Taniguti Akira Makoto (Nobuteru Taniguchi), or “NOB” (No One Better) as he is known by drifting and motorsport fans, is a professional Japanese driver who has many wins to his credit including the 2001 D1 Grand Prix Championship in Japan.

Born May 18, 1971 in Hiroshima, Japan, Nobuteru Taniguchi got into motorsports racing minibikes. When NOB was 18 he won an All Japan Mini Bike Race at Suzuka Circuit sponsored by Honda and later got into racing cars and drifting after buying a Toyota AE86.

Before Nobuteru Taniguchi became a professional driver he worked at Takahiro Ueno’s car body kit company, Car Make T&E. In 1999, Taniguchi drove the Bride sponsored Honda Civic in the Suzuka Clubman Race and ended up winning first place. After Taniguchi’s win, HKS added him to their team as a test driver and sponsored race car driver in 2001 when he then piloted the HKS D1 Grand Prix S15 Silvia to a championship win.

Throughout Taniguchi’s D1 Grand Prix drifting career, he drove four HKS sponsored cars: RS1 Hyper Nissan S15 Silvia (Crashed by Keiichi Tsuchiya), two RS2 Hyper S15 Silvias (One from HKS Power Japan, the other from HKS Europe), and the Genki RP Altezza, which was designed with only stock HKS parts so an import tuning enthusiast or drifter could copy the HKS car’s exact setup.

Nobuteru Taniguchi is known in drifting motorsports and other forms of professional racing like the Super GT (formerly All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship or JGTC), 24 Hour of Nürburgring, Super Taikyu Series, and Macau Grand Prix Circuit events.

Taniguchi is also known for setting Time Attack (fastest lap) track records throughout Japan, including at the famous Tsukuba Circuit with the HKS TRB-02 and CT230R Time Attack Mitsubishi Evolutions. 2002 was the first year NOB competed in the GT series in the RE Amemiya Mazda RX-7, and in 2006 he drove the Direxiv/Enable Vemac, finishing 3rd overall in the GT300 driver standings.

NOB also drives the Wed Sport/Bandoh Racing sponsored Toyota Celica in Super GT and the Advan Porsche 996 in the Super Taikyu series in Japan with Hot Version and Drift Tengoku co-host Manabu Orido. Together, Taniguchi and Orido won seven out of eight Super Taikyu races in 2005 securing the Super GT Championship.

Taniguchi and HKS have not limited their racing campaign to Japan. In 2005, Taniguchi drove the HKS USA Mitsubishi Evolution in the Car and Driver Super Tuner Challenge against top US manufacturers and drivers. Taniguchi beat the nearest competitor by three seconds, and set the day’s fasted ¼ mile, 0-60, and road course times. In 2006, Taniguchi drove the HKS Speed Source RX-8 in the Grand Am Cup race at Arizona’s Phoenix International Raceway and set the fasted qualifying time for any Mazda RX-8.

Currently, Nobuteru “NOB” Taniguchi is driving the HKS sponsored Toyota Aristo drift car which is known as the Lexus GS300 in the United States. HKS and Formula Drift have made an exclusive partnership in 2007 that has brought NOB to the United States to perform drifting exhibitions at Formula Drift events. Taniguchi made his first appearance at Formula Drift’s second event Road Atlanta, May 11 and 12, 2007.

Nobuteru Taniguchi maintains his popularity within the drifting community with appearances in popular drifting videos like Video Option, Hot Version, Drift Tengoku, Best Motoring, and Rev Speed Videos and by performing drifting exhibitions at popular drifting events worldwide. NOB is a fan favorite and very talented driver who has an impressive resume of motorsport wins.