Nobuteru Taniguchi (born May 18, 1971, Hiroshima) is a Japanese racing driver and former drifting driver who currently competes in Super GT. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" (abbr. No One Better) or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silvia which he is best known for.
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 carious one make series racing in Toyota Celica and Vitz and partipicating 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]
were it all begun..
were it all begun..
Taniguchi competed in the national Super Taikyu series and the D1 Grand Prix which he would take the title that year and would compete in the JGTC first with RE Amemiya RX-7 which he still compete in all these of these series. Also he took part in the 24 Hour of Nürburgring and the Macau Grand Prix Guia Touring car race. He has since became one of the fan favourite drivers in Japan.
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.
Taniguchi drift machine HKS altezza and HKS s15
In all, Taniguchi has gone through four cars with HKS for D1, 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), and finally the Genki RP Altezza, which was designed without experimental/prototype HKS parts, for the purpose that a private drifter could copy the car. His recent drift car is a Toyota Aristo (Lexus GS300 in US). Taniguchi had the most wins in D1 Grand Prix until his tally was overtaken by Youichi Imamura in 2005.
As of 2007, he currently competes in the Super GT series in a Porsche 911 GT3 for Team Taisan.
NOB with his other precious rides...180sx,s14,and s15
1 comment:
you good and always getting better and better keep up the good work
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