This Is The Story Of Keiichi Tsuchiya a.k.a Drift King
Many of us think that drifting is as old as racing cars themselves, however, this is not the case as the sport is relatively new. The art of dented fenders, smoking tires, and dancing with the throttle at the music of exhaust notes. It is a form of driving but with a lot of drama and people love drama in any form and shape.
The sport of drifting is surrounded by a man, who started at humble beginnings and made his way as a rebellious teenager who honed his driving skills on Touge (Japanese mountain roads) and reached the top podium as a world-class racing driver. The man who was known for his flamboyant driving style and for changing the demographics of motorsport racing by turning his wheels in another direction. Here’s the story of Dorikin (Drift King) also known by his real name Keiichi Tsuchiya.
A little backstory is needed
The legacy of Keiichi Tsuchiya started in 1956 in the small village of Tomi, Japan where Tsuchiya sama was born. The small village is situated in the Ueda area in Naganio and is known as one of the sunniest cities in Japan. With that, the village also has hot springs, a beautiful landscape, and most importantly its proximity to winding roads called Togue.
In the late 1960s, you can hear Datsun 510s and Honda S600s attacking the curvy roads of Usui Pass at late night when traffic was low. The 7.5-mile narrow mountain road consists of several hairpins, bridges, and sheer cliff edges. It is when you would find the Hashiriya (street racers in Japanese) taking to the streets to prove themselves as the fastest.
One day he got so intrigued that he took his gas-powered bicycle and went 120 miles to the Fuji speedway just to see racing in person, and witnessed Kunimitsu Takahashi in the Hakosuka GTR overtaking his rivals while sliding his car through the corners. It was then that the love of mechanical 4-wheel things got into the heart of Tsuchiya and the rest became history.
Did Keiichi Tsuchiya actually start drifting?
In today’s world, we know Keiichi Tsuchiya brought sliding cars into the mainstream we all know as drifting. However, it was not him who actually discovered this sport. This style of driving was primarily invented by Kunimitsu Takahashi also known as Kuni-San was the one who originated drifting.
He was a legend from Japan, whose diverse motorsport portfolio is as impressive as his wins. He started as a motorcycle racer in the late 1950’s he made his way up and got himself in the Honda Speed Club Factory Team and became the first Japanese to win the West German Motorcycle Grand Prix in 1961. The very next year he participated in one of the most dangerous races in the world called the “Isle Of Man TT ‘’ and met with an accident that put an end to his motorcycle racing career.
At that time Nissan had learned about the dominating motorcycle racing career for Kuni-San and decided to offer him a seat at their factory team in 1965. As the driver for Nissan, he set many lap records on their prototype race cars such as the R380, R381, and R382. However, in the early 1970’s he found himself in the cockpit of a Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R.
As per their reputation as a racer, the man started winning for Nissan, however, there was a big problem: the tire technology was not up to the standards of performance and dynamics offered by these cars. While everyone struggled on the race track Kunimitsu Takahashi who was honed by the years of two-wheeler madness came with a different approach.
Instead of going in the corners slowly the man accelerated and aimed at the corner exit, initiated a four-wheel slide, and waited for his tires to gain traction and accelerate out, which is now known as ‘Drifting.’ While the world watched Kuni-San’s outrageous driving style in awestruck, a young man made his mission to drive like this someday and started saving up money for his first car.
What was Keiichi’s first car?
There are several speculations on the internet on what Tsuchiya’s first car was, some say that he had humble beginnings with the Nissan Sunny B110, however, Keiichi Tsuchiya once said that his first car was the Nissan’s KPGC110 GTR. Also known as “Kenmari” is one of the rarest cars to ever come out of Japan and only 197 of these cars were ever made.
We actually cannot quote what his actual first car was, but whatever car Tsuchiya San first got in he did not dive straight into racing. At first, he refused to compete with others as he knew how tight and dangerous the Usui pass was, he went to practice his driving techniques at closer farmlands for four freaking years.
