· Drivers

Tanner Foust is the first driver to win the Formula Drift Championship two years in a row (2007-2008). Both years Tanner drove the Rockstar/AEM sponsored 2005 twin turbo Nissan 350Z. Tanner is making a name for himself in drifting and rally motorsports and in television by hosting Redline TV, Super Cars Exposed, and Top Gear USA. Foust is a classy racer always pushing his car to its limits, so in my estimation, there couldn’t be a better Formula Drift Champion – congratulations!

“Honestly I can hardly believe that I am part of Formula Drift history and it is an amazing honor,” - Tanner Foust.

President, founder, driver, and designer of the Japanese tuning company Powerhouse Amuse, Hideki Tanabe, died September 20, 2008. Tanabe is well known and respected in the Japanese tuning community for his tuning ability and high quality products - exhaust systems, body kits, and engine management electronics. Tanabe was a man seeking JDM greatness, for example, he built a carbon fiber Skyline weighing 2400 pounds with a power rating of 600 horsepower. Perfection was Tanabe’s goal and Powerhouse Amuse will continue his legacy.

http://webamuse.co.jp

Japanese drifting star Manabu “Max” Orido is scheduled to compete in Round 4 of Formula Drift at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Nevada. Manabu Orido was one of the original D1 Grand Prix judges and shares a similar racing background with fellow D1 Grand Prix judge Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya.

Orido and Tsuchiya both started their racing careers in illegal underground street races and then progressed to professional racing motorsports. Much of Orido’s fame comes from being a D1GP judge and the fact that he is one of the only drivers to use a Toyota Supra in drift competitions. Manabu Orido has been successful in the JGTC series and his appearance in popular import racing videos like Best Motoring, Video Option, and Hot Version keep him in the JDM spotlight.

NBC purchased the rights to produce an American version of the popular BBC television show Top Gear, but many enthusiasts fear corporate sponsorship will limit the brutally honest opinions that made the UK version a hit. 2007 Formula Drift Champion Tanner Foust, comedian/Man Show host Adam Carolla, and handyman Eric Stromer have been announced as the hosts for the new Top Gear USA. NBC’s Jay Leno was offered the job as host but passed fearing the show would not live up to the original.

“I think it would be impossible to recreate or live up to the standards of the British show,” says Leno. “In my mind I can just see Jeremy (Clarkson) lambasting Americans for what they did to his show.”

The Top Gear series premiered in the UK in 1977 and is consistently BBC TWO’s most-watched program in the UK. The UK version of Top Gear is broadcast globally in over 100 countries and has been airing on BBC America since 2007. The program has won many awards including an International Emmy. Top Gear celebrity guests have included Hugh Grant, Simon Cowell, Ewan McGregor, Helen Mirren, and Gordon Ramsay. In addition to the television show, the self-titled magazine “Top Gear” continues to be both the best-selling car and men’s magazine in the UK.

We know Tanner Foust has driving skills and experience hosting Redline TV and SuperCars Exposed and occasionally Adam Carolla can be funny, so let’s hope Top Gear USA can live up to its legacy.

Jay Leno’s article: “I hope we don’t ruin Top Gear”

After two years away from D1 Grand Prix, the 2001 D1GP Champion Taniguti Akira Makoto (Nobuteru Taniguchi) returns drifting the HKS sponsored Toyota Altezzas.  Nobuteru Taniguchi is a Japanese fan favorite well known for his accomplishments in SuperGT and other forms of professional motosports. Nobuteru Taniguchi maintains his popularity within the drifting community with appearances in popular drift videos like Video Option, Hot Version, Drift Tengoku, Best Motoring, and Rev Speed Videos and by performing drifting exhibitions at popular drifting events worldwide.

First and foremost, I want to express my sympathy for both families involved in this tragedy. Second, I want young racers to understand that 1. Always wear your seatbelt, and 2. Never drink and drift. The purpose of this post is to help make young street racers aware of their mortality and hopefully inspire them to race more safely.

Yes, Nick Hogan is at fault for recklessly piloting his Supra on a public road and so is Hulk Hogan for supplying his underage son with alcohol. And I can’t help but think, John Graziano would be in better shape than he is now, had he been wearing a seatbelt.

Street racing and drunk driving claim the lives of thousands of would-be racers and innocent victims every year. The last thing a true racer wants to happen is wreck their car or hurt someone else. This tragedy is an example of how one stupid decision, driving drunk, can change your life and those around you forever. Hogan and Graziano had bright futures ahead of them and now one is in jail and the other imprisoned inside his own body.

