Aiko Toyoda, former director and current chairman of the board of Toyota, has been involved in an accident with a rally car.
The opening of Toyota's new test facility and development center took place somewhat more dramatically than planned, when board chairman Aiko Toyoda crashed in a rally car.
This is written by Times Drive .
After ditching the car – a GR Yaris – which Aiko Toyoda herself helped develop, the Japanese chief executive made a move that probably caught most people off guard.
Instead of leaving the scene, the 68-year-old Japanese man stood next to the car and started talking about how important safety is in new cars.
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– Shimoyama is a place where you make mistakes every day, make mistakes and repair cars over and over again.
– The most important aspect of building cars involves repeatedly coring, breaking down and repairing cars, said the chairman of the board as he stood in front of the dismantled GR Yaris.
The Shimoyama facility is built just over 30 minutes' drive from Toyota's headquarters. The new facility will eventually become home to both performance department Gazoo Racing and Lexus.
There is also a 5.3 kilometer race track on site. According to the Toyota top, the layout has been made to resemble something from the Nürburgring. In this way, the car brand is 'free' to travel all the way to Germany with brand new cars.
However, this does not mean that Aiko Toyoda is ready to put either the choir gloves or the board position on the shelf. Last year he said, among other things to Road and Track that he still wanted to do racing.
