Chapter 11 - Racin' with Hopes and Dreams
"How we doin' this then Kat. You'll be the big dawg down here tonight, what were you thinken' for a buy in?" Edwin called the shots around there but even Edwin knew the tigers answered to no one.
Kat had been thinking of the 1000 dollar minor race, but it was clear that she had to let Edwin set her up a main event if she was ever gonna be taken seriously again. But it was so much to gamble. They had 4 grand with them. That was the max she could go for. She didn't want to do that. But she had to do something drastic or everyone would think she was a joke. She looked at the guys, they told her with their looks that whatever she felt was ok by them. She didn't want to let them down. But she didn't want to let herself down even worse.
"Ok Edwin, you set it up, 4 grand buy in or, if they wanna race the kid and they don't have it they can throw their keys on the line." She smirked. They use to call her 'the kid' cause she started to race when she was 15. A ripple of excitement went through the crowd. 4 grand was a huge buy in for what they normally raced for. "That is of course, if you can find me 3 people who have the money, or wanna lose their cars."
Edwin laughed. This was Kat 'the kid'. She hadn't changed. God help them all. He figured that three guys were losing 4 grand each tonight. He stood back from her and looked around at the crowd. "Here's how we're doin' this. One race, winner takes all. 4 G's or your keys to get in on it. You're racin' the kid, so you'd better know what your doin'. This ain't for amateurs."
The first challenger stepped up. "I'm in." He handed Edwin 4 grand.
"Whatchya driven?" Edwin didn't know this guy. "You ain't from 'round here. Do you know what you're getten' into?"
"It's all good brotha'. I got it. I'm driving that Evo over there." The man pointed at a blue Evo. It was a nice car. "So am I worthy?"
Edwin knew the answer to this one. "We don't know yet, but you're in." The crowd cheered. Another guy walked up and handed Edwin 4 grand. "I'm in." Edwin knew this guy. Mazda RX-7. He'd only be competition for Kat till about 120 then she'd have him. But it wouldn't be a run away for her so the guy was in. But the race wouldn't go off till they had a fourth racer. Edwin looked around. No one seemed like they were gonna take a chance. It was a little richer then they normally ran for. Edwin would go for it if a fourth didn't step up.
Kat looked around. "All you big guys are scared to race a chick. Well, I'm glad to know you all acknowledge my superiority." She laughed, head thrown back. They were scared to race her. This was very good. A deep voice answered her call,
"I'm in. But I don't have the cash, so I will, as you say, throw my keys on the line." Everyone turned to look at the man that said that. He was also new around the scene. The new man was tall and Asian, no one knew who he was, but everyone knew that he was a long way from home. Kat looked him up and down. He was very tall and quite nice looking. She wondered why he was in this neighbourhood to race, and what he'd been thinking coming down here on his own.
"Your not that attached to your car I guess?" She smirked at him.
"I am quite attached to it, but I won't be losing it so it makes no difference. Am I in?"
"Well that depends on what you're driven." Kat told him.
"Ah, of course. The car is over this way." The man led them over to the back corner of the lot, where a dark silver Eclipse Spyder convertible sat. He popped the hood and Sean looked under to check out what kind of equipment the man had.
"He's got a HKS racer exhaust, HKS high flow cold air intake, HKS T51R Turbo kit with variable boost control, Direct port NOS system, and a stand alone fuel management system. And he has almost as much ICE as you do Kitten."
"So his car's worth the better part of 60 grand." Kat said with a smile. "You're in. I can't wait to feel the wind in my hair in that great convertible."
The man with the Spyder was confident he would have this girl's money by the end of the night. He wondered what she would do to get it back. He gave her a speculative look. The people around looked at him like he was insane. No one messed with Kat. Guys had tried, she either froze them out, or her boys beat them up. No one wanted to go there anymore. But the new guy didn't seem to get that.
Kat didn't like the way he was looking at her. She was gonna enjoy taking his car at the end of this evening. He was so arrogant, and so in for an attitude adjustment. If he thought he was the first guy to step to her and figure he had a race in the bag 'cause she was a girl, he was gonna find out quick how wrong he was.
