"Keiichi Tsuchiya"

"Drift King"

Keiichi Tsuchiya, this amazing man first graced the planet on his birth: January 30, 1956 in Nagano, Japan. I don't need to explain who this man is. He is known as the Dorikin aka "Drift King" for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events, and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. He's also known for touge driving. which is basically drifting on mountain roads ( you know it's that thing you kids do right before you grab a crepe and some boba at 'Life Plaza' ). The car that he uses to drive has become one of the most popular sports cars these days, the Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno.

Keiichi Tsuchiya started his career through amateur racing in the Fuji Freshman series, in 1977. He was one of a few if not, one of the only racers in his time to come from a non-racing/non-wealthy family background. Through underground street racing Tsuchiya honed his driving skills and became somewhat of a legend in his youth. Many other events came and went after the Fuji Freshman as well as many different cars. Some of the cars that have had the pleasure of being driven by the Drift King are the Lark McLaren F1 GTR, the Taisan Nissan Skyline GT-R, the BMW M30, and a car the some of the members of thetunersource.com would appreciate; the Ford Sierra Cosworth.

Also, might I add that he's made many appearances in drift-based movies/shows/dvds. Examples of Keiichi Tsuchiya's cameos include the ever-popular 'Drift Bible' dvd, episode 23 of Initial D and as the fisherman in Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift. He's supposedly been retired from racing since 2003, and currently owns a new suspension company called DG5 which he started in 2006 after Kei Office was bought by another company.


~Ronski