Nobuteru 'NOB' Taniguchi (谷口 信輝, Taniguchi Nobuteru; born May 18, 1971, Hiroshima) is a Japanese racing driver and drifting driver who currently competes in the Super GT racing series. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" (first three letters from his name, meaning "No One Better") or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silvia which he is best known for.
Taniguchi is a three-time Super GT GT300 class champion, eight-time Super Taikyu class champion, and The first D1 Grand Prix and professional drifting champion.
Taniguchi began his motorsport career when he was racing minibikes and won a Honda sponsored All Japan Mini Bike race, which took place at its Suzuka Circuit. However Taniguchi stop competing after the shop that own the bike he raced sold the bike.
Taniguchi would progress into four wheels and became interested in drifting. With advice from his cousin, he acquired a Toyota AE86 while Taniguchi himself originally wanted Mazda RX-7. He moved to Tokyo in 1998 with the aim of becoming a motor journalist. He also worked at Takahiro Ueno's car bodykit company, Car Make T&E to supplement his racing career whilst competing in various one make series racing with the Toyota Celica and Vitz and participating in drift events. In 1999, he came into the attention of HKS when he won a Suzuka Clubman Race in a Honda Civic sponsored by Bride. HKS signed him up as a test driver and as a sponsor, as well as sponsoring his S15 Silvia for drift events.
Taniguchi started out in street racing with his AE86 when he was with his team 'After-Fire' and competed in the various drift competitions like Video Option's Ikaten, Battle Magazine's BM-Cup, and CarBoy's DoriCon GP.
After competing in Ikaten, Taniguchi was recognised for his driving skill and was invited again to do demo run at subsequent Ikaten event as well as Video Option segment and eventually became a judge for Ikaten which he still did now when Option revived it.
In the inaugural season of D1 Grand Prix in 2001, Taniguchi won the championship with his team After-Fire sponsored by HKS, after winning two of the five rounds driving his personal Nissan Silvia S15. He famously used a semi-slick tires in the final round which gives him an advantage to other competitors which eventually win him the championship.
However starting in 2002, Taniguchi, now as HKS works driver didn't have much chances with the series champion title as he did in 2001 as the series had banned the use of S-tires/Semi-slicks that was occurring the year before. Before the season start, the S15 HKS built for him crashed by Keiichi Tsuchiya during testing which forced the team to borrow Taniguchi personal S15 for the opening round. But he still doing very well, staying as a seeded driver. He finished the 2002 season in second place as the runner-up with one round win when the HKS S15 finally debut and two podiums. In the 2003 season Taniguchi faced more setback with reliability including another mishap before the opening round when the HKS S15 blew and he had to use his personal car again and eventually crashing during qualifying. He managed to rescue his season as with a new and improved second HKS S15 as he finishes fourth place with one win and two podiums.
Taniguchi started the 2004 season of D1GP better with him leading the championship after winning at Autopolis which turns out to be his last win in D1GP, HKS decided to switched car from the S15 to an Altezza which had not been properly set up and had shown some technical issues that many believe cost him the championship that year, as he finished in second place as the runner-up with one win and three podium finishes. Taniguchi did admit that he wanted to finish the 2004 season with the S15 RS-2 instead, as well as wanting to retire the car with the champion title under its name.
During the 2005 season, the switch to Altezza proved to be a mistake for HKS and NOB despite early success with a runner-up finish at Odaiba which led them to quit the series at the end of the season, with only one podium finish. Both Taniguchi and HKS did not return to the D1 series as they were unwilling to compete without each other until 2008 when they returned as spot participants at Fuji Speedway and exhibition at Odaiba with the Altezza. Taniguchi planned to return in 2009 but did not as HKS was unwilling to return despite Taniguchi already raising the budget and sponsor for the season.
Finally he and HKS fully returned to the series again in 2012 with a Toyota 86 and scored two podium finishes.
Despite a good start in 2012, HKS and Taniguchi failed to extract the car potential despite a switch to NOS-equipped twincharger set up for 2013 and 3.4 2JZ engine in 2014. In those two seasons Taniguchi did not do a full season due to a scheduling clash with his Super GT commitment.
Taniguchi went through five cars with HKS for D1, between 2001 and 2005, the RS1 Hyper Silvia S15 (Crashed by Keiichi Tsuchiya, eventually rebuilt for 2002 and later revised as a backup car with a similar build to the RS2 in 2003, initially brought to HKS Europe but it was later bought by Rockstar Energy to be used in Formula D), and RS2 Hyper Silvia S15 (brought to HKS Europe), the Genki Racing Project Altezza, which was designed with off-the-shelf HKS parts, for the purpose that a private drifter could copy the car, HKS also built a second Altezza nicknamed IS220Z which originally his car but he lent it to be built by HKS for the event.
Taniguchi had the most wins in D1 Grand Prix until his tally was overtaken by Youichi Imamura in 2005.
In 2016 Taniguchi and HKS return to D1GP at an exhibition event titled D1GP Champions in Odaiba competing in the same Toyota 86 he use previously but announced that it will be his final run and officially retired from professional drifting after the event.
Taniguchi also drives a Toyota Aristo (Lexus GS300 in US) for non-D1 events. In 2016, he purchased a Nissan 180SX as a drift practice car with suspension and arm parts produced and being set up by fellow D1GP champion Masato Kawabata. The car is also equipped with Kick Blue body kit also produced by Kawabata. He later sold the car and purchased Kawabata's D1GP China championship-winning 180SX as replacement.
HKS and Formula Drift made an exclusive partnership in 2007 that 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.
Taniguchi regularly appeared in Formula Drift Japan event as Japanese colour commentator alongside announcer Tom Saeba and sometimes as judge.