Yeah yeah, i know that this is unnaturally short chapter from me, but I wanted to make this a sort of turningpoint in the plot.. oh, wait, I don't have a plot.. oh well. anyways, i expect more reviews this time. they encourage me to keep on writing, so please, review the chapters that I put up or else.. ò.ó
Chapter 10: Enormous
Eight, Mischievous Monk
Ryuu held himself steady on Akira's passenger seat, as his friend attacked yet another corner on the edge of the control. Tires howled as they did their best to defeat the forces that were trying to alter the direction of the car. Akira kicked the clutch as Ryuu had instructed him to do, and the rear of the car broke free.
Akira countersteered, but it was bit too late, and he had to turn the wheel faster. Ryuu braced himself, and then they both became passengers as the old Levin spun wildly, stopping just inches away from the guardrail.
"You're still too slow with your countersteering, Akira. You should start it on that fraction of second when the clutch is up and traction in the rear is gone. You can feel it, right? Floating, slippery feeling, as if there's no tires in the rear at all, just some sort of force that keeps the rear in the air." Akira sighed. He had felt it alright, but the driving schools lessons were still nagging at him.
"Yeah, I did feel it, but the instincts tell me to press the clutch and drop off the throttle. I can't help it yet."
Ryuu nodded. He had been through that as well, as he had been learning how to drive faster. Eventually he had grown past the things he had learned at the driving lessons.
"You need to unlearn what you have learned in the past. Let it go and take new knowledge in it's place."
Akira laughed. "Gee, thanks a lot master Yoda. I feel a lot more confident now." Ryuu grinned as Akira started the car again and began to drive down the road, laughing at Ryuu's poor Yoda-imitations.
Meanwhile, in the industrial area of the city
Katashi was walking past line of shiny new Nissans. They were rolling out from the production line and loaded into trains that would take them to the harbor. There was few guards around, and one was walking with Katashi and one of the development engineers in the Nissan's performance arm, Nismo. Katashi looked around, admiring the efficient operations around him. Their path went past the normal car production lines to entirely another building, that was surrounded by guards and tight security measures.
"Welcome to the lair of reborn Godzilla, Mr. Hideaki." Young engineer said, grinning as he saw Katashi's expression. There were dozens of new GT-R's in various states of assembly. There were three assembly-lines this far, but Katashi could tell that there was room for more. The cars were already partially painted, waiting for the final touches. Katashi loved the sharp and aggressive looks of the car already.
"This way, please." Engineer and guard led him to another part of the building. Lights were off, and Guard stopped him in the middle of the floor, telling him to wait there. Engineer disappeared to the darkness ahead of them. Suddenly, bright lights ignited right in front of Katashi.
Before he had time to react, deep roar of powerful engine shook him and the lights leaped towards him, stopping just inches away from his legs. The halls lights were turned on, and in front of him was such a menacing beast of a car that even Kuro Ken would had looked tame next to it. Engineer revved the car few more times, before leaving the car purring as he climbed out.
"What do you like? This is the testbed of ours, that we use to try out different kind of modifications." Katashi managed to snap out of his trance, and started to walk around the car slowly. "Impressive.. is this going to be the next S- or Z-Tune?"
Katashi asked, looking at the subtle, yet beautiful touches that separated this particular car from the production line models.
"It's most likely going to be the Z-tune. The base models performance has been limited pretty heavily, but this doesn't have any restrictions or ECU programs to hold it down. No traction or stability control either."
Katashi grinned and grouched, looking under the wheel arches. "Hmm.. 6-pot rear brakes and 8 potters in front..? This car must be able to slow down from 230mph in less than ten seconds."
Engineer smiled, nodding. "On Nardo it clocked 240mph and there was still few thousand revs to go. With warmed up tires it hit to 60 in 2.7 seconds, and 200 was reached within 17 seconds. If this car wouldn't have so much downforce to keep it on the ground, it would slip past Veyron in top speed, when using those last few thousand revs on seventh gear."
Katashi nodded, then peeked inside the car. "Pretty spartan interior.. Carbon fiber here and there.. How much does this beauty weight?"
Engineer checked his papers. "1200kg wet, with all fluids and fuel. Oh, and the power is 1100bhp, and it's accompanied by over 1300nm of torque." Katashi spun around, staring at the engineer. "You must be kidding.. even Le Mans-racers don't have that much power."
Engineer smiled proudly. "This car has entirely different engine than the regular models. Pop the hood and you'll see." Katashi did so, walking to the front of the car and lifted the light carbon fiber hood. He had seen the spy photos of the regular models engine bay, but this was different.
The engine was huge even though it was mounted low and very far behind, and it boasted two large turbochargers on both sides, with Nismo badges on the valve covers. "Ooohh.. Isn't this V8 from the Titan? And VTG's.."
Engineer nodded. "It's been stroked and bored to 6 liters,ports have been polished, block and rotating parts have been reinforced and balanced as well as possible, and rev limiter doesn't interfere before 9500rpms. Suspension is adjustable in every possible way, including dampers, rollbars etc.." He lifted his eyebrow. "Still interested of test drivers job?"
Katashi didn't answer. He just stood there and admired the beast.
at Hideaki's residence
Ryuu's both cars were sitting in the front of the carage, since they both needed some work to be done on them. They had become neighborhoods kids main attraction. They argued about the looks and performance, even had small brawls about these facts. But today, they watched from further away as some old buddhist monk came there.
The monk walked to the cars, looking both at them intently, before shivering a bit. Maybe there was a gust of wind that made him shiver.. or something else. Kids looked at the old monk curiously, as he bowed and seemed to start some sort of ritual.
Kids looked at each other, then to the old monk as he attached some sort of paper notes on the cars, mumbling prayers or maybe a spell. Suddenly the papers burst into flames and vanished, and the monk stood up, looking satisfied. Kids rubbed their eyes, not believing what they had seen.
Sudden gust of wind blew some leaves across the road, making the monks cape flutter slightly. The monk bowed once more before leaving the cars behind. His task here was done, where as Ryuu's task was just about to begin.
Monk chuckled slightly. He wished that he could witness the first meeting between Ryuu and his new friends. He knew that Ryuu would catch him sooner or later for this, but this had happened before with few other cars, such as the Devil Z and Berserker R.
To Be Continued...?
