How a Criminal Became the Drift King

looking around YouTube today you'd think that the practice of drifting is as old as racing cars itself but the sport of delicate balance and complete Anarchy of smoke shredded tires and dented fenders hasn't always been around it's relatively new in [Music] fact drifting is Dancing with horsepower battling with fenders and singing with exhaust notes and tire smoke it's driving but a little bit over dramatic you know sort of like this channel despite the art of oversteer invading everything from Pixar to PlayStation its roots are humble and centered around one man a man who Rose from

rebellious teenager street racing in the quiet hours of Japan's find in to to a worldclass driver standing at top podiums around the world someone who changed the world by turning his wheels in the other direction took risks others weren't willing to take and left a legacy that will last for generations to come this is the story of Ki suchia The Drift King [Music] the story of Ki suia begins in 1956 in the small village of Tomi there suas Sama was born rumors have it that he came out of the womb sideways the town of Tomy

was long known for its Hot Springs its beautiful full Landscapes but most importantly its proximity to winding roads known as to in the late 1960s you might find Dotson 510s and Honda s 600s attacking the nearby curves of yui pass late at night a 7.5m narrow Mountain Road over Bridges hair pins and sheer Cliff edges late at night populated by drivers clamoring to be the fastest on its many winding passes their name was hashira motoring Enthusiast that emerged in the' 60s and70s of Japan taking their love of driving to the streets Hills and raceways of

Japan's diverse black tops young K would sit awake at night listening to the Roar of engines echoing through the hills as they battled at night so inspired was Ki that one day he kickstarted his gas powered bicycle and rode it 120 M to Fuji Speedway just to see racing up close and in person on that day suama would witness a driver pushing themselves and their car to the Limit and be inspired to spend his life time doing the same there at the helm of a hakka GTR kunimitsu Takashi was overtaking his opponents by sliding his

car through the corners [Music] [Applause] [Music] today Ki suchia is well known for bringing the sport of sliding cars to the masses but kunimitsu Takashi otherwise known as kunan was truly the father of drifting a man whose Motorsports career is as impressive in its wins as it is in its diversity kisan started out as a motorcycle racer in the late 1950s Rising through the ranks to earn a spot on the Honda speed Club Factory team where he rode his 250cc Honda over the Finish Line to become the first Japanese Rider to win the West German

motorcycle Grand Prix in 1961 a year later he would attempt the absurdly dangerous Isle of Man TT a blisteringly fast motorcycle time trial run on public streets that has claimed the lives of over 150 Riders there somewhere amongst the 219 turns around the town of Douglas kisan loses control of his Honda 250 and the ensuing Act accident nearly takes his life while recovering from his heavy injuries kuramitsu is forced to reconsider whether racing on two wheels is even worth it anymore luckily at the time Nissan had learned of his dominating performance on motorcycles and offered

him a spot on their Factory team in 1965 and with that the leather jacket of Ryder kunimitsu was hung on the wall for the rest of time as a driver for Nissan he set many lap records in their prototype race cars such as the r380 the r381 and the r382 but it would be his outings in the hxka GTR that would not only earn him trophies but the love of an entire nation of Motoring fans in the early '70s kisan found himself in the cockpit of the Nissan Skyline 2000 GTR with the spirit of competition

burning in his heart he came to win but his tires were absolute garbage and he wasn't alone everyone's rubber struggled to keep grip you see Tire technology in 1970 was way behind the power and dynamics of the racing cars they were fitted to so you couldn't really rely on them to maintain grip as you attack a turn or stay in control as you accelerate out of an apex what this meant was that most drivers would go very slow in and timidly accelerate out of a corner to maintain traction kisan whose bravery had been forged by

years of two whe death traps had a different approach instead of meekly Feathering the throttle and abiding by the limits of his tires he would just press the accelerator firmly aim at the corner exit initiate a four-wheel slide and just wait for his tires to give him the traction he needed to accelerate out the result was essentially drifting a sports car sliding through a turn tires billowing smoke and unexpecting Japanese motoring fans screaming with a claim kisan's motoring exploits would go on for decades but that might just be a story for another time because there

in the 1970s among the onlookers watching with eyes wide open and Jaws a gape was a young Ki suchia who would forever be inspired by Kunis son's outlandish driving style and who would quickly start saving for a car of his own so that he too could slide his car through corners not on a racetrack but on the dangerous mountain passes of Japan [Music] [Applause] [Music] following the absolutely massive success of the hxka GTR Nissan released its kpgc10 GT aka the Canen Mar it is one of the greatest and rarest cars Japan has ever created and

