responsiveness and steering feel were the ingredients in his own personal entree, and Naruse believed they should be instantly recognizable characteristics of a Toyota-branded vehicle.
Naruse earned his reputation within Toyota for his hard work and obsession with his craft, in addition to his driving skill. All of that paid off when, 10 months after his passing, an LFA Nurburgring Edition set a new production car lap record at the famed circuit, beating the former record-holder – the Porsche 911 GT2 RS – by over three seconds.
As for Naruse, well, his legend lives on at the Toyota Kaikan Museum, where his Nomex racing suit, helmet, and gloves are still on display next to the LFA that scored a class win at the 2012 Nurburgring 24 Hours, as if he’s still pondering how he can make the car even faster.
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