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The , abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled ''Professional Drift'', is a production car drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Daijiro Inada, founder of '' Option'' magazine and
Tokyo Auto Salon The is an annual auto show held in January at the Makuhari Messe, Chiba City, Japan for Performance and custom aftermarket parts and technology displays. Hosted by thNippon Auto Parts Aftermarket Committee (NAPAC) The Tokyo Auto Salon is one o ...
, and drifting legend,
Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the 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 L ...
hosted a professional level drifting contest in 1999 and 2000 to feed on the ever increasing skills of drifting drivers who were dominating drifting contests in various parts of Japan. In October 2000, they reformed the contest as a five-round series. In the following year for the following round, the introduction of the two car tsuiou battle, run in a
single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...
format, a common tradition for tōge races which became popular with car enthusiasts. Since then, the series has spread from the United States to United Kingdom and Malaysia to New Zealand with an ever increasing fanbase all over the world. The series has become a benchmark for all drifting series as its tsuisou format became widely adopted in drifting events throughout the world and is the most highly regarded of all series. The series helped to turn not just its personnel but also many of its drivers into celebrities with appearances in TV shows and car magazines all over the world along with scale models and
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
appearances for their cars. It was credited for the increase several-fold in tuning businesses specialising in drift set-ups.


History

The art of drifting can be traced to the early days of motorsport when pre-war
Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...
and
dirt track racing Dirt track racing is a form of motorsport held on clay or dirt surfaced oval race tracks often used for thoroughbred horse racing. Dirt track racing started in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 1930s ...
drivers such as
Tazio Nuvolari Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari (; 16 November 1892 – 11 August 1953) was an Italian racing driver. He first raced motorcycles and then concentrated on sports cars and single-seaters. A resident of Mantua, he was known as 'Il Mantovano Volante' ( ...
used an at-the-limit form of driving called the four-wheel drift. The bias ply racing
tire A tire (American English) or tyre (British English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineering), t ...
s of the 1960s-1980s lent themselves to driving styles with a high
slip angle In vehicle dynamics, slip angle or sideslip angle is the angle between the direction in which a wheel is pointing and the direction in which it is actually traveling (i.e., the angle between the forward velocity vector v_x and the vector su ...
. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did the street racers. As street '' tōge'' racing became increasingly common, one of the first drifting contests was hosted by the Japanese ''
Carboy A carboy, also known as a demijohn or a lady jeanne, is a rigid container with a typical capacity of . Carboys are primarily used for transporting liquids, often water or chemicals. They are also used for in-home fermentation of beverages, ...
'' magazine in 1986 and then in 1989, the year after the first introduction of the Video Option series Daijiro Inada ''(稲田大二郎)'' decided on introducing a rival drifting event which was judged by
Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the 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 L ...
known as the ''Ikaten''. Through the years, the standards of drifting drivers has risen rapidly and drivers began to dominate the series. As a result, Inada decided on a new series to accommodate the more experienced and skilled drivers. In 2000, a new series called All Japan Professional Drift Championship (全日本プロドリフト選手権, ''Zen Nihon Puro Dorifuto Sensyuken'') consisting of
Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the 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 L ...
''(土屋圭市)'' and
Manabu Orido is a Japanese racing driver who currently competes in the Super GT series for Team apr Racing, driving a Toyota GR86 GT300 and in the Super Taikyu, driving Aston Martin Vantage GT4. He's a two-time JGTC/Super GT GT300 class champions. Racing ca ...
''(織戸 学)'' as judges, and Manabu Suzuki ''(鈴木 学)'' as commentator. Other personnel consisted of Kitahara, as the tech inspector, and Takayasu Ozaku ''(more commonly known as Zaku the perverted cameraman)'' as the series' long serving cameraman. Racing driver Tarzan Yamada made appearances in earlier rounds and Inada himself would usually make guest appearances in the opening ceremony and judging stand. The first ever event was at
Ebisu Circuit is a motorsport racing complex located in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Overview The Ebisu Circuit complex has seven individual tracks and two skid pad type circuits. The circuits are Nishi (West), Kita (North), Higashi (East), Mi ...
in Fukushima, Japan, in October 2000 with an entry of forty and a crowd of three thousand. Drivers were judged individually and were treated as the first round of the season, shortly renamed as D1 Grand Prix. From round two onward, the series took a different turn. Unlike drift events which judged the cars individually each round then eliminating the rest, the series introduced the one-to-one round battle called the tsuiso (''twin run'') round which has been the tradition for Tōge races and has since been adopted for drifting events all over the world. Aftermarket parts manufacturers BLITZ, HKS and A'PEXi soon began to get involved by sponsoring drivers entering the competition. In , the number of cars competing in the tsuiou rounds was reduced from ten to eight, and was reduced to 6 by round two, as the second tansou rounds increased to twelve. That was increased to sixteen by round four which stands to this day. The series remained domestic until 2003 when an exhibition round was hosted at
