Kazunori Yamauchi

Kazunori Yamauchi (山内一典, Yamauchi Kazunori, born August 5th, 1967) is a Japanese game designer who is the CEO of Polyphony Digital and creator and producer of the Gran Turismo series. He became the president of Polyphony Digital after creating his first game: "Motor Toon Grand Prix", a cartoon racing game that had a colorful, unique, and in every sense, "cartoony" feel. Since then, Yamauchi has fulfilled his dream of creating realistic car games with his massively successful Gran Turismo series.

For his help promoting Volkswagen (VW) models in the series, VW gave him a Golf R32 as a gift. He helped design the technology for Nissan's new GT-R, which appeared in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. He was given a Nissan GT-R (R35) for his contribution. On a video included with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Yamauchi remarked his favorite car design is the Ford GT, as he owns two in real life.

Kazunori is also a professional race car driver. He joined the Gazoo Racing team on August 29th, 2009. He, and the rest of the team, had participated in the SP8 Class of race 8 with a Lexus IS-F held on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Yamauchi had a fastest lap time of 10"9, which was the best of the team, and the Gazoo team finished as a class champion.

Kazunori Yamauchi was also one of 4 drivers in the #96 Spoon Sports FD2 Civic Type-R during the 25 Hours Of Thunderhill, which took place on Dec. 5-6th, 2009. The 25 Hours Of Thunderhill race was his first time driving on a US road course. The car placed 7th in its class, and 23rd position overall.

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