"Well, let's do this then." Edwin shouted and announced the street they would do it on. Kat smiled to herself. That course involved turning a corner to get in the full ΒΌ mile. She had this in the bag. Not one of these cars could corner like her baby. She could drift all the corners or stick them solid and beat them either way. Where had all the insecurity gone she asked herself in a moment of worry but it was gone in an instant when she thought of selling that silver car.
They lined up on the red painted start line that two skanks had painted on the road. She always looked down on those girls. Maybe it came from the fact her brother had tried to sell her into that life and maybe it came from seeing the way her brothers had treated them but she just didn't understand how they let themselves be treated like that. She looked to her left and saw the kid in the Evo, looking nervous. Good, she though, nervous loses races. Besides that an Evo only had about 270 horsepower from the factory and she could tell by the way the car sounded and sat on it's suspension that this one wasn't lowered. She figured if the kid didn't lower it he didn't do a lot of other stuff that he should've. He was gonna find out the hard way tonight that you didn't run with this sort of crowd until your car was finished.
Beyond him was the guy in the RX-7. It was a nice car, but she could take him in the corners over 100 she figured. RX-7 had more horsepower then an Evo, and only had a 5 speed shift, unless the guy had swapped it for a 6. If he only had the stock 5 gears then he was going to be able to gain on her when she went from third to fourth later then he would have to. But she still had him in the horsepower department and her car should be more agile then his. However her all wheel drive system made her car harder to drift then his would be so if he was a good drifter he could take the corner better then her. It was hard to make the skyline drift because of the automatic YAW control and the AWD. She still figured that when the speeds hit triple digits she'd take him.
Then she glanced at her right, and there was the Asian dude. She didn't know who he was or where he came from, but she sensed that he was her only real competition. His car was low to the ground, the role cage ruining the convertible look to a certain extent. The car was never truly topless because a steel bar went overhead at all times. By the sound of the exhaust it had a high flow system. If he hadn't swapped out the trannie he also had only 5 forward gears. At the speeds that she and this man were gonna reach it shouldn't help him that much early and her 6th gear would help her late. His car being the GT-S had a 3.0 V6, and stock put out about 205 horse. Of course this car was not stock. She'd seen the moddes. And she estimated he was now running at around 450. She might be estimating high, but that was better then low. It also redlined at 6200 not the 8000 her Skyline did. She should be able to take him easily but she got this feeling that the fight in this guy was huge.
She checked over her systems. She lifted a flap on the passenger seat and turned on the 'sneaky Pete' NOS system and opened the tank valve. She fixed the seat then pressed a button to turn on her fuel and NOS management system. The small monitor mounted to the dash turned on and displayed a snarling tiger while the system booted. After boot up it showed a fluctuating bar graph of the mix going into the idling engine of her car. Everything looked good. It was running very well since Jesse had tuned it for her. She revved her engine and the tailpipe spewed flames. The crowd cheered. The man in the Eclipse did the same trick.
Edwin looked at them again. They had no need to wait for the cops to be called away down here, he was just letting the tension build and the racers get ready before he started them off. Kat looked ready, as did the Asian man. It was bothering him where he knew that man from. He realized the guy was definitely a Tran, but Edwin couldn't place which one. But the he had no beef with the Trans personally and since the Trans couldn't have anything against any of these racers he couldn't see an issue with letting the race continue. He looked at the four racers and raised his arms. He waited till all eyes were on him then dropped his arms to his sides.
The four cars screamed off the line and off down the road.
The kid in the Evo broke off the line badly. He was pretty well out of the race already. He kept after the other three but after loosing even that small amount of ground he was already too far off the pace to catch up.
The man in the Mazda took an early lead, followed by the Eclipse and finally Kat was currently in last place of the three people still in the running. She had expected for the RX-7 to get out in front of her but not the Eclipse. She pushed the petal to the floor and the factory engine monitoring system beeped telling her it was time to shift up to second. She shot up and got in line with the Eclipse. With the pedal to the floor she overtook him. She was closing on the Mazda.
Tran watched her go with a smile; he had lots of time to catch her. She was bound to slip up then he'd capitalize on her mistake and overtake her. He checked over his gages and everything was within normal specs. Such a small girl child couldn't drive like he could. He had been taught by in his mind, the best racer ever.