Toyota Speedway at Irwindale The Irwindale Speedway & Event Center (a.k.a. ''Irwindale Speedway'', ''Irwindale Dragstrip'', or "The House of Drift") is a motorsports facility located in Irwindale, California, United States. It opened on March 27, 1999 under the official name ...
, California, USA and produced by American marketing company, Slipstream Global. That same year, ''
Grassroots Motorsports ''Grassroots Motorsports'' (GRM) is an American print and digital periodical devoted to hardcore sports cars, driving skill improvement, technical advice, and amateur motorsports such as road racing, autocross and rallying. It was established in ...
'' also presented the D1 Grand Prix with the Editors' Choice Award. Slipstream Global would later create the
Formula Drift Formula Drift (also known as Formula D) is a United States-based motorsport drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that int ...
Championship in 2004. With a sellout crowd of ten thousand, which broke the record for the venue and the series, this venue became the series' opening round in 2004. The US round saw the introduction of the English speaking commentator Toshi Hayama, who also dealt with the organisation of the non-Japanese events. That year also saw the car accessories store
Autobacs () is a retailer of automotive parts and accessories based in Japan, with branches primarily in Asia and stores also located in France. Etymology Autobacs was given a backronym as follows, which reflects the products the company provided prior ...
as the title sponsor, and brought the first non-circuit event at
Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built in this area for defensive purposes in the 1850s. Reclaimed land offshore Shinagawa was dramatically expanded duri ...
in Japan in January , held in a
Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network ...
car park. It also later ran as a championship round. In December 2004, the D1GP was held in the
California Speedway Auto Club Speedway, originally opened as California Speedway, is a , low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, near Fontana. It has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997. It was also previo ...
in
Fontana, California Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It is now a regiona ...
, as a non-championship US vs. Japan event, running alongside the
JGTC Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...
race as part of the non-championship GT Live event.
Manabu Orido is a Japanese racing driver who currently competes in the Super GT series for Team apr Racing, driving a Toyota GR86 GT300 and in the Super Taikyu, driving Aston Martin Vantage GT4. He's a two-time JGTC/Super GT GT300 class champions. Racing ca ...
resigned as a judge at the end of the season to become a driver. The other regular staff for the season were D1 girls Kazumi Kondo ''(近藤和美)'' and Hatsuno Sugaya ''(菅谷はつ乃)'' who previously had careers as
JGTC Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...
race queen Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or ...
s. For the 2006 season, Hatsuno was replaced by Jyuri Tamashiro ''(玉城珠里)''. As the series has always been Japanese dominated with few non-Japanese making it to the best 16, in the first round of the season, after narrowly beating Masato Kawabata who spun during their tsuiso round battle,
Rhys Millen Rhys Millen (born 6 September 1972) is a New Zealand-born racing driver. Nephew of IMSA GTS driver Steve Millen, son of Rodney and older brother of Ryan, is one of the America's top competitors in drifting. Prior to that he was a top rall ...
became the first non-Japanese driver to advance to the best 8 round. He lost to
Yasuyuki Kazama is a drifting driver from Japan, formerly competing in D1 Grand Prix, well known for using the Nissan Silvia S15. He is also known as Waku Waku and Spin Benz Dokan. Biography Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched Ge ...
after a sudden death tsuiso battle. That year saw the introduction of the D1 Street Legal category which was unveiled at the
Odaiba today is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. Odaiba was initially built in this area for defensive purposes in the 1850s. Reclaimed land offshore Shinagawa was dramatically expanded duri ...
round, for cars which are built to be driven on the road. The series' only guest commentator was the TV presenter, singer,
Super GT Super GT (stylized as SUPER GT) is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Launched as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC or the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It is ...
driver and amateur drifter Hiromi Kozono ''(ヒロミ; real kanji name 小園 浩巳)'' who guest commentated at the 2005 Odaiba Allstar event. In October 2005, the D1GP ventured to Europe with an exhibition round at
Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and ...
,
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...
, UK. This event provided an upset, as after putting on a good performance in the first run, the Irishman
Darren McNamara Darren 'D-Mac' McNamara (born 10 September 1982) is a professional drift driver from Cork, Ireland. McNamara first competed in the Irish Prodrift series and the British D1 Great Britain series (now EDC), winning the Prodrift title in 2006. He ...
advanced to the best 8 round after overtaking the series regular Hiroshi Fukuda on the first run. Like
Rhys Millen Rhys Millen (born 6 September 1972) is a New Zealand-born racing driver. Nephew of IMSA GTS driver Steve Millen, son of Rodney and older brother of Ryan, is one of the America's top competitors in drifting. Prior to that he was a top rall ...
in the first round, McNamara fell victim to Kazama after losing four to six then tying in the other round. With a crowd attendance of five thousand, in the following year the D1GP ran its own national series in the UK. At the non-championship D1 USA vs Japan Allstar Exhibition at Irwindale Speedway in December 2005, the series had its first non-Japanese winner for both car and driver:
