Slicing Through Turns: The Kings of Drift Driving (Part 2–Iconic Drivers)

Originators and Icons of Drifting

We started covering the best drift drivers in part 2 of the series and it lead to a crazy wild goose chase that deserves its own post.

While drifting is currently an entire class of racing, movies have made most of us aware that it has it’s origins in illegal street racing. But did you know, before it was on the streets, it was actually on the racetrack?

Kunimitsu Takahashi

Born January 29, 1940, in Tokyo, Japan. His racing career lasted from 1958 to 1999. Nicknamed “Kuni-san“, he is known as the “father of drifting.” Lets explain why.

“Kuni-Sun” started out as a motorcycle racer in the 1950’s. Got a spot on the Honda Factory Team. His top award as a motorcyclist was becoming the first Japanese rider to win the German National Grand Prix in 1961.

In 1962 he attempted the Isle of Mann TT a time trial which builds its course out of closed streets. This course was well known to kill riders—150 and counting. Perhaps because it has 219 turns. An accident there cause him to rethink Motorcycles.

Nissan offered him a spot on its factory team so he made the switch to four wheels. There he set time track records in the Nissan R380, R381, and R382. However, his real reputation with fans came in a Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R. In the 1970s tire technology was far behind motor technology. No one could keep from spinning out. Kuni-San came from two-wheel racing and wasn’t afraid of sliding around a corner. So instead of jamming the breaks to take off speed before a turn and then trying to gain it back through acceleration, he just pointed his front wheels at the direction they needed to be when he exited the turn and waited for the tires to get the grip to bring him around. The result was a four-wheel slide.

Kuni-San would become widely popular for his driving which looked like he was completely out of control. His final victory as a driver in 1999 came at the age of 59 and he passed the 16th of March 2022 (aged 82).

Keiichi Tsuchiya

Born, 1956, Tomi Japan. Close to winding roads called “Touge.” Usui Pass was a popular “street race” spot—7.5 miles of winding bridges, tunnels, and drop-offs. The drivers who raced there were called “Hashiriya.”

While Keiichi is known as the creator of Drift Racing he credits a race driver called Kunimitsu Takahashi with giving him the idea. Because Keiichiya once rode his motorcyle over 100 miles to see Kuni-San race and fell in love the idea of powersliding around corners.

Keiichi could tell there was a technique behind the seemingly wind driving. He saved up to buy a car so he could try sliding through the curves on the mountain roads near his town. In honor of Kumi-Sun’s popularity, Nisson released their KPGC110 car—this is one of the rarest cars Japan has ever made (only 191 ever made). Tsuchiya claims this was his first car. It’s more likely it was a Nissan Sunny B110. Keiichi spent four years practicing his technique on farmland on the weekends before taking his skills to the mountain. All that time he refused to compete, not wanting his competitive nature to push him into something foolish before he’d learned the skills.

When he started racing the mountain, Keiichi defeated all comers and was deemed “King of the Mountain.” With his reputation firmly established, in 1977 he made the leap to racetracks—where he started at the bottom—Fuji Freshman Racing Series.

Fuji Freshman Racing Series

In this league, you pay for everything yourself and everyone uses fun, inexpensive cars, typically Toyota Starlights and Nissan Sunnys, cars with less than 100 horsepower. Keiichi was able to get sponsors, but when he asked for enough money to buy a faster car they told him he needed to win the entire championship first. He did.

The 1985 Toyota Corolla GTS became his new ride and while it’s still not an exciting supercar, or even close to one, it became his home. This was the 1980’s and Toyota saw an opportunity to capitalize on the blurred line between road and track drifting offered. It helped them promote an affordable sports car when they weren’t known at the time for the power of their street cars.

Corolla AE86

Fuel economy was king in the 80’s and only luxury cars sold well while countering that trend. Economy sports cars were almost gone until the Miata brought it back. The only exception was the Corolla AE86. Toyota created two, nearly identical models, an affordable one that competed with the Honda Civic and other low HP front wheel drive economy cars, and another rear wheel drive 1.6L engine with racing suspension. Keiichi loved tight mountain roads where top end mattered less than technique. He was the perfect spokesperson for this strategy from Toyota. He traded turbochargers for responsive handling. This led to 6 championships in the Fuji Freshman Series against much more powerful cars.

Outlaw at Heart

With that much domination in his field and the heart of a street racer, Seiichi began to show off, which annoyed competitors and triggered an investigation for cheating. As his antics got bigger, officials threatened to take his license, but crowds loved him. They called him “Doriken,” or Drift King.

This inspired Option Magazine to send a film crew to follow him around for a few weeks and record Eiichi drifting on the mountain roads. This is crude film by today’s standards, and not well edited together but it captured the primal elegance of drifting. It also attracted the attention of Japanese authorities. Option Magazine released a film called “Pluspy” which gained a cult following.

Founding a Sport: Almost on Purpose

The more the government cracked down on Pluspy, the more it developed an underground following, which is the exact recipe for creating a sub-culture. Keiichi and Option Magazine started hosting racing meets (Ikaten) for drifting which allowed amateurs to try their skills on a real racecourse. While these meets were very tongue in cheek and not serious, the sport grew from there and leagues were finally born in Y2K, the D1GP.

Keiichi did continue to drive racing cars throughout the 80’s until he achieved a dream and became co-pilot of the man who had inspired him—Kumi-Sun. This was a winning dynamic duo and after they won a championship, Honda courted them for their new NSX GT2 car built special for the Le Mans. This NSX -R had been rebuilt to 400 horsepower. They won that Lamons, and began trying all kinds of racing in all sorts of cars, although none were seriously successful.

Back at Le Mans they took 2^nd place. He continued to race inside Japan, ultimately retiring in 2003.

What made Keiichi so iconic and such a fan favorite was his use of drifting in races not designed for drifting and the way he showed off and pushed the limits. He also served as a stunt coordinator and stuntman on The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, where he also made a cameo appearance.