The man in the Mazda watched the black Skyline flying up on him in the side mirror for a split second. It sounded like a jet engine about to take off. Of course with a strait pipe exhaust that was hard to control, and who would want to? And the front grill on a skyline looked downright mean. Just like it's driver when it came to racing. His foot was to the floor but he was losing ground to her. He checked his gages and shifted up to third.
Tran checked his stats and gave his car a little more gas. He hit third. He slowly started to catch up to Kat.
Kat checked everything over then shifted to third. She flew ahead of both men like a purple blur of light. The RX-7 became a streak of blue in her rearview, but she couldn't see the silver car so she knew he was right on her fender in her blind spot. She still had her foot to the floorboard and the car was just roaring. She looked down and saw that she was at 90mph. She saw the tail of the Eclipse in her rearview and guessed that the other guy was now in fourth. He gained on her. She could now see the front clip of his car in her side mirror.
Tran gave it more gas and checked stuff over. He was almost ready for NOS. Then he remembered the corner that was coming. Could he use NOS to get ahead of her and still get to a speed that would let him take the corner without burning out? Maybe. He had to decide now how bad he wanted to win.
Kat knew she'd have to stick her shift to 4th or she'd give him a window to catch her. She shifted up and lost a small amount of ground. He was now visible out her window in her peripheral vision. She was thinking she was gonna have to use her NOS to get ahead of him and then drift the corner. At these speeds the stability controls of the car were gonna fight her all the way on that. The car wanted to stick to the road not drift across it sideways. She saw she was now going 120 and she started to pant, she wasn't sure if she was scared or incredibly high on adrenaline. She knew when the adrenaline was flowing because she tasted it. Some called it the taste of fear, and in a way they were right, it was part of the fight or flight response, but she knew it was the taste of risk, of excitement. The sweet taste of honey on pennies in her mouth.
Then she remembered Leon telling her she'd do fine and she very briefly closed her eyes then hit the NOS. For some reason the thoughts of letting Leon find out she lost were painful. The tires squealed and she was thrown back into the Sparco seat with considerable force. Then she did something that was either going to be the gutsiest move she ever made, or the stupidest. She touched a button on her aftermarket LCD screen that disabled the Yaw and traction controls on her car. Now she was totally on her own. If she started to skid or anything she'd be on her own and would have to compensate for it herself. She'd done that before at drifting competitions but speed didn't count there, form did and she'd never done anything like this at this speed.
Tran could not believe the girl had used NOS before the turn, he had been considering it himself but he did not think the girl had it in her. He quickly checked and also used his NOS. He almost caught her with the NOS and the corner was right ahead. He prepared himself to take the corner, he was going to have to slow down slightly, but as he and the girl were now in a dead heat that should be ok, because she would also have to slow down. The corner loomed right ahead. He began to decelerate slightly.
Kat was going 130, she'd never tried anything like this corner at this speed. She'd normally slow down to 100 and let the traction system stick the corner but not this time. She sped up to 135. If she was gonna do something potentially this stupid then she was gonna go all out too.
Tran saw the imamate corner and started to slow down. It then became apparent the girl wasn't going to do the same, in fact he would have to think she was going faster then she had been. He had no idea what she was planning to do, but he thought she was crazy and they would be scraping her off that warehouse on the corner in about 1 second. He'd win by default after she killed herself. The thought didn't hold any joy for him. He wanted to beat the girl, but not see her dead. However she must be slow witted to accelerate into that corner, even in a skyline. He slowed to 100 and took the corner like a left hand turn, just like normal people took it only twice as fast.
"How we doin' this then Kat. You'll be the big dawg down here tonight, what were you thinken' for a buy in?" Edwin called the shots around there but even Edwin knew the tigers answered to no one.
Kat had been thinking of the 1000 dollar minor race, but it was clear that she had to let Edwin set her up a main event if she was ever gonna be taken seriously again. But it was so much to gamble. They had 4 grand with them. That was the max she could go for. She didn't want to do that. But she had to do something drastic or everyone would think she was a joke. She looked at the guys, they told her with their looks that whatever she felt was ok by them. She didn't want to let them down. But she didn't want to let herself down even worse.