Vaughn Gittin Vaughn Gittin Jr. (born September 20, 1980), commonly known as JR, is an American, self-taught, professional drifter from Maryland who competes in Formula Drift in a Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5-D sponsored by Monster Energy, Nitto Tire, and Ford ...
with his
Ford Mustang GT The Ford Mustang is a series of American automobiles manufactured by Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its sixth generation, it is the fifth-best sellin ...
. At the following season opener in March ,
Samuel Hübinette Samuel Hübinette, a.k.a. The Crazy Swede (born 15 September 1971, in Jokkmokk, Norrbotten County), is a Swedish professional race car driver and Hollywood stunt driver. He started working as a test drive A test drive is the driving of a mot ...
with his Dodge Viper SRT/10 took things further by making it into the best 8 by beating Gittin in a sudden death tsuiso battle, Hubinette made it to the semi-final when he defeated Takahiro Ueno, only to be beaten by
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Born to a wealthy family who owned a large portion of lan ...
in his Subaru Impreza GDB. Kumakubo went on into the finals to be beaten by
Yasuyuki Kazama is a drifting driver from Japan, formerly competing in D1 Grand Prix, well known for using the Nissan Silvia S15. He is also known as Waku Waku and Spin Benz Dokan. Biography Kazama was first introduced to drifting at age 17 when he watched Ge ...
, who won his third successive first round championship event. In 2006, the D1GP ventured into the highly lucrative Asian market by hosting a feeder series in
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...
, as well as in New Zealand, both of which are currently only running a drivers' search event, which gives the drivers who do well in any of the national series a chance to compete at the final non-championship event held in Irwindale in addition to the final round which only the three UK series drivers was invited by Tsuchiya, who was impressed by their skills during the UK exhibition event. McNamara, the only of the three drivers to qualify in the points-scoring final round and to enter with his own car, finished in the last 8 in both events, only to lose to Nomura in both through a sudden death match. As that was the only year to have a franchise in the UK, McNamara would compete in the US series. In , the former D1GP driver, Hisashi Kamimoto retired from driving to join as judge. The D1 Gals of 2006 was replaced by the "''D1 Sisters''" who were audition winners and representative of the agency ''D-Sign'', consisting of Hiromi Goto, Yuria Tachiki, Asami Kikuchi and Ayaka Tashiro. Since the series began, '' Video Option'' has always covered all of the official D1GP events. Its English language sister title ''JDM Option'', which was established in 2004, also covers the events. In 2007, the sports channel, ''
J Sports J Sports is a group of four sports satellite TV channels in Japan produced and broadcast by Jupiter Sports. They are owned by Coverage Football Soccer * FIFA ** National teams *** Men's: **** FIFA U-17 World Cup *** Women's : **** F ...
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
'' began screening highlights of the series with Suzuki and Nomura as presenters, with the D1 Sisters making guest appearances. For the 2009 season, the US arm underwent a new management team to kickstart a new domestic series Tsuchiya, who was also on the executive board, stepped down when the organization went under new management. In December 2010,
Keiichi Tsuchiya is a Japanese professional race car driver. He is known as the 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 L ...
and Daijiro Inada both decided to resign from D1GP due to consistent irresponsible management. The following year saw the first time D1GP will continue without Tsuchiya nor Inada Hisashi Kamimoto who was part of the judge is promoted to chief judge and assisted by
Akira Iida is a Japanese racing driver currently competing in the Super GT series in GT300 class with , one of the teams under Toyota Motorsport's GAZOO racing arm. Iida won the 2002 All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship GT500 class with Esso Toyota Te ...
,
Shinichi Yamaji was a Japanese race car driver. He formerly raced in the Japanese Grand Touring Championship, currently known as Super GT. Yamaji's race debut was in 1986. He competed for YOURS Sports in the RX-7 at the JSS race at Fuji. He went on to take the ...
, Eiji Yamada and Ryusuke Kawasaki, the Tanso Champions is awarded for the driver with the best Solo run driver and Tanso Winner is awarded for the best qualifier for each round. In the same year
Youichi Imamura is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently serving as a judge in Formula Drift Japan after he stopped competing in 2019. He has always enjoyed driving, so drifting was a natural thing for him. His other passion is flowers as his pare ...
winning his 4th and last title making him driver with the most D1GP title. 2014 saw the ban on the
nitrous oxide system A Nitrous Oxide Engine, or Nitrous Oxide System commonly referred to and known as NOS, is an internal combustion engine in which oxygen for burning the fuel comes from the decomposition of nitrous oxide, N2O, rather than air. The system incre ...
which force the car to be fitted with a larger turbo or larger displacement engine. Since 2018 D1GP has streamed all of its round and its feeder series D1 Lights from YouTube for free with Japanese and English language stream on their official channe
D1GP MOVIE CHANNEL
In 2022 D1 Grand Prix started the "Next 10 Years" Project in order to develop an appeal for D1 for the upcoming 10 years by creating a competition that could be enjoyed even more and make an environment which makes it easier for the teams and drivers to compete in the competition and at the same time creating new standards for safety and fairness and competition.


