Nobuteru Taniguchi
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Nobuteru Taniguchi - born 18/5/1971, Hiroshima (Japanese 谷口信輝), nicknamed NOB (abbr. No One Better) or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silvia which he is best known for.
NOB first made his mark in professional motorsport in 2001 after years competing in one make series racing Celica and Vitz and partipicating in drift events. Prior to his professional career, he was an employee of Takahiro Ueno's car bodykit company, Car Make T&E. He competed in the national Super Taikyu series and the D1 Grand Prix which he would take the title that year and would compete in the JGTC first with RE Anemiya RX-7 which he still compete in all these of these series. Also he took part in the Nurburgring 24 hour and the Macau Grand Prix Guia Touring car race. He has since became one of the fan favourite drivers in Japan.
He also test drive for HKS, in 2004, he drove the HKS Evo 7 and created a 54.37 sec time record in Tsukuba circuit(a circuit famous for its complexity and lack of straight track). Mid way through the 2004 season of D1, NOB switched to a not yet ready Altezza, and for the first few time, it had some technical problem which many argues that had cost him the championship that year. and in the 2005 season, the switch to an Altezza is proving to be a mistake for HKS and him which they quit the series at the end of the season.
In all, Taniguchi has gone through four cars with HKS for D1, the RS1 Hyper Silvia S15 (Crashed by Keiichi Tsuchiya), and two RS2 Hyper Silvia S15s (One from HKS Power Japan, and the other from HKS Europe), and finally the Genki RP Altezza, which was designed with no experimental/prototype HKS parts, for the purpose that a private drifter could copy the car. His recent drift car is a Toyota Aristo (Lexus GS300 in US).
He also currently races an Advan Porsche 996 in the Super Taikyu series with Hot Version and Drift Tengoku co-presenter Manabu Orido, a Wed Sport/Bandoh Racing Celica in Super GT plus other various magazine run Time Attack events.
He appears in Video Option Drift Tengoku, Best Motoring, Rev Speed Video and Hot Version, he now lives in an apartment in Yokohama opposite his friend and former employer Ueno.