is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

class winner and the 2001

All Japan GT Championship Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...

runner-up. He is also known for touge driving. The car he drives, a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno, has become one of the most popular sports cars; the car is also known as "Hachi-Roku" in Japan (''hachi-roku'' meaning "eight six"); his car is also called "The Little Hachi that could." A 2-part video known as 'The Touge' produced by Pluspy documents Tsuchiya's touge driving with his AE86. He was a consultant for the popular manga and

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series, '' Initial D'', of which the main character Takumi Fujiwara is a character which describes him. He also served as a stunt coordinator and stuntman on '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'', where he also made a cameo appearance.

Biography

Tsuchiya started his career through the Fuji Freshman series in 1977. Unlike many drivers who came from wealthy families or motorsport backgrounds, he honed his skills from street racing and became noted in the underground scene.

Racing career

; National championships TaisanGT-R

He would continue to take part in the

Japanese Formula Three Championship was a national motor racing championship that takes place in Japan. It is a junior-level feeder formula that uses small single seater Formula Three chassis. As a result of Formula 3 naming regulations by the FIA, on 13 August 2019, series pro ...

Japanese Touring Car Championship The Japanese Touring Car Championship (abbr: 1985–1993: JTC, 1994–1998: JTCC, officially known as All Japan Touring Car Championship, ja, 全日本ツーリングカー選手権, link=no), was a former touring car racing series held in Japan. ...

(JTCC), the latter while driving a Cosmo Oil Sierra Cosworth and Nissan Skyline GT-R (

Team Taisan Team Taisan (チーム・タイサン, stylized as Team TAISAN) is a Japanese auto racing team founded in 1983 by Yasutsune "Ricky" Chiba and owned by the Taisan Industrial Company. Most active in the Super GT Series, formerly known as the All ...

) in the

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles ...

championships and later a Honda Civic in the Supertouring car championships. ; Le Mans He went on to score a class win and an 8th place overall at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans in a

Honda NSX The Honda NSX, marketed in North America as the Acura NSX, is a two-seat, mid-engined coupe sports car manufactured by Honda. The origins of the NSX trace back to 1984, with the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina eXperimental) concept, which was a mid-eng ...

. In 1999 of the same race, this time in a Toyota GT-One, during the last hour while co-driver

Ukyo Katayama is a Japanese former racing driver and team manager, most notable for competing for six years in Formula One. He participated in 97 Grands Prix, debuting on 1 March 1992. He scored a total of five championship points, all of them for the Tyrre ...

was building up pace to the leading

BMW V12 LMR The BMW V12 LMR is a Le Mans Prototype built for sports car racing from 1999 to 2000. The car was built through an alliance between BMW Motorsport and Williams F1, and was the successor to the failed BMW V12 LM of 1998. It is famous for earning ...

he was forced into the grass by a backmarker privateer's BMW LMP, blowing the tire out. They survived the ordeal and went on to score the fastest lap but were forced to settle for second. ; NASCAR He has raced in

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

-sanctioned exhibition races at

Suzuka Circuit The , more famously known as the , is a long motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, Ltd. It has a capacity of 155,000. Introduction Soic ...

(Suzuka Thunder 100) and at

Twin Ring Motegi Mobility Resort Motegi (モビリティリゾートもてぎ) is a motorsport race track located at Motegi, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. Originally named Twin Ring Motegi (ツインリンクもてぎ), the circuit's name came from the facility hav ...

Superspeedway for the 1998 NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition and 1999 NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series races at the circuit, both named the Coca-Cola 500K.

Drifting career

When Tsuchiya was a freshman in circuit racing, he was about to get his racing license suspended because of the illegal racing he was recording for the Drift Pluspy video. In the movie series '' Shuto Kousoku Trial'', he advised street racers to leave the illegal racing scene if they want to become involved with professional racing.

After his retirement

After his retirement, he remained in racing and is now an official Drift Muscle judge after quitting D1 in January 2011 and was Team Director for both GT500 for one year and GT300 Class of ARTA JGTC Team until the team disbanded their GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. He owned the aftermarket company Kei Office until he sold the business in the end of 2005 to form DG-5. His trademark color is jade green which appears on his overalls and helmet and is the adopted color of the former company. It was also the colour of the

D1 Grand Prix The , abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled ''Professional Drift'', is a production car drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Daijiro Inada, founder of '' Option'' magazine and Tokyo Auto Salon, and d ...

Kei Office and DG-5 S15 Silvia of driver and employee Yasuyuki Kazama who also wears a suit similar in pattern. He also hosts the video magazine "

Best Motoring was Japan's preeminent automobile magazine, video, and DVD series. Alongside ''Best Motoring'' were ''Hot Version'' and ''Video Special.'' History With the first edition debuting in 1987 and the last in June 2011, the videos were marked by non ...

