It’s one of those jobs the vast majority of us can only dream of having, and from 1988 through to 2000, it was Hiroyoshi Kato’s all. As Nissan’s ‘Technical Meister’, Kato-san’s daily grind was pushing cars – or more specifically, Skylines – to their absolute limit around the 154-turn deep, 20.81-kilometre long, Nordschleife. Charged with the development of all the RB26DETT-engined GT-Rs – from the original BNR32 through to the final iteration of the BNR34 – Kato dedicated 12 years of his life to the Nürburgring, and in doing so helped create some of the greatest Japanese sports cars of all time. At 55 years of age he enjoys a slightly slower pace of life now, but as this new clip from Nissan goes to show, his driving talent certainly hasn’t wavered one bit! In fact, during his very first drive of the Nissan R35 at the Green Hell last year (while working on the development of the new NISMO edition), Kato went straight out and blasted a sub-eight minute lap in the factory-tuned machine. The ultimate job? See for yourself…

Brad Lord
brad@speedhunters.com