"Ok Edwin, you set it up, 4 grand buy in or, if they wanna race the kid and they don't have it they can throw their keys on the line." She smirked. They use to call her 'the kid' cause she started to race when she was 15. A ripple of excitement went through the crowd. 4 grand was a huge buy in for what they normally raced for. "That is of course, if you can find me 3 people who have the money, or wanna lose their cars."
Edwin laughed. This was Kat 'the kid'. She hadn't changed. God help them all. He figured that three guys were losing 4 grand each tonight. He stood back from her and looked around at the crowd. "Here's how we're doin' this. One race, winner takes all. 4 G's or your keys to get in on it. You're racin' the kid, so you'd better know what your doin'. This ain't for amateurs."
The first challenger stepped up. "I'm in." He handed Edwin 4 grand.
"Whatchya driven?" Edwin didn't know this guy. "You ain't from 'round here. Do you know what you're getten' into?"
"It's all good brotha'. I got it. I'm driving that Evo over there." The man pointed at a blue Evo. It was a nice car. "So am I worthy?"
Edwin knew the answer to this one. "We don't know yet, but you're in." The crowd cheered. Another guy walked up and handed Edwin 4 grand. "I'm in." Edwin knew this guy. Mazda RX-7. He'd only be competition for Kat till about 120 then she'd have him. But it wouldn't be a run away for her so the guy was in. But the race wouldn't go off till they had a fourth racer. Edwin looked around. No one seemed like they were gonna take a chance. It was a little richer then they normally ran for. Edwin would go for it if a fourth didn't step up.
Kat looked around. "All you big guys are scared to race a chick. Well, I'm glad to know you all acknowledge my superiority." She laughed, head thrown back. They were scared to race her. This was very good. A deep voice answered her call,
"I'm in. But I don't have the cash, so I will, as you say, throw my keys on the line." Everyone turned to look at the man that said that. He was also new around the scene. The new man was tall and Asian, no one knew who he was, but everyone knew that he was a long way from home. Kat looked him up and down. He was very tall and quite nice looking. She wondered why he was in this neighbourhood to race, and what he'd been thinking coming down here on his own.
"Your not that attached to your car I guess?" She smirked at him.
"I am quite attached to it, but I won't be losing it so it makes no difference. Am I in?"
"Well that depends on what you're driven." Kat told him.
"Ah, of course. The car is over this way." The man led them over to the back corner of the lot, where a dark silver Eclipse Spyder convertible sat. He popped the hood and Sean looked under to check out what kind of equipment the man had.
"He's got a HKS racer exhaust, HKS high flow cold air intake, HKS T51R Turbo kit with variable boost control, Direct port NOS system, and a stand alone fuel management system. And he has almost as much ICE as you do Kitten."
"So his car's worth the better part of 60 grand." Kat said with a smile. "You're in. I can't wait to feel the wind in my hair in that great convertible."
The man with the Spyder was confident he would have this girl's money by the end of the night. He wondered what she would do to get it back. He gave her a speculative look. The people around looked at him like he was insane. No one messed with Kat. Guys had tried, she either froze them out, or her boys beat them up. No one wanted to go there anymore. But the new guy didn't seem to get that.
Kat didn't like the way he was looking at her. She was gonna enjoy taking his car at the end of this evening. He was so arrogant, and so in for an attitude adjustment. If he thought he was the first guy to step to her and figure he had a race in the bag 'cause she was a girl, he was gonna find out quick how wrong he was.
"Well, let's do this then." Edwin shouted and announced the street they would do it on. Kat smiled to herself. That course involved turning a corner to get in the full ΒΌ mile. She had this in the bag. Not one of these cars could corner like her baby. She could drift all the corners or stick them solid and beat them either way. Where had all the insecurity gone she asked herself in a moment of worry but it was gone in an instant when she thought of selling that silver car.
They lined up on the red painted start line that two skanks had painted on the road. She always looked down on those girls. Maybe it came from the fact her brother had tried to sell her into that life and maybe it came from seeing the way her brothers had treated them but she just didn't understand how they let themselves be treated like that. She looked to her left and saw the kid in the Evo, looking nervous. Good, she though, nervous loses races. Besides that an Evo only had about 270 horsepower from the factory and she could tell by the way the car sounded and sat on it's suspension that this one wasn't lowered. She figured if the kid didn't lower it he didn't do a lot of other stuff that he should've. He was gonna find out the hard way tonight that you didn't run with this sort of crowd until your car was finished.
