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. Taniguchi would progress into four wheels and became interested in drifting when he acquired a Toyota AE86. 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. 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.

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 led 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 four cars with HKS for D1, between 2001 to 2005, the RS1 Hyper Silvia S15 (Crashed by Keiichi Tsuchiya, eventually rebuilt for 2002 and later revised as a backup car with a similar build to the RS2 in 2003), and RS2 Hyper Silvia S15 (RS2 from HKS Power Japan, later moved to 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. Again with the BMW Z4 GT3, Taniguchi captured 3rd place in the 2014 season finale at Twin Ring Motegi, secured 78 points in total for his season, narrowly winning the GT300 Champion title again with no points difference but only 1 more race victory.

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 24 Hour with his team mate Fariqe Hairuman, Masataka Yanagida and Johannes Stuck in Petronas Syntium Team BMW Z4M Coupé.

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	SGO 10	TKB 16	EBS 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
2014	GSR & Team Ukyo	BMW Z4 GT3	GT300	OKA 1	FUJ 1	AUT 16	SUG 15	FUJ 4	SUZ 5	BUR 3	MOT 3		1st	78
2015	GSR & Team Ukyo	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	GT300	OKA 5	FUJ 5	CHA 13	FUJ 18	SUZ 8	SUG 16	AUT 7	MOT 2		11th	35

* Season still in progress.

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