The Crank: Do racing automaker CEOs help or hinder car sales?

By John LeBlanc Standing up in front of government officials or at auto shows is where we usually find the head of car companies. But Toyota and Aston Martin have released a video of Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda and his Aston counterpart Ulrich Bez not in pinstripe suits behind a podium, but wearing Nomex behind the steering wheels of racecars. After putting together the deal that sees Aston sell its Cygnet (a version of the Toyota/Scion iQ city car), Toyoda and Bez swapped their respective company race cars during a recent VLN (Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring) series race at Germany’s hairy Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit, with Toyoda piloting the Aston V12 Vantage ’Zig’ and Bez wheeling the Lexus LF-A Gazoo Racing. It makes for a great promo video.But how important to you as a car buyer is it if the head of a car company is this passionate about cars? For instance, it’s hard to imagine the current CEO of General Motors Dan Akerson—who once admitted, “I’m not a car guy. Nor should the CEO be worried about rear axle ratios on the next transmission.”—don a race suit, jump in a Corvette C6R, and attack the track known as the Green Hell. Or do racing CEOs come across as simply rich playboys having a bit of fun? Sources: Topspeed.com, Bloomberg Businessweek

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