somehow according to suchia it was his first car look I know everyone everywhere quotes suos Sama is starting from some humble beginnings but driving one of the 1097 Canary GTRs as his first car triggers the sus in me a little bit other accounts say that his first car was the Nissan Sunny b110 either way whatever carsia did start in he didn't dive head first into racing in fact at first he refused to compete with others after seeing how treacherous and tight the yui pass was he opted instead to drive out to remote farmland and practice

his driving technique on the weekends for four whole years four years of constant practice breaking heel Towing and counter steering until he had a connection with the car that was absolute after spending what is honestly an absurd amount of time practicing suchia finally felt it was time to take on the yui hashira Ki made short work of the mountain Racers they never really stood a chance when you practice for 4 years at something forging your skills with fervent dedication little can stand in your way Ki was quickly deemed King of the mountain and Rivals would

travel from all over the region to challenge him only to see his tail lights disappearing around the corner ahead of them never to see them again he was adored by other Hashi Ria for his flamboyant racing style passing his opponents in curves while sliding sideways word of suia sama's abilities soon traveled down the mountains to the world of profession Japanese racing and in 1977 Ki would begin his life's work as a professional racing driver but the soul of illegal Mountain racing would never leave him as you already know this is the man responsible for bringing

a drift Sensation from the other side of the Pacific to our shorts here in the United States he's a D1 Grand Prix judge the drift King himself Ki suchia suchia knew the road ahead of him was long and difficult just like his successes as an outlaw Mountain racer his career as a Pro driver would take a lot of time and dedicated practice his humble racing debut began in the Fuji freshman racing series which is sort of a college sports version of touring car racing you get to act like the professionals but you're going to pay

for everything yourself there he would pilot Toyota starlets and Nissan sunnies economical fun little cars with less than 100 horsepower K's dedication to mastering driving skill and not relying on horsepower meant that he quick racked up wins and garnered the support of sponsors and even though he was winning he felt like he was being held back by these low horsepower rookie racing classes so he went to his sponsors and asked for money to buy a new faster car they said sure win the entire championship and we'll give you a new car so he did and

in 1984 he stepped out of the world of underpowered unassuming racing cars and into the driver's seat of an allnew underpowered unassuming racing car but this would be a seat he would never leave for the rest of his life hey what's that a Toyota the 1985 Toyota Corolla GTS a Toyota Dependable a Corolla affordable and yet a different kind of Corolla a sleeper a car from the street that's powered by a new twin cam fuel injected what's he got in there 16 valve engine what's he got in there known as the tc16 hey yeah what

you got in there [Music] the 1980s were well for lack of a better term weird and the world of 80s Japanese cars was no different car companies of the time were abandoning complex rear wheeel drive platforms for simpler more fuele efficient front-wheel drive cars Mitsubishi Mirage Honda Civics Toyota tels all a dismal sign of the slow and depressing death of the sports car but they're among them was one last freedom fighter a sports car for the masses well before the Miata came along the AE86 Corolla for this generation Toyota went insane instead of just one

new Corolla they split the lineup in half one was just another front-wheel drive economy car but parked next to it at a dealership would be a near Mirror Image but this time with a rear wheeel drive platform sporer suspension and a free revving funloving 1. 6 L engine the Hai Roku a Plucky economy car with the heart of a champion for our heroi it was love at first sight his racing prowess was forged on tight Mountain Roads suia Sama never cared for high horsepower turbos or gimmicks to win he believed you needed a vehicle you

could trust one that did what it was told and communicated back to the driver with solid inputs and delicate handling such's competition 886 went by many names carrot flasho Kara whatever you called it you saw it cross the finish line first though underpowered and unassuming Ki and his carrot a86 dominated the Fuji freshman series for six championships leaving more powerful and advanced cars in its dust so what do you do when you're dominating the competition and no one can beat you you have a little fun with it [Music] [Applause] like his hero kisan Ki kept

himself entertained on course by sliding through corners passing his opponents while graciously counter steering it was probably really fun to watch but must have driven the other competitors nuts so Chia sama's performance in the advant 86 was so dominant the Nismo team had him investigated for cheating I mean how else can you explain that this puny little hatchback was sliding around corner corners and still passing its competitors he of course wasn't cheating he was just kind of a jerk but the fans loved it suchia was winning so easily that he found it boring so his

