The Drift King... know the story

Keiichi Tsuchiya began racing at a young age as most great drivers do. As he was learning to drive he began experimenting with the side brake or E-brake lever. Sliding the back end of the car out and counter steering was fun and taught him the basics of car control. Unlike many great racecar drivers he did not go to a racing school or have a rich family that was into the racing scene that could nurture his racing talents. He just had the basic passion to drive. Driving through local mountain roads he began to build a sense of where a car needs to be at each turn to achieve maximum speed through a corner. This not being a safe and smart way of learning to race he never the less learned much from running (Touge) mountain pass roads. From time to time he found himself off a cliff with his KPGC10 Skyline or against the side of a wall. Having snow in the wintertime further trained him to drive well on loose surface conditions enhancing again his car control skill. The more he drove on these roads and conditions of various road surfaces he began to get comfortable with sliding the car through a corner. He started to drift not because it was a quicker way around a corner but it was the most exciting way.




Enter the Drift King. Drifting a car through a corner is not the fastest way around most turns any racecar driver will tell you strait out. This is where Keiichi Tsuchiya was crowned the Dori Kin or Drift King. In Option drift contests; style and technique are evaluated for exhibition values. Lately contests have been judged on racing lines and setup for multiple corner drifting, this is more difficult. Back in 1977 Keiichi began his racing career driving many different cars in amateur racing series events. Racing these underpowered cars was difficult but again a great learning experience. Later Keiichi was picked up to drive the ADVAN sponsored AE86/1984 Corolla GT-S. During many races on a downhill corner he would drift the car and carry a better corner speed than his competitors. This technique is what made him the Drift King not as most believe that he was first in the drift scene. As he proved his style of driving his reputation grew. He is a racecar driver now and still takes to the mountains for illegal racing this also made his reputation grow. After videos featuring him and his persistent mountain running/Drifting his driver’s license was suspended! For a professional racecar driver this was embarrassing. Unknowingly this worked to his advantage, his fan base and fame began to expand. You could say that he is a rebel of some sort or because he was just a person who went from nowhere to success out of determination with no racing background. He still has a bond for an old car that he grew up racing, drifting, and winning with, the Toyota AE86. You can see this by his video series dedicated to this car that is called AE86 Club. Toyota itself also felt that he is the person to represent the car most and presented him a restored AE86 through TRD.










Driving History: Keiichi Tsuchiya


Born January 1956
1977 Debut in Fuji Freshman series.
1977- 1984 Ran selected entries in All Japan Touring Car championship.
1984 Fuji Freshman series race (Toyota AE86)= 6 wins
1985 All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota AE86) 1st in Class 3
1986 Corolla Sprinter Cup-2 podium places
1987 All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic)-1 win
1988 Toyota Cup-1st overall
All Japan Touring Car championship (BMW M30)-3rd in Class 2
Macau Guia race (BMW M3)-4th overall
1989 All Japan F3 championship
All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth)-1 win
1990 All Japan Touring Car championship (Ford Sierra Cosworth)
Macau Guia race (Ford Sierra Cosworth)
New Zealand Touring Car series (Toyota)
1991 All Japan F3 championship (Ralt-Mugen)-10th overall
All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R)-5th overall
1992 All Japan Touring Car championship (Nissan Skyline GT-R)
1993 All Japan Touring Car championship (Taisan Nissan Skyline GT-R)-1 win
Japan Endurance series (Honda Prelude)-2nd Tsukuba 12 Hours
1994 All Japan GT championship (Porsche 911T)-1 win
All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic)
Suzuka 1000kms (Porsche 911T)-1st in class, 2nd overall
Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX)-18th overall
1995 All Japan GT championship (Porsche911TRSR)
All Japan Touring Car championship (Honda Civic)
Suzuka 1000kms (Honda NSX)-5th overall
12 Hours (Honda NSX)-1st overall
Le Mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX)-1st in class
1996 All Japan GT championship (Honda NSX)-13th overall
Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka
Le mans 24 Hours (Honda NSX)-3rd in class
1997 Japan GT championship (Porsche 911/Dodge Viper)
Fuji InterTec race (Toyota Chaser)
Suzuka 1000kms (Lark McLaren F1 GTR)-9th overall
Entered NASCAR Thunder Special race at Suzuka
Le Mans 24 Hours (Lark McLaren F1 GTR)-qualified 10th, retired from race
1998 All Japan Touring Car championship (Toyota Chaser)-7th overall
All Japan GT championship (Toyota Supra)-8th overall
Le Mans 24 Hours (Toyota GT-One)-9th overall
NASCAR at the California Speedway.
1999 Japan Touring Car Championship(Advan Altezza Touring car).
2000- 2001 he joined team ARTA racing a NSX once again in the All Japan GT championship.