These were the very crucial 4 years that he dedicated to honing his heel-toe and counter-steering techniques till he had perfected the connection with his car. The other Hashiraya loved his aggressive driving style and the way he overtook his opponents in the corner while sliding his cars sideways. Drivers from other areas often come to race Tsuchiya but the result is always the same, this led the man to be titled “The King Of The Mountain.”
The skills soon traveled from the mountains to the world of professional Japanese Racing and in 1977 he made his racing debut at the Fuji Freshman Racing series which was like an amateur version of Touring Car Racing. In these series, he would pilot Toyota Scarlet and Nissan Sunny beating other racers all day long. The staking wins allowed him to be supported by a lot of sponsors, and although he was winning he needed a new faster car. Thus he went to the sponsors asking for money, to which they responded sure but he has to win the series. And that’s what he did for the “Hachi Roku.”
Tsuchiya’s Hachi Roku, a masterpiece of underdog engineering
At first, Tsuchiya didn’t know that this was the car he would never step out of, the Toyota AE86 was not a legend at first. For this generation, Toyota went all in to provide a sports car for the masses, a car that was capable of being a teacher for many Japanese racers. They divided their Corolla lineup into two parts, the one remained a puny front-wheel-drive hatchback, however, the other variation was embraced by racing suspension, rear-wheel-drive, and a free-revving 1.6-liter engine.
The Hachiroku was love at first sight for Tsuchiya, the balanced chassis of the AE86 provided superior control to the driver and, since Keiichi was not a high-horsepower guy it was a match made in heaven for him. Tsuchiya San’s 86 was known by many names on the racetrack such as “Carrot Flashpoint.” Whatever the case you always see the Toyota fishing at the pole position. The car and driver dominated the Fuji Race series for 6 championships, and what do you do when victory becomes boring, you have a little fun in between.
The winning was so often that Nissan even accused him of cheating, which was not the case of course. The extensive drifting made the officials so mad that they threatened to cancel his license. However, he received a lot of love from the visitors as they went nuts when Tsuchiya went sideways, the extravagant driving style gave him the name “Doriken” or “Drift King” in English.
Drifting had hit the main stage
The reputation and controversy inspired Option Magazine to reach Keiichi San with the idea that we can show the world the wild driving style of “Drift King.” They took a bunch of cameras and filmed Keiichi Tsuchiya driving across Usui Pass and the film was released to the world with a title called “Plusby.” It was something that the world had never seen before and with all the traction it gained it also got the attention of authorities because it was outright illegal to drift on public roads.
The controversy made the content more taboo and even more exciting to watch, gaining popularity when Plusby let the drifting hit the main stage. In response, Option magazine and Keiichi Tsuchiya started the first drifting competition known as “Ikaten”, they had nothing in prize and the drivers who won the event were given sea creature names. Later he went on to become the judge of every major drifting event held in Japan including the D1 GP. Later Keiichi became a pop culture icon and also helped as a supervisor and allegedly inspiration for the Initial D.
When will it all end?
While he was famous around the world as “Doriken” his heart was still at competitive racing. The man never left the driving seats and continued racing around the world. One of the turning points of his life occurred when he was invited to be the co-pilot of Kunimitsu Takahashi in his Group 1 Nissan Skyline GT-R, and lead the team to a third place podium with his idol on the driving seats.
This caught the attention of Honda, and they called them to drive the NSX GT2 at the LeMans and the duo bagged the victory two full laps ahead of the Callaway Corvettes. The winning reputation made other teams want Tsuchiya to be in their driving seats and then the biggest achievement of his life happened. In 1999 a team of three Toyota GT1 entered LeMans, where along with Tsuchiya Toshio Suzuki and Ukyo Katayama were the other two drivers who piloted the cars to the second position, due to an unfortunate tire puncture at the final laps of the races. However it was still impressive for the man to be in second place at one of the most difficult and prestigious races. After that he drove in several other events and surrendered his green jersey in 2003.
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