Antics got bigger and Bolder exaggerating his drifting pushing the track limits driving fans wild and pissing off the officials eventually the officials had had enough of it and threatened to suspend his license his on trck exploits led him to earn the title of dorin or drift King the reputation and controversy around the drift King inspired option magazine to reach out to suchia they thought what if we were able to show everyone the wild driving style of the drift King so they set about following suia Sama for weeks riding along with him and filming him attacking

yui pass in his personal AE86 what they released is a time capsule roughly 20 minutes of oddly edited but superbly shot drifting Master Class raw sound pure driving and few cuts it was called pluspy and it may seem almost timid now but when it was created nothing like it had ever been released the reason nothing like it had ever been released was well in Japanese culture filming yourself committing crimes is not as popular as it is here in America as plusy started making waves in the automotive scene authorities took notice and immediately demanded the VHS

tapes be removed from stor shelves now of course censorship rarely Works guess not the controversy just made plus be even more desirable its content more taboo and thus exciting to watch and with that drifting had hit the main stage in 1986 Carboy magazine held what is believed to be the first drifting competition and hot off the viral hit of plus be Ki and daero of option magazine started their own drifting events in 1989 they were known as eaten Ki and digro never took anything seriously the eaten were meetups of poor car enthusiasts let loose on

racing tracks of Japan throughout the 9s they had no real judging or points and accomplishments earned drivers the title of various sea creatures with ranks like jellyfish and Squid the series got sillier as time went on eventually even inspiring Ki to adopt a cute Octopus as his mascot for his Parts Company K office Ki would go on to become the judge of nearly every important drifting competition in Japan including d1gp when it launched in the year 2000 suia Sama would host best motoring vids appear all over in popular culture he created the drift Bible and

was the supervisor and allegedly inspiration for the anime Initial D Ki himself had essentially kickstarted the drifting revolution in Japan and subsequently the world but if you asked him he never meant to he just drifted because it was faster and because it was more fun so while he rose to fame as the counter steering dorin his heart always beat for the spirit of real competition door to-door racing and it would be a heartbeat heard around the [Music] world when I was racing everybody knew that I would win so to stop people being bored and fed

up with the same old thing I started drifting the car through the corners much more than the other drivers to keep people interested and it improveed the popularity of the sport even as Ki became a television popularity a judge for a new form of Automotive competition suchia never left the driver's seat he continued to compete and win throughout the80s until it culminated with what must be a Cornerstone moment for sui ama's life he was invited to be kunam mitsu takashi's co-pilot in his group a Skyline GTR yes the man who had inspired Ki so many

years before to over steer his way to the top was now going to be sharing his cockpit suia would commit himself fully to taking that team to the podium eventually earning the duo a third place podium in group a the successes of the kudam mitsu racing team caught the attention of Honda who were Fielding their new NSX GT2 in Lama the GT2 was a monster it was an NSX R that had been completely unhanded 400 horsepower wide-bodied in carbon fiber and aluminum and revised and revamped from head to toe in that Year's Lon team kuramitsu

would start from the pit hit Lane but 24 hours later two laps ahead of the Callaway Corvettes suia and kuramitsu would take home a class win after that there were wins in Porsche 911s failures in Dodge Vipers hell suchia even drove a few NASCAR events his notoriety garnered the attention of team owners they wanted suchia son in their cards and it would all culminate in what suchia himself calls his greatest achievement in 1999 a team of three Toyota GT 1s would enter Lama alongside SU was toshio Suzuki and ukio katama their Pace from the outset

was conservative this was an endurance race after all and the strategy worked as laps went on their faster competitors dropped out of the race one even decided to fly out of the race then near the end of the 24 hours the Toyota GT1 was battling team BMW for the top spot unfortunately in those Final hours the GT1 suffered a tire puncture and would only take home second place but second place in the world's most difficult ult and prestigious race is not a bad high water mark in the following years suchia would continue to race Supras

and anexas in the all Japan GT championship and then after decades spent sliding through Corner after Corner suos Sama would hang up his jade green racing suit for good in 2003 a legacy of smiles over steer and checkered Flags behind him today Ki such's life might be a bit slower paced than the days of the Mon's victories and he could tend Tire shredding but his heart beats just the same from the moment he looked over that fence at Fuji Speedway to see kisan driving with Flare to standing at top of podium in a country thousands

of miles away suia Sama has never lost his Spirit hell parked in his garage is his own personal a86 a masterpiece of Underdog engineering and a shining reminder of what Ki himself means to the world a quiet humble smiling Champion never quite so serious in character but always a fervent and dedicated competitor if you were lucky enough to meet Ki in person you'd forget that he had led such a story life one of championships and being an icon for an entire Motorsports movement sua's story is that of a foundation of an entire sport an inspiration

of a generation and the competitive Spirit of an entire nation if you asked him he would tell you that he's just another Japanese racing driver but to those that have felt his influence throughout time myself including he is truly so much more than that he is the drift King