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 Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

. In professional racing, he is a two-time

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

class winner and the

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

All Japan GT Championship All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) is a sports car racing, grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Originally titled as the , the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It was the top level of sports car racing in Japan. ...

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 (styled as +P) documents Tsuchiya's touge driving with his AE86. He was a

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

for the popular

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series, ''

Initial D is a Japanese street racing manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine ''Weekly Young Magazine'' from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 volumes. The ...

'', in which he makes several cameos. 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 Street racing is an illegal form of motor racing that occurs on a public road. Racing in the streets is considered an ancient hazard, as horse racing occurred on streets for centuries, and street racing in automobiles is likely as old as the a ...

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,

Japanese Touring Car Championship The Japanese Touring Car Championship (abbr: 1985–1993: JTC, 1994–1998: JTCC, officially known as All Japan Touring Car Championship, ) was a former touring car racing series held in Japan. The series was held under various regulations during ...

(JTCC), the latter while driving a Cosmo Oil Sierra Cosworth and

Nissan Skyline GT-R The is a Japanese sports car based on the Nissan Skyline range. The first cars named "Skyline GT-R" were produced between 1969 and 1972 under the model code KPGC10, and were successful in Japanese touring car racing events. This model was fol ...

( Team Taisan) in the

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

championships and later a

Honda Civic The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/Honda City, City and Honda Accord in Honda's global passenger car line-up. The first-generation Civic was introduced in July 1972 ...

in the

Supertouring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing touring car category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

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 The 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 63rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 17 and 18 June 1995 in one of the wettest races in the event's history with about 17 hours of steady rain. The race was won by the #59 McLaren F1 GTR driven by ...

in a

Honda NSX The Honda NSX, marketed in North America as the Acura NSX, is a two-seater, Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, rear mid-engined, rear-wheel drive sports car manufactured by Honda. The origins of the NSX trace back to 1984, with the HP-X ...

. In the same race in 1999, this time in a

Toyota GT-One The Toyota GT-One (model code TS020) is a Auto racing, racing car initially developed for Group GT1 rules, but later adapted into an IMSA GT Championship, LMGTP car. It raced in the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1998 and 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. H ...

, during the last hour while co-driver

Ukyo Katayama is a Japanese former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Katayama participated in 97 Grands Prix, debuting at the 1992 South African Grand Prix, making him the sport's most experienced Japanese driv ...

was building up pace to the leading BMW V12 LMR he was forced into the grass by a backmarker privateer's BMW LMR, 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. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

-sanctioned exhibition races at

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

(Suzuka Thunder 100) and at Twin Ring Motegi 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 Pluspy. 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 retirement

After his retirement, he 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. After quitting D1 in January 2011, he co-founded amateur drifting series Drift Muscle, where he also worked as judge. 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 Kei Office and DG-5 S15 Silvia of driver and employee

Yasuyuki Kazama is a drifting driver from Japan, formerly competing in D1 Grand Prix, well known for using the Nissan Silvia S15. He is also known as Waku Waku and Spin Benz Dokan. Biography Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched G ...

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, before becoming a web video series. Alongside ''Best Motoring'', there were ''Hot Version'' and ''Video Option.'' History With the first edition debuting in 1987 and the last ...

" 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'' alongside fellow racing drivers Manabu Orido and Nobuteru Taniguchi, a monthly video magazine, similar to Hot Version except regularly covers the D1GP and its sister video magazine '' Drift Tengoku'' which deals purely with drifting. He has been an editorial supervisor on the televised

'' 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. ...

.'' 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's

Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...

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 (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

guest commentator in Japanese

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

. 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 stuntman. In 2014, he announced a joint venture with the King of Europe Drift ProSeries in order to create the King of Asia ProSeries. He would also act as one of the main judges for several important races in the King of Europe 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 results

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