Road to D1

Usually, drivers in Japan have to make it to the top of the championship table in one of four major national drifting series': *Advan Drift Meeting *A'PEX Cup *ORC Drift Championship *BN Sports D1 Drift Championship Outside Japan, drivers have to enter a Driver Search. Once they have qualified, they receive a D1 License, which enables them to enter the qualifying rounds and the newly introduced national series, plus the exhibition events that they are invited to. In a championship event, usually entries are restricted to one hundred cars. Each car gets an allocation of three individual tansou (''solo run'') qualifying runs: only the best one counts. At the end of the day, the top twenty qualifiers join the ten seeded cars who are determined by the top ten on the D1GP championship tables. The seeded drivers are usually a red background on their number to identify them. On race day, after two sets of practice runs are done through, competitors will go through a starting ceremony which they will be introduced to the crowds and then a driver will be rounded up in group of fours and be given a set of three qualifying runs to make it into the best 16 tsuiso (''twin run'') round battles, which involves two cars drifting simultaneously. The Tansou groups would be given, Priority A, B and C. "A" indicates seeded drivers and "C" indicates as qualifiers. The Tansou rounds always starts with the series leader and then goes through to the last driver with the highest number, which usually indicates that he is a qualifier. At the end of the drivers three rounds, only the best run counts and on each run, they are judged with an assistance of a '' DriftBox'', which determines angle, keeping to the correct racing line and speed. That will be given a score up to a maximum of 100.0, should a driver score that point, he will be given a bonus score of 1 point which will be added to his score they accumulates during the tsuiou round. At the end when all drivers are judged, the judges picks the sixteen drivers for the tsuiou round, the highest scoring driver will be paired up against the sixteenth highest scorer, the second highest will be paired against the fifteenth highest and so on. Between this and the following tsuiou round, there is a ''pit walk'' session at the paddock area for spectators, usually off-limits to them, where they can get close to the D1 personnel, drivers and cars. This usually lasts up to an hour which the crowds disembark back to the crowd area ready for the tsuiou round. During a tsuiso round battle, one car follows another through the course, attempting to keep up with or even pass the car in front. It does not matter if the drifting line is wrong: it matters who has the most exciting drift. Normally, the leading car usually produces a maximum angle drift, but still closes off the inside line to prevent passing. The chasing car usually drifts with less angle, but very close to the lead car. However, the chasing car does not even have to keep up. In fact, in some cases, if a car that was left behind on the straight manages produces a beautiful drift, it could win that round. A spin, under-steer, or collision, results in a disqualification and a zero score for the offending party in that battle. At the
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
round, the two finalists will be gathered in front of the judging stand, which they park up together and stand by their car to be formally addressed by the judges, the driver would return to the starting line to continue with their last sets of tsuiou rounds. Until 2004, there was a third place playoff for the losing semi finalists, which has been dropped. Should there be no sudden death rounds being called up, the finalists would return in front of the judging area with the losing drivers, who would return from the starting line; where the winner's name will be called up be the lead judge, which a large trophy and bottle of
champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...
will be presented to them by the D1 Gals. A cheque would usually be presented to the top 3 drivers, the winner's cheque is usually worth ¥1million or $5000 in US events. After the name is announced, in some event, the driver would be given a toss-up by competitors, a common tradition in some sports and usually the spectators will be invited onto the track. As a D1 Licence has a lifespan of twelve months, a driver must qualify into the best 16 spot for an automatic renewal for the next year. Failing to do so, they must re-enter the Driver Search.


