Akio Toyoda

Having said that, feeling isolated is tough. In those times, you need a place where you can be by yourself, and friends. Company colleagues won’t do it because they’re generally self-centered (laughs). You need friends who have nothing to do with the company.

In a word, love. It’s all based on love. Even at the public hearings, there was love for Toyota, and I managed to pull through because there were people who felt it and supported me.

Driving 24 hours with rivals at Nürburgring, the world's toughest circuit, presented many more challenges than driving a test course for three years. Naruse always said that ‘Roads make cars.’ The race is punishing, but it forges better machines. Nürburgring is where I learned that ‘the road makes the car.’