After a couple of hours the trio pulled up outside a wooden gate. After a few moments the gate swung open revealing what was basically an Aladdin's cave for racers. If you could imagine it then it was probably parked either on the white gravel that took up the majority of the yard or was hidden away in one of the numerous garages.
"We'll need to go into that workshop to the left of the house" Josh said pointing to the open door to the workshop. "She's cleared space so just pull us straight in."
After a few moments Takumi pulled the Skyline to a halt in the centre of the workshop. The workshop was a far superior setup to that of Josh's, although it was obvious that it was used regularly everything was spotlessly clean.
Josh exited the car first quickly followed by Takumi and Itsuki. "Huh she was meant to be here by now."
Moments after Josh's phone buzzed with a text message.
'Hi mate, got stuck with a customer, gonna be a while yet. Grab whatever car you want, you know the combo to the key safe anyway -A'
"Well that explains that one then. I know exactly what car we can take."
Walking over to the key safe Josh tapped in the code and swung open the door, taking a key with a red Honda badge on it and replacing it with the key to the Skyline.
"Righto, now to find where she's hidden the damn thing. Can you two have a wander round, if you see a black Civic Type R shout as that's what we are after."
After a few minutes of looking in the garages and all corners of the yard Itsuki realised he had found the black Civic Type R.
"Over here" he shouted making sure he had got the attention of both Takumi and Joshua.
Nearly sprinting over to where Itsuki was Joshua was struggling to contain his excitement.
"I've wanted to drive this thing since she got it!" he exclaimed. "It's very far from standard, I think last time she did a power run it read just under 400hp!"
"400hp from a Civic!?" Takumi exclaimed. "That's crazy."
"It puts it all down too, the amount of boost it gives varies by the gear you are in so it doesn't spin up."
"That's amazing" Takumi replied, looking awestruck at the thought of so much power in such a small car.
The trio climbed into the Civic and Joshua turned the key firing up the Turbocharged K20. Putting the car into first he crept out of the parking space and towards the gates which swung open automatically as the car approached them.
Joshua turned towards the highway and accelerated up to speed, giving the car time to warm up.
About half an hour later Joshua pulled the Civic into a rest area just off the highway. Seeing a gathering of cars towards the back of the car park he manoeuvred the civic in their direction and parked up next to a Yellow Nissan Z32.
Upon seeing the Civic a few people in the crowd began to laugh.
"Ha look at that, someone is stupid enough to believe a Civic is actually going to be any good at the Wangan."
This drew a few more laughs from the group. Hearing the comment Joshua walked over to the culprit of the dig at the Civic.
"So what is it you drive?" he asked the man who it was apparent was the leader of the group.
"That Yellow Z32 you've parked your Rice Box next to."
"Rice box you say…" Josh Sniggered "Lets race."
"Ok bring it rice boy" The owner of the Z32 laughed which was quickly followed by a roar of laughter from the crowd.
Walking back towards the Civic Josh turned to Takumi and Itsuki
"Are you guys ok to stay here while we race? If it was a mountain pass I would have no issue with you riding along but on the Wangan the speeds reached are extremely dangerous."
"Yeah that's fine" Takumi replied despite the protests of Itsuki.
Seeing the driver of the Z32 moving towards his own car Josh took that as his cue to start the Civic. After letting the car idle briefly Josh made sure to give a couple of rather large revs ensuring that the sound of the turbo could be heard.
Seeing the owner of the Z32 freeze at the sound of the turbo amused Josh. Winding down the window he took it as his opportunity to taunt the Z32 owner.
"What's wrong? You aren't afraid of a little rice box are you?"
The Z32 owner completely ignored Josh's dig at him and stepped into his own car before starting the engine and driving towards the exit of the Services.
Josh followed cue making sure to flick the little switch which put the Civic into its high boost mode.
Seeing the Z32 floor it onto the Wangan Josh gave off a small laugh. 'This is going to be easy, he's already shown his cars maximum acceleration, I'll just tail him for a while and make it look like I'm struggling to keep up, make him think he's got an easy victory.'
Seeing that he was pulling away from the Civic the driver of the Z32 laughed, "Ha why was I so afraid of a little rice burner, even with a turbo it's still too weak to keep up with my Z32. Bring a proper car to the Wangan not a toy."
Both cars streaked along the Wangan at speeds approaching 210KPH, the few cars and trucks which were driving normally on the highway were barely a blur as the Civic and Z32 flew past at extreme speeds.
After what seemed like a life time sat behind the Z32 Josh realised they were rapidly closing upon the goal that marked the finish line of the Wangan battle. "Time to show him the error of his ways" Josh muttered out loud to himself.
He then planted the throttle for the first time during the race resulting in all 400HP finally being unleashed. It took a moment for the Z32 driver to realise that the Civic had suddenly gained a massive amount of speed and by that time it was too late for him to do anything about it.
The driver of the Z32 was furious as the Civic sailed past him and passed the goal at a higher speed than his car could ever manage. "HOW DARE YOU MAKE A MOCKERY OF ME!" he roared unable to do anything about his crushing defeat.
Because of the gap which he had pulled on the Z32 Josh had enough time to pull back into the services and pull up next to Takumi and Itsuki just as the Z32 came flying into the services at high speed before screeching to a halt behind the Civic.
"Takumi, Itsuki get in, we need to go."
Seeing that the crowd were moving toward them and not looking too happy the pair jumped into the Civic as quickly as they could. Takumi had barely closed the door when Josh launched the civic out of the parking spot.
"What did you do to annoy them so much?" Takumi asked once they were safely out of the Services and back on Wangan.
"I humiliated their leader, I basically let him lead for pretty much the entire race and then passed him at a point where he had no way of making a comeback."
"Isn't that just racing tactics?" Takumi pondered for a moment, "I've done that before."
"On the mountain pass that is considered a legitimate move as it shows you are the better driver however on the Wangan because a big portion of the races is how much power your car has, sandbagging until the very end and then using superior power to win is considered deeply disrespectful and in this case also humiliating."
"Ah I understand…" Takumi sniggered, "So the Wangan racers simply rely on the power of their engines not their driving ability."
"Guys like the ones we just met do. Some of them can actually drive though. There is one racer who drives a RUF CTR known as the Blackbird. I was hoping to track him down tonight. Apparently my 240Z was his most fierce rival. Enough about that anyway, we are in Tokyo, let's go find somewhere to eat. I'll pick up the tab to make up for leaving you in that parking area for so long."
A short while later they pulled up outside Daiichi hotel in Tokyo. "I've wanted to come to this place for ages, they've got a world buffet and I've been hankering some of the food from back home recently. Don't worry about the price, like I said, I'm buying." Josh said beaming.
As they were getting out of the car Josh's phone buzzed. 'Cheeky sod taking the Civic. Skyline isn't going to be done tonight I'm afraid mate.'
Josh quickly tapped in reply ' No worries, can you bring it to Akina 10PM Saturday night for me? Getting the wee beasty out for a play'.
The reply was simply a Thumbs up. With that the Trio made their way into the buffet.
