Keiichi Tsuchiya (土屋 圭市 Tsuchiya Keiichi, born January 30, 1957, Tomi, Nagano, Japan) is a professional racing driver. He is also known as the "Drift King" otherwise as Dorikin (ドリキン) for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events, and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. He is also known fortouge (mountain pass) driving.
The car that he uses to drive has become one of the most popular sports cars these days, theToyota Ae86 Sprinter Trueno, the car also know as "Hachi-Roku" in Japan (hachi-roku meaning "eight six"); his car is also called "The Little Hachi that could". A video known as Pluspy documents Tsuchiya's touge driving with his AE86.
BiographyTsuchiya started his racing career through amateur racing in the Fuji Freshman series, in1977. Unlike many drivers who came a traditional route via wealthy families or previous motorsport background, he honed his skills from street racing becoming an underground legend. In current days in the street racing scene or when talking to someone who use to be involved with it his name is common as a nickname. (Ex:Kyle Rudolph a CMRA Racer is often called the "Keiichi Tsuchiya of the bike world." For how he rode before coming to the track.)
Drifting career
When Tsuchiya was a freshman in circuit racing, he got his race license suspended due to the illegal racing that he was still doing. In the movie series Shuto Kousoku Trial, he advises street racers to leave the illegal racing scene behind if they are to become involved with professional racing.
Tsuchiya's home course is the Usui Touge and he holds the Usui course record.
After his retirement
After his retirement, he remained in racing and is now an Official D1 grand Prox Judge and was Team Director for both GT500 (for one year) and GT300 Class ofARTA JGTC Team until the team disbanded their GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. He owned the aftermarket suspension company Kei office until he sold the business in 2005. His trademark color is Jade Green, which appears on his overall, helmet and is the adopted color of the company he used to own, Kei Office. Also was the color of the D1 Grand Prix Kei Office S15 Silvia of driver and employee Yasuyuki Kazama who also wears a suit similar in pattern. On Initial D 3rd Stage the color can also be seen on a sportsbike rider overall and helmet who overtook Takumi as he was en-route to an initiation battle with Ryosuke Takahashi. The color of Tomo's racing suit from Initial D 4th Stage is also jade green, and in similar pattern to his suit.
He also hosts the video magazine "Best Motoring", which features road-tests of new Japanese cars, including a special section called "Hot Version", which focuses on performance modified cars. He is a guest presenter in Video Option, a monthly video magazine, similar to Hot Version, which also regularly covers the D1GP and sister video magazineDrift Tengoku which deals purely with drifting.
He has been an editorial supervisor on the televisedanime Wangan Midnight and Intial D. He appeared in episode 23 of Initial D as a special guest. He also appeared in the semi biographical film Shuto Kousoku Trial 2,3,4,5 and Max and also presents in the Super GT magazine show in Japan. His life in driving has parallelism to the Intial D main character, Takumi, as both of them started out to explore their local Touge while doing regular deliveries for their family business. On Initial D 1st stage, episode 23 he was hinted at whilst Takumi's father was having a conversation on the phone with an anonymous person referred to as "Mr. Tsuchiya". "Mr Tsuchiya" addressed Takumi's father as "Bunta", adding that the memories of his drifting still "scared the shit" out of him.
Also he made an appearance opposite Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson in a Motorworld in Japan special. Showing drifting competition in the late 1980s in Japan.
After 1995, sometimes he appears as a Formula One guest commentator in Japanese Fuji TV. Though his reputation was bad at first, it is acknowledged in his comment with a peculiar cut today.
He owns a new suspension company, after Kei-Office , dubbed DG5.
In 2006, he made a Cameo as a fisherman in the movie The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift
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