As Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda passed the banged-up Aston Martin Zagato in his Lexus LFA on the Nuerburgring race track last month, he figured that was it for the British race car.
Toyoda and Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez, both recognized for their contribution to motorsports by the German auto industry this year, were meant to switch cars later and cross the finish line side by side -- Bez in the Lexus, the Toyota (7203.T) chief in the Zagato.
"I thought, 'that doesn't look good," Toyoda, an amateur racer, recalled after the four-hour endurance race at the track, in Germany's Eifel region. "I think everybody did."
The mishap seemed like a metaphor for the road his company has travelled since Toyoda took over more than two years ago.
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