Typical D1GP vehicle regulations

Considering the fact that the D1GP is a series geared towards production cars only, there are a number of different race regulations that the vehicle must undergo in order to be eligible to compete. They are: *Only rear wheel drive is permitted. The vehicle must be a standard production, road-going model from a major vehicle manufacturer. It may also be converted from
front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...
, or
all wheel drive An all-wheel drive vehicle (AWD vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand. The most common forms of all-wheel drive are: ;1x1 : All unicycles Reflecting one axle with one w ...
. **Vehicles constructed by a vehicle manufacturer solely for the purpose of racing are prohibited. *The vehicle must retain the original chassis/body—only stock body constructed from a vehicle manufacturer is allowed. ** No tube frame vehicles or tube frame chassis extensions are permissible unless part of the OEM structure ** Space frame chassis are not permitted, additional triangulation and bracing of suspension turret/mounting points is allowed so long as the car vehicle contains its original monocoque chassis. ** Vehicles must retain their original
VIN Vin or VIN may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Vîn TV, a Kurdish language satellite television channel founded in 2007 * ''Vos Iz Neias?'', an American Jewish online news site * Coastal radio station VIN Geraldton (callsign), a statio ...
in its OEM position as well as the OEM chassis plate where applicable --
VIN Vin or VIN may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Vîn TV, a Kurdish language satellite television channel founded in 2007 * ''Vos Iz Neias?'', an American Jewish online news site * Coastal radio station VIN Geraldton (callsign), a statio ...
must not be altered, clearly visible and readable. ** Convertible vehicles must have a hard top installed and a roll cage which will be effective in the event of a vehicle rolling onto its roof. The hard top must be securely fastened to the body. ** The vehicles appearance must be similar to that of the original vehicle. *Semi-Slick Tires/DOT-R Compounds (S-Tires) were prohibited after the first season as they are not road legal, after Nobuteru Taniguchi used them to win the championship in 2001. The series now only permits commercially available road tires approved by the organization. *Catalytic converters must be installed to keep the vehicle to the maximum noise limit at race circuits. In the past, Drivers’ Search rules were more lenient to that of the championship rules until 2005, which the same rules apply to this day.


D1 Street Legal

As the D1GP category was moving away from its grassroots during the earlier days, and budgets and development costs were getting higher, the organisers introduced the D1 Street Legal (''D1ストリートリーガル (D1 sutoriito riigaru in
katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...
), as D1SL'') category at the Odaiba round in 2005 for road driven cars which were different from the main category as they are trailer driven between races. Being a budget series, this meant that there is tighter restrictions on how a car can be modified. For example, the car must have a working car stereo system and must have the original engine which it was originally supplied with. Also there is no wide body extension and wings must be within the width of the car. The car must also retain many of its original features, especially dashboard, doors, etc. which sometimes can be replaced/removed/modified in the D1GP category. In all the car has to prove its road-worthiness by its entrant providing a '' shaken'' certificate. Initially, the new series was treated to two exhibition rounds in 2005, and was given a full seven round the following year. Although the series is geared towards novice drifters, it also attracts D1GP star drivers including the Suenaga brothers, Masao and Naoto, many of its former D1GP regulars, and fan-favourites like
Ken Nomura is a drifting driver from Japan. He made his debut in the D1 Grand Prix in the 3rd round in 2001, driving the Blitz D1 Spec ER34 Skyline which he still drives. His nickname is Nomuken (のむけん) or Monkey Magic (as a reference to his compa ...
. In 2006, the organisers started a divisional series called D1SL Divisional Series which does not require a D1 License and is broken up in four regions: north, south, east, and west, with rounds that consist of 3 to 4 events in each region and a point scoring system that is the same as the other series'. The winner of the series at the end is awarded a D1 License. In 2017, the organisers announced the end of the D1 Street Legal series, being replaced by the D1 Lights series from 2018 onwards.