" which features road tests of new Japanese cars including a special section called "Hot Version" which focuses on performance-modified cars. He is a guest presenter in ''

Video Option is a monthly direct-to-video magazine version of the long-running '' Option magazine'' introduced in March 1988 by Sunpro. The video has always been presented by Daijiro Inada, who did many of the tuner car road tests, either on a test track, o ...

'', a monthly video magazine, similar to Hot Version except regularly covers the D1GP and its sister video magazine ''

Drift Tengoku is a monthly automobile magazine dedicated to drifting and was the first of its kind. Published by San-Ei Shobo Publishing in both print and video format, it is the sister publication to '' Option'', ''Option2'' and ''Video Option''. Until 2007, ...

'' which deals purely with drifting. He has been an editorial supervisor on the televised

'' Initial D'' and ''

Wangan Midnight is a Japanese racing manga series written and illustrated by Michiharu Kusunoki. It was first serialized in Shogakukan's '' Big Comic Spirits'' in 1990, but was later serialized in Kodansha's '' Weekly Young Magazine'' from 1992 to 2008. T ...

.'' He also appeared in the semi biographical film ''Shuto Kousoku Trial'' 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 was also featured in the Super GT magazine show in Japan. His life in driving is parallel to that of the ''Initial D'' main character, Takumi, as both of them started exploring their local touge while doing regular deliveries for their family businesses. He makes a number of cameos in the series: in the First Stage, he briefly converses with Takumi's father, Bunta; in the Third Stage, a motorcycle rider wearing a similar racing suit overtakes Takumi as he was en route to an invitation battle with Ryosuke Takahashi; and in the Final Stage, he meets Takumi in person while the latter spectates a circuit race in the end credits. The color of Tomo's racing suit from the Initial D 4th Stage is jade green and has a similar pattern to Tsuchiya's suit. He also made an appearance opposite

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes '' Top Gear'' and '' The Grand Tour'' alongside R ...

in a Motorworld in Japan special showing drifting competition in the mid 1990s in Japan. After 1995, he sometimes appeared as a

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

guest commentator in Japanese

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

. In 2006, he made a cameo as a fisherman in the movie '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' in which he served as a stunt coordinator and stunt man. In 2014, he announced a joint venture with King of Europe ProSeries in order to create King of Asia ProSeries. He would also act as one of the main judges for several important races in the King of Europe Drift ProSeries, being called in as a guest representative throughout the years.

Career summary

*1977: Debut in Fuji Freshman series. *1981–1984: Ran selected entries in All Japan Touring Car championship. *1984: Fuji Freshman series race (Toyota AE86) – 6 wins *1985: All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota AE86) 1st in Class 3 *1986: Corolla Sprinter Cup – 2 podium places *1987: All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic) – 1 win *1988: Toyota Cup – 1st overall **All Japan Touring Car championship (BMW E30) – 3rd in Class 2 *Macau Guia race (BMW M3) – 4th overall *1989: All Japan F3 championship **All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth) – 1 win *1990: All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth) **Macau Guia race (Ford Sierra Cosworth) **New Zealand Touring Car series (Toyota) *1991: All Japan F3 championship (Ralt-Mugen) – 10th overall **All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R) – 5th overall *1992: All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R) *1993: All Japan Touring Car championship ( Taisan Nissan Skyline GT-R) – 1 win ** Japan Endurance series (Honda Prelude) – 2nd Tsukuba 12 Hours *1994: All Japan GT championship (Porsche 911T) – 1 win **All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic) **Suzuka 1000 km (Porsche 911T) – 1st in class, 2nd overall **Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) – 18th overall *1995: All Japan GT championship (Porsche911TRSR) **All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic) **Suzuka 1000 km (Honda NSX) – 5th overall **Tokachi 12 Hours (Honda NSX) – 1st overall **Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) – 1st in class *1996: All Japan GT championship (Honda NSX) -13th overall **Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka **Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX) – 3rd in class *1997: All Japan GT championship (Porsche 911/Dodge Viper) **Fuji InterTec race (Toyota Chaser) **Suzuka 1000 km (Lark McLaren F1 GTR) – 9th overall **Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka **Le Mans 24 Hours (Lark McLaren F1 GTR) – qualified 10th, retired from race *1998: All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota Chaser) – 7th overall **All Japan GT championship (Toyota Supra) – 8th overall **Le Mans 24 Hours (Toyota GT-One) –9th overall **NASCAR at the California Speedway. *1999: Le Mans 24 Hours (Toyota GT-One) – 2nd overall *2000: Le Mans 24 Hours (Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S) – 8th overall *2000–2003: Joined Team ARTA, racing an NSX once again in the All Japan GT championship. *2004–2005: Studied in Australia to complete inter-2 course.

Racing record

Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship (–1993) results

Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship (1994–) results

Complete JGTC/Super GT results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)