Nobuteru Taniguchi
Nobuteru Taniguchi (谷口 信輝 Taniguchi Nobuteru, born May 18, 1971, Hiroshima) is a Japanese racing driver and drifting driver who currently competes in Super GT and D1 Grand Prix. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" (first three letters from his name, meaning "No One Better") or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silvia which he is best known for.
Career
Taniguchi began his motorsport career when he was racing minibikes and won a Honda sponsored All Japan Mini Bike race, which took place at its Suzuka Circuit.[1] Taniguchi would progress into four wheels and became interested in drifting when he acquired a Toyota AE86.[1] He also worked at Takahiro Ueno’s car bodykit company, Car Make T&E to supplement his racing career whilst competing in various one make series racing with the Toyota Celica and Vitz and participating in drift events.[1] In 1999, he came into the attention of HKS when he won a Suzuka Clubman Race in a Honda Civic sponsored by Bride. HKS signed him up as a test driver and as a sponsor, as well as sponsoring his S15 Silvia for drift events.[1]
Drifting
Taniguchi won the first season of D1 Grand Prix in 2001 for HKS. Taniguchi and HKS have not limited their racing campaign to Japan. In 2005, Taniguchi drove the HKS USA Mitsubishi Evolution in the Car and Driver Super Tuner Challenge against top US manufacturers and drivers. Taniguchi beat the nearest competitor by three seconds, and set the day’s fastest ¼ mile, 0-60, and road course times. In 2006, Taniguchi drove the HKS Speed Source RX-8 in the Grand Am Cup race at Arizona’s Phoenix International Raceway and set the fasted qualifying time for any Mazda RX-8.
HKS and Formula Drift made an exclusive partnership in 2007 that brought NOB to the United States to perform drifting exhibitions at Formula Drift events. Taniguchi made his first appearance at Formula Drift’s second event Road Atlanta, May 11 and 12, 2007.
He was also a test driver for HKS in 2004 and 2007 where he drove the HKS Time Attack Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7 and set a 54.37 second lap time at Tsukuba Circuit (famous for its complexity and focus on cornering skills), and again in 2007, where he drove the all carbon fiber body HKS CT230R Mitsubishi Evolution and set the current Tsukuba Time Attack record of 53.589 seconds (video). Mid way through the 2004 season of D1, NOB switched to an Altezza which had not been properly setup and had shown some technical issues that many believe cost him the championship that year. During the 2005 season, the switch to Altezza was proving to be a mistake for HKS and NOB which lead them to quit the series at the end of the season. Both of them did not return to the D1 series until 2008 as a spot participant. And they fully returned to the series again in 2012 with a Toyota 86.
Taniguchi has gone through five cars with HKS for D1, between 2001 to 2005, the RS1 Hyper Silvia S15 (Crashed by Keiichi Tsuchiya), and two RS2 Hyper Silvia S15s (One from HKS Power Japan, and the other from HKS Europe), the Genki RP Altezza, which was designed without experimental/prototype HKS parts, for the purpose that a private drifter could copy the car. He also drifts in Toyota Aristo (Lexus GS300 in US) for non-D1 events.
Taniguchi had the most wins in D1 Grand Prix until his tally was overtaken by Youichi Imamura in 2005.
Racing
Taniguchi won the Super Taikyu series in Japan in 2002 and 2005. In 2002 he began competing in JGTC with RE Amemiya in a Mazda RX-7. He has continued to compete in the series as it became Super GT in 2005. Having previously raced for Team Taisan in 2007/08 he has returned to Amemiya in 2009. After RE Amemiya's withdrawal at the end of 2010 season, he moved to Goodsmile Racing using a BMW Z4 GT3 which also ends his drought of GT300 Champion title in 2011 season.
He made his World Touring Car Championship debut with Proteam Motorsport at the 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Japan, at the Okayama International Circuit.
He has won the 2009 Super Taikyu Championship with his team mate Masataka Yanagida and Fariqe Hairuman in Petronas Syntium Team BMW Z4M Coupé. He also won the A5 petrol class and second overall in 2010 Dubai 24Hours with his team mate Fariqe Hairuman, Masataka Yanagida and Johannes Stuck in Petronas Syntium Team BMW Z4M Coupé.[2]
Other Work
Taniguchi appears in many DVD series, such as Video Option, Drift Tengoku, Best Motoring, Rev Speed Video and Hot Version. He now lives in an apartment in Yokohama opposite his friend and former employer Ueno.