Typical D1 Street Legal vehicle regulations

Although the items that are prohibited in D1GP also applies in D1SL, additional prohibited items in D1SL cars include: * Sequential transmission. *
Fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...
s. *
Carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon ma ...
/beamless/ FRP door replacements, must be OEM doors with side impact bars intact if possible. * Airjacks. * Tubbed fenders/one-off metal body components, must be one that is available to the public. * Custom/standalone relay/fuse switchboxes. *
Acrylic glass Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...
/
polycarbonate Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily work ...
window inserts and replacements, must be OEM glass. * complete dash replacement parts, must be stock. Other restrictions in the category are that: * Spoilers must stay within the width of the vehicle. * Brakes must be stock dimensions; no swaps from other models of same make are allowed. * Vehicles must retain OEM parts ( ac/
navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation ...
/heater) * A functioning car audio system must be in place. *A 6-point roll cage with 4-point harness must be in place (same as that of D1GP). * Restriction of engine swaps from other model into other model, as S15 Silvia Spec-S to Spec-R specification (
SR20DE The SR engine is a series of , or Inline-four engine, straight-four, four-stroke engine, four-stroke gasoline internal combustion engine, engines manufactured by Nissan Motors, Nissan. It has an aluminum head and cast-iron block with steel Cyli ...
→SR20DET) may be permitted but a RB26DETT into an HR32 Skyline GTS-t is not unless the model is a BNR32, nor even is converting an AE85 to AE86 is permitted. Engines from other manufacturer's car (e.g. Darren McNamara's 13B-REW powered AE86) are not permitted as well. A bolt on
turbocharger In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...
or
supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced indu ...
is permitted, the engine in the car can be determined by the
VIN Vin or VIN may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Vîn TV, a Kurdish language satellite television channel founded in 2007 * ''Vos Iz Neias?'', an American Jewish online news site * Coastal radio station VIN Geraldton (callsign), a statio ...
plate


D1 Lights

D1 Street Legal is replaced by D1 Lights started from 2018, unlike D1 Street Legal the car now must be a competition only car and no longer street registered. The safety of the series is also increased due to a spotter being killed due to the wheel from car coming loose ahead of the spotter area during a practice session in the final round of 2016 D1 Street Legal. This led to the round being cancelled completely and the D1 Street Legal was not continued in 2017 The series kicked off with a pre-season event at Nikko Circuit with the series started the first round in Maze Circuit with Daisuke Saito became the first winner of D1 Lights, the first series champion is Junya Ishikawa who graduated to D1GP the following year while Naoki Nakamura who won twice regained his D1GP license and also graduated to D1GP. In 2019 for the first time D1GP and D1 Lights were held in same venue at same weekend at Autopolis with both series held its series finale. this feat was held again the following year twice with the season opener and once again in Ebisu West. Like its parent series every round is live streamed on D1's official YouTube channel


D1 National Series

During the 2005 exhibition event at Silverstone, a domestic series was announced with a plan to run the UK round as part of the world series for the following year, though plans for a point scoring round at that location never materialised. The series took over where the Autoglym Drift Championship left off, which was formerly run by the OPT Drift Club, an offshoot of a tuning business called Option Motorsport. The club held a championship in 2002 called D1UK (the previous moniker), though not related to the magazine, for the 2004 season, the business was forced to drop the Option and D1 name for legal reasons. The difference between the Autoglym series, which was sponsored by the car care product manufacturer, and the D1GB is that the former had a separate championship for beginners called Clubmans which was run in a tansou (''solo run'') format only and did not require the common safety amenities (e.g. rollcages), and the latter is a main championship for experienced drivers which consists of the usual tsuiso (''twin run'') rounds. The other difference is, D1 regulation is more stringent on car modifications. The club was since absorbed into the D1 franchise as a national series. The GB series, was followed by a Malaysia series (''D1MY''), though the series and drivers' search began earlier than its UK counterpart due to the difference in climate with its first round in March, compared with the UK series in May. The MY series tends to have the privilege of having Tsuchiya to judge the rounds, whereas the UK series only had Dorikin and Manabu Suzuki as judges in Round 2, on the weekend of the D1GP exhibition event. The New Zealand series are currently run as a drivers' search rounds, which awards a D1 License to the winners and allow the top four to compete in the world exhibition event in the US in December. At the end of the season, the series went through a major technical hitch as the D1 organisation refused to foot the fee to import the top 5 cars to Irwindale as promised, therefore the organizers of the D1GB dissolved its association with the D1 organisation and formed the European Drift Championship (EDC) which uses the same rule as the series itself. As a compromise, the D1 organisation instead gave the top three drivers a chance to compete in US based cars for both the point scoring and World All-Star round. The D1 franchise would itself move to the US after three seasons of being opening points scoring round.


