Though the video became a hit, the Drift King would not actually make his mark until 1984.

He was running last in a stock car race. Instead of losing gracefully, Tsuchiya began to do a series of kamikaze turns, stunning the crowd

“I was just trying to catch up with the rest,” he says, simply.

But Tsuchiya is not here to talk about the past. He is here for one reason. The D1 Grand Prix. It is the third round of the drifting challenge in Shah Alam, and the main focus is on the drift circuit and the competitors, for he is the official judge. 

Genji Hashimoto, 40, of Amprex Motorsports who holds the D1GP franchise in South-East Asia, says that Tsuchiya was picked so that the competitors would be judged fairly. 

“Everyone respects his decision because he is the Drift King,” says Hashimoto.

And at the Shah Alam circuit (last Saturday), respect is not the only thing Tsuchiya gets. He has the crowd’s adoration as well. Shrugging off the strict formalities that judges so often affect, he waves like a celebrity. When Tsuchiya, who has a cameo appearance in the Tokyo Drift, got into a Nissan Skyline GTR for a demo drive, the spectators went wild.