It’s easy to look around the world and see heartbreak and misfortune at every glance, but many tragedies like this one, can be avoided with a little self-control. Life is about making decisions and living with them. I’d be a hypocrite to say ‘don’t ever race or drift on the street,’ but do so in the safest environment possible – even better, race at the track. Traffic tickets are expensive and lives are priceless, so use your head and represent street racers and drifters in a positive fashion.

Pro drifter and Formula Drift Champion (2004, 2006) Samuel Hubinette was filming on set of the upcoming Fast and Furious 4 movie when he had to get into character – Iranian character! He looks a little like a hobo, but from the driver seat I’m sure Sam will look great. Hubinette reports that three of the other stunt drivers were Rich Rutherford, Paul Dallenback, and 2007 Formula Drift Champ Tanner Foust. Samuel Hubinette has more pics of his Iranian makeover at his official blog.

Drifting in Japan has been commercially popular for over fifteen years and now drifting is rapidly building a fan base in North America, Australia, UK, and Malaysia. In order to better understand drifting culture, you need to look at drifting’s biggest influences in the county were it began – JAPAN.

Daijiro Inada may be the biggest influence in Japanese automotive culture. Daijiro Inada is the founder of Option Magazine and its video spin-off series, creator of the D1 Grand Prix series, and founder of Tokyo Auto Salon, which is the largest automotive event in the world. Daijiro Inada is the heart of Japanese automotive culture, but like any savvy businessman, Mr. Inada understood he couldn’t promote drifting culture alone, so he enlisted the help of Drift King himself - Keiichi Tsuchiya. Together, the two icons would spread drifting to the world.

Keiichi Tsuchiya is a famous Japanese street racer turned professional driver. Keiichi Tsuchiya is credited with developing several drifting techniques widely used by professional drifters today. Unlike most professional drivers that come from wealthy backgrounds, Keiichi Tsuchiya earned his reputation and honed his racing skills from illegal underground street races. Drift King is a D1 Grand Prix Judge and regular fixture in drifting dvds like JDM Option and Best Motoring International.

Click Here to view a map of Japan displaying popular drifting and motorsport destinations.

Rhys Millen suffered an unfortunate accident leaving him with five fractured vertebrae while practicing for a stunt sponsored by Red Bull and ESPN. The stunt was to feature Rhys Millen doing the first ever intentional backflip in a truck! Millen landed the first three attempts safely, but on the forth and final run the truck overshot the landing, placing Rhys in the hospital.

“After successfully landing the 360-degree backflip three times into the cardboard boxes in training, I am disappointed that our last jump ended in an accident. As I lay here in the hospital with three broken vertebrae in my neck and two compressed and broken vertebrae in my back, I am also disappointed that we cannot perform the 360-degree backflip at the Red Bull Experiment on New Year’s Eve, but I’m happy that I will be able to walk again,” says Rhys Millen.

Thankfully Rhys is expected to make a full recovery, but whether or not the 2005 Formula Drift Champion will be healthy enough to compete in the early rounds of the 2008 Formula D season is still unknown.

Taniguti Akira Makoto (Nobuteru Taniguchi), or “NOB” (No One Better) as he is known by drifting and motorsport fans, is a professional Japanese driver who has many wins to his credit including the 2001 D1 Grand Prix Championship in Japan.

Born May 18, 1971 in Hiroshima, Japan, Nobuteru Taniguchi got into motorsports racing minibikes. When NOB was 18 he won an All Japan Mini Bike Race at Suzuka Circuit sponsored by Honda and later got into racing cars and drifting after buying a Toyota AE86.

Before Nobuteru Taniguchi became a professional driver he worked at Takahiro Ueno’s car body kit company, Car Make T&E. In 1999, Taniguchi drove the Bride sponsored Honda Civic in the Suzuka Clubman Race and ended up winning first place. After Taniguchi’s win, HKS added him to their team as a test driver and sponsored race car driver in 2001 when he then piloted the HKS D1 Grand Prix S15 Silvia to a championship win.

Throughout Taniguchi’s D1 Grand Prix drifting career, he drove four HKS sponsored cars: RS1 Hyper Nissan S15 Silvia (Crashed by Keiichi Tsuchiya), two RS2 Hyper S15 Silvias (One from HKS Power Japan, the other from HKS Europe), and the Genki RP Altezza, which was designed with only stock HKS parts so an import tuning enthusiast or drifter could copy the HKS car’s exact setup.

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