Drifting team list

*Team Orange D1 world drifting champions is led by
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Born to a wealthy family who owned a large portion of lan ...
and directed by Hiroki Furuse aka "Sleepy" - Team Orange's Manager. He is also EDC Judge for European Drift Championship. He was consultant for the
Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Oct ...
video game, Race Driver: Grid and also with Team Orange. They played as stunt drivers in the feature film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, produced by
Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...
. In 2011, they did a Tuning Film Documentary written and directed by Diego Vida and produced by FanVision.


Championship winners


By Year


By Driver


Tanso (solo run) champions


(Non Championship) All Star winners


Statistics

* Youngest Driver to compete — Ken Gushi, age 16, 2004 Round 1. * Youngest Driver to enter Best 4 — Emmanuelle Amandio, age 20yrs 10mths, 2013 Round 4 * Youngest Driver to win — Youichi Imamura, age 24yrs 5mths, 2000 Round 1. * Youngest Championship Winner — Youichi Imamura, age 27yrs 5mths, 2003 Season. * Oldest Driver to enter Best 16 (Non-Championship) —
Rod Millen Rodney K. "Rod" Millen (born 22 March 1951) is a New Zealand racing driver, vehicle designer, and business owner. He has competed in numerous genres of motorsports, including rally racing, off-road racing, hillclimbing, drifting, and super touri ...
, age 55, 2005 D1 USA vs Japan Allstar Exhibition. * Oldest Driver to compete (D1SL) — Daijiro Inada, age 59, 2006 Round 2. * Oldest Driver to win (D1GP) — Katsuhiro Ueo, age 48yrs 5mths, 2020 Round 5. * Oldest Driver to win (D1SL) — Kazuyoshi Okamura, age 47, 2006 Round 5. * Oldest Championship Winner — Hideyuki Fujino, age 43yrs 3mths, 2017 Season. * Most Wins in a single Season — 5 wins, Daigo Saito, 2015 Season; Masanori Kohashi, 2020 Season. * Most Tanso/ Solo run in a single Season — 6 wins, Masato Kawabata, 2018 Season. * Most Points in a single Season — 206pts, Naoki Nakamura, 2021 Season. * Most Championship Wins — 4 wins, Youichi Imamura (2003, 2009–2011) * Narrowest title margin — 1pt; Yasuyuki Kazama (97pts) over Masao Suenaga (96pts), 2005 Season and Nobushige Kumakubo (110 pts) over Ken Nomura (109 pts), 2006 Season; Masato Kawabata (100pts) over Nobushige Kumakubo (99pts), 2007 Season. * Widest title margin — 45pts; Masanori Kohashi (174pts) over Masashi Yokoi (129pts), 2020 Season. * Highest number of entries – 124 (Rd 6, 2005). * Lowest number of entries – 25 (Rd 5, 2001).


All-Time winners list

''excludes non-championship, D1SL & non-Japanese National events''


Driver


Drivers all-time winning table (Tsuiso)

Tanso all-time winning table (Awarded since 2011 season) Bold : Active Drivers


Car all-time winning table

(Tsuiso = dual run; tanso = solo run)