Complete Drifting Results
(key)
D1 Grand Prix
Year | Entrant | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Position | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | HKS | Nissan Silvia S15 | EBS 4 |
NIK 1 |
BHH TAN |
EBS 4 |
NIK 1 |
1 | 68 | ||
2002 | HKS | Nissan Silvia S15 | BHH TAN |
EBS 1 |
EBS 10 |
SGO 16 |
TKB 3 |
SEK 3 |
NIK 6 |
2 | 64 |
2003 | HKS | Nissan Silvia S15 | TKB TAN |
BHH 16 |
SGO DNQ |
FUJ 2 |
EBS 6 |
SEK 3 |
TKB 1 |
4 | 64 |
2004 | HKS | Nissan Silvia S15 | IRW 2 |
SGO 2 |
EBS 3 |
APS 1 |
ODB 6 |
2 | 82 | ||
Toyota Altezza SXE-10 | EBS TAN |
TKB TAN | |||||||||
2005 | HKS | Nissan Silvia S15 | IRW 10 |
10 | 36 | ||||||
Toyota Altezza SXE-10 | ODB 2 |
SGO TAN |
APS |
EBS 8 |
FUJ 6 |
TKB | |||||
2008 | HKS | Toyota Altezza SXE-10 | EBS |
FUJ 9 |
SUZ |
OKY |
APS |
EBS |
FUJ |
- | 8 |
2012 | HKS | Toyota Altezza SXE-10 | ODB 10 |
||||||||
Toyota 86 | SUZ 5 |
APS 3 |
EBS |
EBS |
CNT |
ODB |
Racing record
Complete JGTC/Super GT results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | DC | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002 | RE Amemiya | Mazda RX-7 | GT300 | TAI 6 |
FUJ 12 |
SUG Ret |
SEP 1 |
FUJ 12 |
MOT Ret |
MIN Ret |
SUZ |
13th | 29 | |
2003 | RE Amemiya | Mazda RX-7 | GT300 | TAI 21 |
FUJ 10 |
SUG 3 |
FUJ 23 |
FUJ Ret |
MOT 14 |
AUT 20 |
SUZ |
9th | 4 | |
2004 | Racing Project Bandoh | Toyota Celica | GT300 | TAI 4 |
SUG 1 |
SEP Ret |
TOK 7 |
MOT 13 |
AUT 5 |
SUZ 5 |
5th | 48 | ||
2005 | Racing Project Bandoh | Toyota Celica | GT300 | OKA 7 |
FUJ 6 |
SEP 7 |
SUG 7 |
MOT 2 |
FUJ 6 |
AUT 3 |
SUZ 9 |
7th | 54 | |
2006 | Direxiv | Vemac RD320R | GT300 | SUZ 7 |
OKA 1 |
FUJ 18 |
SEP 2 |
SUG 4 |
SUZ 2 |
3rd | 75 | |||
R&D Sport | MOT 6 |
AUT 20 |
FUJ 13 | |||||||||||
2007 | Team Taisan | Porsche 996 GT3-RS | GT300 | SUZ 11 |
OKA 3 |
FUJ 19 |
SEP 13 |
SUG Ret |
SUZ Ret |
MOT 1 |
AUT 8 |
FUJ 1 |
6th | 58 |
2008 | Team Taisan | Porsche 996 GT3-RS | GT300 | SUZ 3 |
OKA 2 |
FUJ Ret |
SEP 15 |
SUG 7 |
SUZ 5 |
MOT 4 |
AUT 15 |
FUJ 1 |
3rd | 71 |
2009 | RE Amemiya | Mazda RX-7 | GT300 | OKA 3 |
SUZ 2 |
FUJ 3 |
SEP 3 |
SUG 11 |
SUZ 7 |
FUJ DNS |
AUT 2 |
MOT 2 |
2nd | 82 |
2010 | RE Amemiya | Mazda RX-7 | GT300 | SUZ 1 |
OKA 18 |
FUJ 11 |
SEP 1 |
SUG 7 |
SUZ 6 |
FUJ C |
MOT 8 |
3rd | 52 | |
2011 | GSR & Studie with Team Ukyo | BMW Z4 GT3 | GT300 | OKA 4 |
FUJ 5 |
SEP 1 |
SUG 6 |
SUZ 5 |
FUJ 1 |
AUT 9 |
MOT 1 |
1st | 87 | |
2012 | GSR & Studie with Team Ukyo | BMW Z4 GT3 | GT300 | OKA 3 |
FUJ 1 |
SEP 12 |
SUG 7 |
SUZ Ret |
FUJ 8 |
AUT 5 |
MOT 4 |
5th | 52 | |
2013 | GSR & Studie with Team Ukyo | BMW Z4 GT3 | GT300 | OKA 2 |
FUJ 9 |
SEP 6 |
SUG 15 |
SUZ DSQ |
FUJ 1 |
FUJ |
AUT 1 |
MOT 4 |
3rd | 70 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Nobuteru Taniguchi » Driver Profile » Drift Japan
- ↑ http://www.petmos.com.my/en/4-Wheels/News/2010/DUBAI24HRS--PST-quartet-take-the-Dubai-24Hours-by-.aspx
External links
- Official Site
- Drift Japan » Nobuteru "NOB" Taniguchi - Driver Profile, History and Overview
- Video featuring Taniguchi's HKS CT230R Mitsubishi Evolution 53.589 second lap record
- D1 Supporter profile
Preceded by None |
D1 Grand Prix Champion 2001 |
Succeeded by Katsuhiro Ueo |
|