Kazunori Yamauchi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Kazunori Yamauchi
Yamauchi at the 30th International Automobile Festival in Paris, in 2015
Born	(1967-08-05) August 5, 1967 (age 57) Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
Occupation	Game designer professional racing driver
Employer	Polyphony Digital
Notable work	Gran Turismo series

Kazunori Yamauchi (山内 一典, Yamauchi Kazunori, born August 5, 1967), often called "Kaz", is a famous Japanese game designer and a real-life racing driver. He is the head of a company called Polyphony Digital. He is best known for creating the super popular Gran Turismo video game series, which lets players experience realistic car racing.

Polyphony Digital: Making Awesome Games

Kazunori Yamauchi became the president of Polyphony Digital after he designed his first game. This game was called Motor Toon Grand Prix. It was a fun, cartoon-style racing game, a bit like Mario Kart. Later, a sequel was made, Motor Toon Grand Prix 2, which was the only game from that series released outside Japan.

Since then, Yamauchi has made his dream come true. He wanted to create very realistic driving games. This led to his hugely successful Gran Turismo series. He once tried making a different type of game. In 1999, Polyphony Digital released Omega Boost, a shoot 'em up game set in space. This was Yamauchi's only game that wasn't about racing.

Because Gran Turismo was so successful, Yamauchi became very important in the car world. Polyphony Digital even worked with Nissan to design a special screen for the R35 GT-R car. This screen shows the driver important car information, like how much force the car is pulling or how fast it goes around a track. This car and its special screen appear in many Gran Turismo games, like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Gran Turismo 5, Gran Turismo 6, Gran Turismo Sport, and Gran Turismo 7. Nissan even gave him a GT-R car for his help!

Yamauchi once said that his favorite car design is the Ford GT. He actually owns two of them in real life. A documentary film about Gran Turismo and Yamauchi, called Kaz: Pushing the Virtual Divide, was released in 2014 on Hulu.

Racing Career: From Virtual to Real Tracks

The Spoon Sports Honda Civic Type R driven by Yamauchi at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill in 2009

Kazunori Yamauchi isn't just a game designer; he's also a real racing driver! On August 29, 2009, he joined the World Car Awards team. He raced in the VLN series at the famous Nürburgring track in Germany. He drove a Lexus IS-F and had the fastest lap time for his team. His team even won their class!

He returned to the Nürburgring track in 2010 for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring race. He was one of four drivers for the Team World Car Award. They finished 4th in their SP8 class.

In December 2009, Yamauchi raced in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill in the United States. This was his first time driving on a road course in America. He drove a Spoon Sports FD2 Honda Civic Type R. His teammates included famous drivers like Naoki Hattori. Even though they had some problems during the race, like needing to fix their car's exhaust, they finished 7th in their class and 23rd overall out of 66 cars.

Yamauchi also took part in the 2011 24 Hours of Nürburgring. He drove a Nissan GT-R N24 for Schulze Motorsport. His team finished 36th overall and won the SP8T class, even though they faced some technical issues.

For the 2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Yamauchi raced a Nissan GT-R again with Lucas Ordóñez. They finished 1st in the SP8T class and 30th overall.

In the 2013 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Yamauchi drove a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. His team even led the first qualifying session for a while! But they had many problems during the race. They still managed to finish 135th overall.

He returned for the 2014 24 Hours of Nürburgring with the same team and car. This time, they had a much smoother race. They finished an impressive 14th overall out of 165 cars!

In the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hour race, Yamauchi switched to a BMW M6 GT3. He finished 22nd overall in that race.

Racing Record: His Race Results

25 Hours of Thunderhill results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2009	Spoon Sports	Naoki Hattori Tatsuru Ichishima Sam Mitani	Honda Civic Type R (FD2)	E0	617	23rd	7th

24 Hours of Nürburgring results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2010	Team World Car Awards	Hideshi Matsuda Peter Lyon Owen Mildenhall	Lexus IS F	SP8	127	59th	4th
2011	Schulze Motorsport	Tobias Schulze Michael Schulze Yasuyoshi Yamamoto	Nissan GT-R	SP8T	134	36th	1st
2012	Team GT Academy	Lucas Ordóñez Tobias Schulze Yasukichi Yamamoto	Nissan GT-R	SP8T	136	30th	1st
2013	Schulze Motorsport	Tobias Schulze Michael Schulze Michael Krumm	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	SP9	48	135th	22nd
2014	Schulze Motorsport	Tobias Schulze Michael Schulze Jordan Tresson	Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3	SP9	147	14th	11th
2016	Walkenhorst Motorsport	Mathias Henkola George Richardson Max Sandritter	BMW M6 GT3	SP9	121	22nd	18th

Honors: Awards and Recognition

Kazunori Yamauchi has received several honors for his work. In 2013, a street was named after him in the city of Ronda, Spain. It's called "Paseo de Kazunori Yamauchi". The mayor of Ronda said that his work has a huge impact on people. She mentioned that he made racing games super realistic and that his creations are like art.

In 2015, Yamauchi won the "Grand Prize of Creativity" at the 30th International Automobile Festival in Paris. This award was for his big contributions to the car industry.

In 2017, he received an honorary degree in vehicle engineering from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy. This is a special award given to people who have made important achievements.

Yamauchi even made a small appearance in the 2023 movie Gran Turismo. He played a sushi chef, while another actor played a fictional version of him.

See also

In Spanish: Kazunori Yamauchi para niños