Hiroyoshi Kato: Nissan’s Nürburgring Master

Hiroyoshi Kato has been Nissan’s “Nürburgring Meister” for more than 12 years beginning with the R32 GT-R, through the R33 and R34 and now testing the Nissan GT-R NISMO. After driving the road course for so many years, Kato recalls that pushing a car to complete the circuit in less than eight minutes has always been considered a benchmark achievement; but he did it in the new GT-R NISMO in his first lap of the track.

But Kato’s role isn’t to push the Nissans to achieve the fastest lap time, his goal is to make the GT-R NISMO the world’s best sports car, enjoyable for customers both on and off the track. He leaves the work of pushing the car to its limits to drivers Michael Krumm and Sebastien Buemi, who set a lap time at Nürburgring of 7:08.69, which makes the GT-R NISMO the holder of the volume production car lap record at the German road course.