 |
| Keiichi Tsuchiya | |
|---|---|
 In 2008, as Executive Advisor of ARTA | |
| Born | January 30, 1956 (age 68) Tōmi, Nagano, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
| Years | 1994–2000 |
| Teams | Team Kunimitsu Honda, Team Lark McLaren, Toyota Team Europe, TV Asahi Team Dragon |
| Best finish | 2nd (1999) |
| Class wins | 2 (1995, 1999) |
Keiichi Tsuchiya (土屋圭市, Tsuchiya Keiichi, born January 30, 1956) is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the Drift King (ドリキン, Dorikin) for his nontraditional use of drifting in non-drifting racing events and his role in popularizing drifting as a motorsport. In professional racing, he is a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner and the 2001 All Japan GT Championship runner-up. He is also known for touge driving.
The car he drives, a Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno, has become one of the most popular sports cars; the car is also known as "Hachi-Roku" in Japan (hachi-roku meaning "eight-six"); his car is also called "The Little Hachi that could." A 2-part video known as 'The Touge' produced by Pluspy (styled as +P) documents Tsuchiya's touge driving with his AE86.
He was a consultant for the popular manga and anime series, Initial D, of which the main character Takumi Fujiwara is a character which describes him. He also served as a stunt coordinator and stuntman on The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, where he also made a cameo appearance.