Gallery

File:Kawabatas15.jpg, Masato Kawabata's,
Nissan Silvia S15 The is the series of small sports cars produced by Nissan. Versions of the Silvia have been marketed as the 200SX or 240SX for export, with some export versions being sold under the Datsun brand. The name "Silvia" is derived from Sylvia, the ...
File:MikiS15.jpg, Ryuji Miki's,
Nissan Silvia S15 The is the series of small sports cars produced by Nissan. Versions of the Silvia have been marketed as the 200SX or 240SX for export, with some export versions being sold under the Datsun brand. The name "Silvia" is derived from Sylvia, the ...
File:Kumascooby.jpg,
Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed ''Kuma'', he is commonly referred to as one of the pioneers of drifting. Born to a wealthy family who owned a large portion of lan ...
's Subaru Impreza GDB File:Blitzer34.jpg,
Ken Nomura is a drifting driver from Japan. He made his debut in the D1 Grand Prix in the 3rd round in 2001, driving the Blitz D1 Spec ER34 Skyline which he still drives. His nickname is Nomuken (のむけん) or Monkey Magic (as a reference to his compa ...
's Nissan Skyline ER34 File:RE Amemiya FD.jpg,
Masao Suenaga is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for D-MAX. He is the younger brother of Naoto who both were taught by Nobushige Kumakubo. He began his motorsport career racing minibikes in the Kyūs ...
's RE Amemiya
Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car that was manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 until 2002 across three generations, all of which made use of a compact, lightweight Wankel rotary engine. ...
File:BeeR324R.jpg, Tsuyoshi Tezuka's Nissan Skyline BNR32 (B324R) File:Osaka Auto Messe 2014 (175) HKS RACING PERFORMER 86.JPG,
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" (first three letters from his name, meaning "No One Better") or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silv ...
's HKS built
Toyota GT86 The Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ are 2+2 sports cars jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru, manufactured at Subaru's Gunma assembly plant. The 2+2 fastback coupé has a naturally-aspirated boxer engine, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive confi ...
File:Osaka Auto Messe 2019 (688) - D-MAX S15 SILVIA.jpg, Masashi Yokoi's
Nissan Silvia S15 The is the series of small sports cars produced by Nissan. Versions of the Silvia have been marketed as the 200SX or 240SX for export, with some export versions being sold under the Datsun brand. The name "Silvia" is derived from Sylvia, the ...
File:Osaka Auto Messe 2020 (271) - No.90 Team TOYO TIRES DRIFT GR Supra.jpg, Masato Kawabata's
Toyota GR Supra The J29/DB Toyota Supra, mainly marketed as Toyota GR Supra, is the fifth-generation of the Supra, a sports car produced by Toyota since 2019. Sold under Gazoo Racing (GR) branding, it replaced the previous model, A80, which stopped product ...
File:Osaka Auto Messe 2020 (267) - Infiniti Q60 (V37) D1 Grand Prix ver. participated by SHIBATA R31HOUSE.jpg, Koudai Sobagiri's
Infiniti Q60 The Infiniti Q60 is a 2-door sport luxury coupe manufactured by Japanese automaker Infiniti. It is the successor to the Infiniti G coupe and convertible. The Q60 nameplate was first used as a rebranding of Infiniti G coupes. A new version was int ...
File:TEAM TOYO TIRES DRIFT GR86 in 2022 D1GP INTERNATIONAL DRIFT CHAMPIONSHIP (1).jpg, Masato Kawabata's Toyota GR86 File:Nagoya Auto Trend 2011 (11) VERTICE DESIGN D1 BMW.JPG, Takahiro Ueno's
BMW 3 Series (E90) The fifth generation of the BMW 3 Series range of compact executive cars is designated under the model codes E90 (saloon), E91 (estate, marketed as 'Touring'), E92 (coupé) and E93 (convertible). The model was introduced in December 2004, and p ...
File:Osaka Auto Messe 2016 (52) - No.60 DUNLOP OTG 86.jpg, Yoichi Imamura's
Toyota GT86 The Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ are 2+2 sports cars jointly developed by Toyota and Subaru, manufactured at Subaru's Gunma assembly plant. The 2+2 fastback coupé has a naturally-aspirated boxer engine, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive confi ...


D1 Grand Prix USA drivers

Alphabetical order * Kelvin Arreola * Marc Bergeon * David Blunt * James Bondurant * Mike Burns * Caper Canul * Tyler Cox * Chelsea DeNofa * Joe Dycus * Michael Essa * Ron Freitas * Chase Goodman * Andrew Hately * Joe Haven * Harri Hokkanen * Benson Hsu * Yoichi Imamura * Daijaro Inada * Jason Jiovani * Ed Johnson * Jeff Jones * Chris Kregorian * Nobushige Kumakubo * Janne Leinonen * Aaron Losey * Quoc Ly * Cyrus Martinez * Omeed Moinee * Patrick Mordaunt * Ken Nomura * Cody Parkhouse * Ross Petty * Juha Rintanen * Tom Roberts * James Robinson * Austin Robison * Bryan Rogers * Daigo Saito * Cody Sarem * Tony Schulz * Ben Schwartz * Bill Sherman * Joshua Steel * Kazuhiro Tanaka * Harri Tervola * Takahiro Ueno * Russell Walker * "Mad" Mike Whiddett * Forrest Wang * Will Parsons


References

{{D1 Grand Prix All articles to be expanded Awards established in 1999 1999 establishments in Japan