27 Facts About Nobuteru Taniguchi

Nobuteru Taniguchi is a Japanese racing driver and drifting driver who currently competes in the Super GT racing series.

Nobuteru Taniguchi is a three-time Super GT GT300 class champion, eight-time Super Taikyu class champion, and D1 Grand Prix champion.

Nobuteru 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.

Nobuteru Taniguchi moved to Tokyo in 1998 with the aim of becoming a motor journalist.

Nobuteru Taniguchi started out in street racing with his AE86 when he was with his team 'After-Fire' and competed in the various drift competitions like Video Option's Ikaten, Battle Magazine's BM-Cup, and CarBoy's DoriCon GP.

Nobuteru Taniguchi finished the 2002 season in 2nd place as the runner-up with one round win and two podiums, and the 2003 season in 4th place with one win and two podiums.

Mid way through the 2004 season of D1, Nobuteru Taniguchi switched to an Altezza which had not been properly set up and had shown some technical issues that many believe cost him the championship that year, as he finished in 2nd place as the runner-up with one win and three podium finishes.

Nobuteru Taniguchi did admit that he wanted to finish the 2004 season with the S15 RS-2 instead, as well as wanting to retire the car with the champion title under its name.

Nobuteru Taniguchi had the most wins in D1 Grand Prix until his tally was overtaken by Youichi Imamura in 2005.

Nobuteru Taniguchi retired from professional drifting competition after a D1GP exhibition event in 2016.

Nobuteru Taniguchi made his first appearance at Formula Drift's second event Road Atlanta, May 11 and 12,2007.

Nobuteru Taniguchi regularly appeared in Formula Drift Japan event as Japanese commentator alongside announcer Tom Saeba and sometimes as judge.

Nobuteru Taniguchi has continued to compete in the series as it was renamed Super GT in 2005.

Again with the BMW Z4 GT3 this time alongside 2009 champion Tatsuya Kataoka, Nobuteru 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 Championship title again with no points difference but only 1 more race victory.

Nobuteru Taniguchi began competing in the Super Taikyu series in 2001, winning a total of eight class championship titles since then.

Nobuteru Taniguchi later went on to win a record six back-to-back class championship titles racing for the Petronas Syntium team from 2008 to 2013, driving the BMW Z4 M Coupe and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

Nobuteru Taniguchi is reunited with Manabu Orido whom he partnered when the two win the championship in 2005.

Nobuteru Taniguchi was 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, and again in 2007, where he drove the all carbon fiber body HKS CT230R Mitsubishi Evolution and set the Tsukuba Time Attack record of 53.589 seconds.

In 2005, Nobuteru Taniguchi drove the HKS USA Mitsubishi Evolution in the Car and Driver Super Tuner Challenge against top US manufacturers and drivers.

In 2006, Nobuteru 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.

Nobuteru Taniguchi has regularly been involved in different endurance racing competitions.

Nobuteru Taniguchi won the Tokachi 24 Hours in 2005 driving the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Nobuteru Taniguchi won the A5 petrol class and second overall in 2010 Dubai 24 Hour with his teammates Fariqe Hairuman, Masataka Yanagida, and Johannes Stuck in the Petronas Syntium Team BMW Z4 M Coupe.

Nobuteru Taniguchi made his World Touring Car Championship debut with Proteam Motorsport at the 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Japan, at the Okayama International Circuit.

Nobuteru Taniguchi appears in many DVD series, such as Video Option, Drift Tengoku, Best Motoring, Rev Speed Video and Hot Version.

Nobuteru Taniguchi had hobby of golfing in his day off.

Nobuteru Taniguchi regularly wrote blog on his activities in Ameba.