What Is Drifting?

Basically, drifting is getting your car sideways down a road. It doesn't sound very hard does it? Sounds a lot like power sliding huh? Well it isn't.

It's much more complex. Instead of a drifter causing a drift and then countering to straighten out, he will instead over-counter so his car goes into another drift. That is the reason many drifters do it in the mountains, because there are many sharp turns strung together. So in essence a good drifter has the ability to take five or six opposing turns without having traction at any point in time.

Do you love to Drift?

Impak Maksima Trailer

This is 'Impak Maksima' trailer. Hope you all enjoy with it.

Impak Maksima Synopsis

Ayie, a college student with a knack for racing, meets and falls for a gorgeous new girl in college. His time spent with her is less time spent on illegal races but however, his best friend Amran decides to accept a racing challenge from Ray, who sealed the deal with a RM5000 bet. Amran loses the race and in the commotion, the police manage to detain Ayie. With Ayie's help, the police plan to take down Ray and his illegal activities with one last heart-pounding race.

Director Ahmad Idham's latest flick "Impak Maksima" is certainly an ambitious effort. Cashing in on the success of international cult hit "The Fast And The Furious" and its sequel "2 Fast, 2 Furious", this high-speed orchestra wraps around a similar premise - fast cars, hot women and the underground illegal racing circuit.

Although the appeal is there, Idham chooses to tackle a teenage culture that's still in its infancy here in Malaysia and makes it to look larger than it really is. His earlier directorial effort "Rempit" is by far more solid and convincing than "Impak Maksima", based on logic alone. "Rempit" focuses on the lives of Mat Rempits, illegal motorbike racers that's a local phenomenon with a gargantuan following. "Impak Maksima", however, is like a mirage of every teenager's wet dream.

Young and upcoming actor Awal Ashaari plays Ayie in his first ever leading role. His expression is one-dimensional and the harder he tries, the more he comes across as an actor trying to act. Awal's character Ayie is highly overshadowed by that of Eizlan Yusoff, who plays Ayie's brother. Matured and definitely more experienced than Awal, Eizlan possesses genuine showmanship as the protective and level-headed elder brother Johari.

Another notable performance was by Zul Huzaimy, whose string of 'bad guy' roles ("Rempit" included) has earned him a reputation as the favourite film antagonist in the local industry. His depiction of Ray, the 'villain' of the movie, was a little recycled from his role in "Rempit" but Ahmad Idham couldn't have chosen a better actor to play him. However, other characters in the movie seem absolutely unnecessary, especially Maria (Dynaz Mokhtar), an undercover police officer who only manages to look pretty (reminiscent of Eva Mendes' character in "2 Fast, 2 Furious"), and Eva (played by newcomer Yatt), Ayie's crush who casts no "impak" on the movie whatsoever with next to no dialogue.

The most disheartening aspect of the film is the obvious CG used in some scenes - most notably in car crashes, explosions and an unrealistic CG truck for a tricky go-kart chase scene. I'd prefer it if very little or no CG were utilised for this film because the cartoon effects were less than desirable. Ahmad Idham could have spent the film budget more wisely just by implementing smaller explosions, cars that don't somersault when it crashes and using just an excellent stuntman for the go-kart chase.

In the end, the idea is bright with a little bit of local flavour thrown in. Ah Longs (loan sharks), Mat Rempits and local mamak eateries decorate the film to satisfy local appetite. With a good soundtrack to back it up, "Impak Maksima" is certainly a mile away from your over-baked, atypical love tales.

Want to know more about "Impak Maksima", catch it in nearest cinema on 23 Aug 2007 (whole Malaysia).

Starring: Opie Zami, Dynas Mokhtar, Eizlan Yusof, Awal Ashaari, Zul Huzaimy.

New from Ahmad Idham

In fact, it may even appeal to any motorsport junkie. We had Remp-it (loosely associated with the term “Mat Rempit”, coined specially for illegal motorcycle racers) some time back. That movie, Remp-it, was about a group of people who was involved in illegal motorcycle races - which itself is a real-life nuisance in Malaysia. Later this year, we will have a new movie based on drifting on four wheels.

Hope this movie can be a box office...

Wait and see..