丰田章男:驾驭丰田汽车的赛车手

Mr. Toyoda says he honed his driving skills in the 1980s driving a used Porsche in Manhattan, where he was working as an investment banker. He bought it after someone stole his Toyota Celica. The Porsche is long gone, but Mr. Toyoda likes to show off his Porsche ballpoint pen clad in the steel mesh used to protect wiring under the hood. 'Look at this,' he told a reporter Thursday. 'It's just like an auto part.'
丰田章男说，他的驾驶技术是二十世纪八十年代在曼哈顿开一辆二手保时捷(Porsche)时培养起来的。当年他在曼哈顿一家投资银行工作，因为自己的一辆丰田Celica跑车被盗，于是买下了保时捷。那辆保时捷早已不在，但丰田章男喜欢秀他的保时捷圆珠笔，笔身包裹着一层用于保护汽车引擎盖下配线的钢网。他对记者说：“看这支笔，就像汽车零件一样。”

His daredevil activities are raising his profile in a way that few of his button-down predecessors sought. The company's last president, Katsuaki Watanabe, tried to keep out of the limelight during his stint, spending his leisure time singing in a men's choir.
这些锐意进取的大胆行为提升了丰田章男的知名度，而他那些保守的前任们很少有人走这条路。丰田公司上一任总裁渡边捷昭(Katsuaki Watanabe)在任期间努力远离公众视线，闲暇时在一个男声合唱团里唱歌。

Mr. Toyoda's approach carries risks, not least of which is the possibility of the type of high-speed accident that killed Toyota's chief test car driver in 2010. That was one year after Mr. Toyoda drove for the third year in a row in an annual 24-hour race on a Grand Prix track in Nurburg, Germany. The company says he hasn't been in a competitive race since then - a decision prompted in part by pressure from Toyota's board, according to a person familiar with the matter. But he hasn't quit his habit of racing solo at top speeds on closed courses.
但丰田章男的做法也伴有风险，高速驾驶中的意外事故就是其中之一。2010年，丰田汽车首席试车员在一起高速事故中身亡。事发前一年，丰田章男已连续第三次参加每年一度在德国尼尔堡(Nurburg)大奖赛(Grand Prix)赛道上举办的24小时耐力赛。丰田汽车称，丰田章男自此之后没有再参加竞技比赛。据知情人士透露，该决定在一定程度上是迫于丰田公司董事会的压力，但丰田章男并没有放弃在封闭赛道上独自驾车挑战极限速度的爱好。

At a news conference in March, Mr. Toyoda appeared alongside three Toyota test drivers and made the case for keeping the keys. 'Ten years ago, I was once chewed out by our chief test driver for not knowing how to put a car through its paces, something they risk their lives to do everyday,' he said. 'Now, I see myself as a bridge who can talk to both racing pros and average car owners.'
在2012年3月的一次新闻发布会上，丰田章男与三名丰田试车员一同露面，并阐述了自己继续试驾丰田汽车的理由。他说：“十年前，我们的首席试车员有一次曾训斥我不懂如何全面检测车辆性能，而这是他们每天都要冒着生命危险去做的事情。现在，我视自己为一座桥梁，能同时与专业车手和普通车主进行沟通。”

Mr. Toyoda has cut back on other pastimes such as golf to spend more hours at the test track. That shift from the back nine to starting line came, he says, after a journalist chided him by saying that most Toyota executives' appreciation of 'handling' is limited to golf clubs.
丰田章男缩短了打高尔夫球等其他娱乐活动的时间，把更多时间花在试车场上。他表示，这一转变得益于此前受到的来自一名记者的斥责。这名记者说，丰田汽车大多数高管对于“操作”一词的理解仅限于在高尔夫球杆上。

He regularly shows up at events wearing a tailor-made Nomex fireproof red and white racing suit - featuring a shoulder patch with a cartoon of his dog, Morizo. While many CEOs hand out business cards, Mr. Toyoda's chief calling cards are stacks of stickers with that dog patch design.
丰田章男经常现身各种赛事，身着红白相间的Nomex定制防火赛车服──肩章上印着他的爱犬Morizo的卡通像。许多公司高管给人递的是名片，但丰田章男递得最多的是一堆贴画，上面印着肩章上的卡通狗形象。

In an effort to energize some 1,100 dispirited Toyota dealers and employees attending a company conference in Las Vegas last November, he bounded to the stage in his racing suit.
2011年11月在拉斯维加斯举行的公司大会上，为了给与会约1,100名情绪不高的丰田汽车经销商和雇员打气，丰田章男身穿赛车服跃上舞台。

In the midst of a pep talk, he led the crowd in chanting 'WAKU-DOKI, WAKU-DOKI, WAKU-DOKI,' a term loosely translated as 'heart-pounding excitement.'
丰田章男在演讲中给大家加油鼓劲，领着人们反复地喊“WAKU-DOKI, WAKU-DOKI, WAKU-DOKI”，这个词翻译过来的意思大致是“血脉贲张”。

Mr. Toyoda often uses that phrase to illustrate the passion needed in his company's vehicles, the design of which he told reporters in April was 'too Democratic' to inspire.
丰田章男常常用这个词来说明丰田汽车的设计所需体现的激情。他在4月份告诉媒体，丰田汽车的设计过程“过于民主”，导致产品平淡无奇。

Mr. Toyoda has taken a deep interest in product development. During the development of the FR-S sports car, which began in 2008, he drove prototypes at least once a month and offered sometimes blistering feedback on everything from the suspension to the design of the exterior badge.
丰田章男对产品开发有着浓厚的兴趣。丰田汽车从2008年起开始研发FR-S运动汽车，在此期间，丰田章男每个月至少都要试驾一次原型车，有时候会很不客气地提出反馈意见，涉及从减震装置到外部车标设计的方方面面。

'Mr. Toyoda's comments can be quite harsh. At one point, we were at a crossroads in development and he said the car wasn't talking to him at all, which was his way of letting us know it wasn't anything special,' recalled Tetsuya Tada, the FR-S's chief engineer. 'I don't remember that ever happening with past presidents.'
“丰田章男提的意见有时候相当尖锐。有一回我们正处于产品开发的十字路口，而丰田章男说那款车根本不能同他交谈，意思就是说车的设计没有任何特色。”FR-S车型首席工程师多田哲哉(Tetsuya Tada)回忆道，“在我的印象中，以往的总裁从来没有这样做过。”