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The AE86 series of the Toyota Corolla Levin and Toyota Sprinter Trueno are small, front-engine/rear-drive models within the fifth generation Corolla range — marketed by Toyota from 1983 to 1987 in coupe and hatchback configurations.
Keiichi Tsuchiya is a professional race car driver. He is known as the Drift King for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. He is also known for touge driving.
Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner. The technique causes the rear slip angle to exceed the front slip angle to such an extent that often the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. The sport of drifting is not to be confused with the four wheel drift, a classic cornering technique established in Grand Prix and sports car racing. Drifting is traditionally done by clutch kicking, then intentionally oversteering and countersteering.
Formula D or Formula DRIFT Black Magic Pro Championship Presented by BlackVue Dash Cameras is the premier United States drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to the now defunct Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the United States. The new entity would solely own, operate and launch the first official drifting series in North America. 2018 was Formula Drift's fifteenth year of competition.
Kenshiro "Ken" Gushi is one of Japan's top competitors in the sport of drifting. Born in Okinawa, Japan, but raised in Los Angeles, he was taught by his father Tsukasa Gushi at the age of 13 with a Toyota AE86. Ken has become the youngest competitor in both the D1 Grand Prix of Japan and the Formula Drift Championships of the U.S. when he was 16, despite not passing his driving test at the time.
Nobuteru Taniguchi is a Japanese racing driver and drifting driver who currently competes in Super GT and D1 Grand Prix. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silvia which he is best known for.
Philip John Morrison is an English drift driver and businessman from Birmingham, England. He is one of the most successful drivers in UK drifting, having won the 2006 D1 Great Britain series and 2010 British Drift Championship and is co-owner of automotive parts company Driftworks.
Tengku Djan Ley bin Tengku Mahaleel is the head of Proton Motorsports and is also a Malaysian professional drift driver who has taken part in the D1 Grand Prix racing series and others. He has won the 12-hour Merdeka Millennium Endurance race twice, in 2005 and 2006. Tengku Djan Ley is one of the Kelantan royal lineage.
Ryuji Miki is a racing and drifting driver from Tottori Prefecture, Japan. Miki was the 2004 D1 Grand Prix champion driving the Top Secret Silvia S15. Miki also competed in the Net'z Cup, a one make series for the Toyota Altezza between 2005 and its final season in 2006 and is nicknamed Doki-Doki kun due to his drifting style.
Katsuhiro Ueo is a Japanese professional drifting driver, whose currently competing in D1 Grand Prix with a Nissan Silvia S15, well known for formerly using the Toyota AE86 in the series. He is also known as, Therefore, it is.
Kazuhiro Tanaka is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for Team Orange and Yuke’s.
Falken Tire is a brand of passenger car, light truck, and medium truck tires owned by the Japanese company Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI). It was launched in its native country of Japan in 1983, and was introduced to the North American market two years later and in Europe in 1988. Falken has now become a stand-alone brand that focuses on UHP products while utilizing professional motorsports to further develop and improve products for worldwide distribution.
Kouchi Yamashita is a drifting driver who in 2008 defected from D1 Grand Prix into the US Formula D series. He drives the Mazda RX-8 which is tuned with a 20B Renesis engine from the Korean market producing a power of 429HP. He has achieved one victory from the D1GP series. Previously he was known for driving the Toyota AE86.
Hideo Hiraoka is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for Team Orange and Yuke’s.
Tetsuya Hibino is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for SunRise and Aion.
Darren 'D-Mac' McNamara is a professional drift driver from Cork, Ireland.
Justin Thomas Pawlak, also known as JTP, is an American professional drifter who currently competes in the Formula D series. He earned his Formula D Professional license in 2006 and later earned his D1 license. In 2010, he was picked up Team Falken Tire and has been with them ever since. For the 2012 FD Season, he drives the 2013 Falken Tire Ford Mustang RTR. Justin continues his support of local, grassroots drifting by judging the Just Drift Top Drift series alongside fellow Formula D drivers Taka Aono and Hiro Sumida.
Ryan Tuerck, is an American professional drifter from Derry, New Hampshire who currently competes in the U.S. Formula Drift series in his Toyota GT86 for Gumout.
Robbie Nishida is a professional drifter who currently competes in several different professional series' around the world, including Formula D USA series and Formula D World series. He has been competing in the Formula D USA series since 2005. He has been competing ever since both in Japan and the USA.
Fredric Aasbø is a professional drifter and stunt driver originally from Ski, Norway. He now competes in the Formula Drift Championship. In 2015, he became the Formula Drift World Champion. He also holds claim to the most wins of any driver in series history. He finished runner-up in the 2016, 2017 and 2018 championship chases.
References
- 1 2 Car Features: Taka Aono's AE86 speedhunters.com
