18 Facts About Kazunori Yamauchi

Kazunori Yamauchi, nicknamed "Kaz", is a Japanese game designer and racing driver.

Kazunori Yamauchi is the CEO of Polyphony Digital and producer of the Gran Turismo video game series.

Kazunori Yamauchi became the president of Polyphony Digital after designing his first game Motor Toon Grand Prix, a cartoon-inspired racing title similar to Mario Kart.

Since then, Yamauchi has fulfilled his dream of creating realistic driving simulators with his massively successful Gran Turismo series.

Kazunori Yamauchi has expressed interest in broadening out to other game genres; in 1999 Polyphony Digital released Omega Boost, a shoot 'em up title set in space, which has since proven to be Yamauchi's only foray outside of racing game development.

Kazunori Yamauchi was given a Nissan GT-R for his contribution.

Kazunori Yamauchi clocked a fastest lap of 10 minutes 9 seconds, which was the best in the team, and their team recorded a class win.

Kazunori Yamauchi returned to the Nurburgring track as one of the four drivers of Team World Car Award participating in the 2010 24 Hours of Nurburgring and finished in 4th place in the SP8 class.

Kazunori Yamauchi's co-drivers included 1996 JTCC champion Naoki Hattori and Spoon founder Tatsuru Ichisima.

Kazunori Yamauchi took part in the 2011 24 Hours of Nurburgring as one of the four drivers of the No 71 Schulze Motorsport Nissan GT-R N24.

Kazunori Yamauchi finished 1st in the SP8T class, and 30th overall, though the SP8T class that year only consisted of two cars, both of which were Nissan GT-Rs.

Kazunori Yamauchi joined the SP9 class for the 2013 24 Hours of Nurburgring, driving Schulze Motorsport's Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3.

The 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hour race saw Kazunori Yamauchi make the switch from Nissan to BMW, where he piloted the No 101 Walkenhorst Motorsport M6 GT3, and finished 22nd overall.

In 2013, Kazunori Yamauchi had a street named in honor of him in the city of Ronda.

Kazunori Yamauchi has driven the racing game genre to new levels of realism and his creations are as much art as technology.

In 2015, Kazunori Yamauchi was awarded the "Grand Prize of Creativity" at the 30th International Automobile Festival in Paris, for his contributions to the automotive industry.

In 2017, Kazunori Yamauchi was awarded an honorary degree in vehicle engineering from University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

Kazunori Yamauchi made a cameo in the 2023 film Gran Turismo, playing a sushi chef, with actor Takehiro Hira portraying a fictional version of the former.