Kazuhiro Tanaka was born July 4, 1970 in Ibaraki, Japan. Drift Team Orange member Kazuhiro Tanaka has been drifting in the D1 Grand Prix Series since the very first competition in Japan back in 2001. Tanaka first gained recognition drifting his orange Nissan S15 Silvia but later in 2005 Tanaka switched to the Subaru GDB Impreza like the car his teammate Nobushige Kumakubo drives.

During high school, Tanaka got his first taste of drifting when an older classmate that drove a Toyota AE86 Hachiroku executed a simple drift at an intersection.

“I was blown away at that moment to learn that a car is capable of moving this way,” says Tanaka. “Since I didn’t know anything about cars at the time, I was easily amused. I definitely wanted to try whatever he did after that experience. After obtaining my drivers license I purchased a Hachiroku! Since I knew that I needed to get used to speed before even trying to drift, I drove the car grip style for a month. Day after day I went up to the mountains and even racked up my gas bill to 400,000 Yen! ($4,000 USD) I worked hard after that to recover the money.”

Tanaka would continue to practice drifting in Japan until one traumatic crash that almost ended his drifting career. After the wreck Tanaka decided to give up drifting by purchasing a car that typically could not drift. He bought a naturally aspirated automatic transmission 1971 Mark II that didn’t have LSD thinking to himself that it was impossible to drift this car. But eventually, Tanaka did drift the new car and then realized,

“At that point…even though I tried very hard not to drift anymore, I did drift, therefore; deep down inside, I love to drift,” Kazuhiro Tanaka.

With his reborn love for drifting, Tanaka purchased a new drift car, which was a Toyota JZX81 Chaser that came equipped with a twin turbo setup, manual transmission, and limited slip differential LSD. After buying the Toyota Chaser, Tanaka started entering drifting competitions and graduated to the D1 Grand Prix where he continues to have success.

When Kazuhiro Tanaka is not busy practicing for D1 Grand Prix, he is developing aero body kit parts for sports cars, wagons, and sedans at a place called M Sports or “Mac.” Tanaka has been working at Mac in the Ibaraki prefecture for 5 years. The popular M Sports line of body kits is widely known throughout the automotive industry.

In his free time, Tanaka likes to drive R/C drift cars at his home R/C course named Speed Way Pal located in the Saitama Prefecture. Tanaka is also an animal lover and loves spending time with his Chihuahua “Malon.”

With teammates from Team Orange like Naoto Suenaga and 2006 D1 Grand Prix Champion Nobushige Kumakubo in his corner, you can bet Kazuhiro Tanaka will continue to push the boundaries of drifting motorsports to new heights.