Sachio fukuzawa autobiography movie

In victory, a Toyota carrying the number seven has won the greatest prize in endurance racing. But for many who know of the legend of the Toyota 7, the name is most synonymous with its final evolution from A groundbreaking race car that was years ahead of its time, one whose legacy endures as an emblematic machine of its era despite the fact that it never raced.

Kono was the manager of motorsports activities for Toyota from , and in , he established Team Toyota — the first, and only, factory racing programme solely operated by the Japanese arm of Toyota Motor Corporation. Not long after the GT entered production in the autumn of , Kono would again coordinate a joint-development project between Toyota and Yamaha in the spring of , to construct a new vehicle built to the FIA Group 7 two-seater sports car regulations that were about to transform the annual Japan Grand Prix Car Race at Fuji Speedway.

On 12 February, , while testing an unknown Toyota prototype that was believed to be part of their Le Mans ambitions, Sachio Fukuzawa perished in a testing accident at the Yamaha Test .

By this time, Daihatsu Motor Company — a subsidiary of Toyota, who had modest success in racing on their own — had joined the project. Toyota were the largest Japanese auto manufacturer in the s, and their success in the automotive world meant that their racing programmes were always well-funded. Toyota dominated the early years of Japanese endurance racing, highlighted by overall wins in the Fuji 24 Hours, Fuji km, and Suzuka km races — plus the successful GT Speed Trial at Yatabe.

But in the s, the Japan Grand Prix was the biggest race in the nation by an order of magnitude, equal to the Indianapolis and Monaco Grand Prix in the eyes of the nascent Japanese racing world.

Race car driver.

It was the race for which the Toyota 7 was developed above all others. And it was the stage where Team Toyota always fell short of victory, overshadowed by their arch rivals. Toyota accepted the challenge each of these years. He delivered Team Toyota a signature win. A declaration that they had the machines, the engineers, and the drivers to compete against the best that Japan — and the rest of the world — had to offer.

Kono-san, the boss at Team Toyota, always had grand visions for his team beyond competing in Japan. From his first year on the job, he expressed a desire to compete in Formula One against the likes of Honda.