Beyond him was the guy in the RX-7. It was a nice car, but she could take him in the corners over 100 she figured. RX-7 had more horsepower then an Evo, and only had a 5 speed shift, unless the guy had swapped it for a 6. If he only had the stock 5 gears then he was going to be able to gain on her when she went from third to fourth later then he would have to. But she still had him in the horsepower department and her car should be more agile then his. However her all wheel drive system made her car harder to drift then his would be so if he was a good drifter he could take the corner better then her. It was hard to make the skyline drift because of the automatic YAW control and the AWD. She still figured that when the speeds hit triple digits she'd take him.
Then she glanced at her right, and there was the Asian dude. She didn't know who he was or where he came from, but she sensed that he was her only real competition. His car was low to the ground, the role cage ruining the convertible look to a certain extent. The car was never truly topless because a steel bar went overhead at all times. By the sound of the exhaust it had a high flow system. If he hadn't swapped out the trannie he also had only 5 forward gears. At the speeds that she and this man were gonna reach it shouldn't help him that much early and her 6th gear would help her late. His car being the GT-S had a 3.0 V6, and stock put out about 205 horse. Of course this car was not stock. She'd seen the moddes. And she estimated he was now running at around 450. She might be estimating high, but that was better then low. It also redlined at 6200 not the 8000 her Skyline did. She should be able to take him easily but she got this feeling that the fight in this guy was huge.
She checked over her systems. She lifted a flap on the passenger seat and turned on the 'sneaky Pete' NOS system and opened the tank valve. She fixed the seat then pressed a button to turn on her fuel and NOS management system. The small monitor mounted to the dash turned on and displayed a snarling tiger while the system booted. After boot up it showed a fluctuating bar graph of the mix going into the idling engine of her car. Everything looked good. It was running very well since Jesse had tuned it for her. She revved her engine and the tailpipe spewed flames. The crowd cheered. The man in the Eclipse did the same trick.
Edwin looked at them again. They had no need to wait for the cops to be called away down here, he was just letting the tension build and the racers get ready before he started them off. Kat looked ready, as did the Asian man. It was bothering him where he knew that man from. He realized the guy was definitely a Tran, but Edwin couldn't place which one. But the he had no beef with the Trans personally and since the Trans couldn't have anything against any of these racers he couldn't see an issue with letting the race continue. He looked at the four racers and raised his arms. He waited till all eyes were on him then dropped his arms to his sides.
The four cars screamed off the line and off down the road.
The kid in the Evo broke off the line badly. He was pretty well out of the race already. He kept after the other three but after loosing even that small amount of ground he was already too far off the pace to catch up.
The man in the Mazda took an early lead, followed by the Eclipse and finally Kat was currently in last place of the three people still in the running. She had expected for the RX-7 to get out in front of her but not the Eclipse. She pushed the petal to the floor and the factory engine monitoring system beeped telling her it was time to shift up to second. She shot up and got in line with the Eclipse. With the pedal to the floor she overtook him. She was closing on the Mazda.
Tran watched her go with a smile; he had lots of time to catch her. She was bound to slip up then he'd capitalize on her mistake and overtake her. He checked over his gages and everything was within normal specs. Such a small girl child couldn't drive like he could. He had been taught by in his mind, the best racer ever.
The man in the Mazda watched the black Skyline flying up on him in the side mirror for a split second. It sounded like a jet engine about to take off. Of course with a strait pipe exhaust that was hard to control, and who would want to? And the front grill on a skyline looked downright mean. Just like it's driver when it came to racing. His foot was to the floor but he was losing ground to her. He checked his gages and shifted up to third.
Tran checked his stats and gave his car a little more gas. He hit third. He slowly started to catch up to Kat.
Kat checked everything over then shifted to third. She flew ahead of both men like a purple blur of light. The RX-7 became a streak of blue in her rearview, but she couldn't see the silver car so she knew he was right on her fender in her blind spot. She still had her foot to the floorboard and the car was just roaring. She looked down and saw that she was at 90mph. She saw the tail of the Eclipse in her rearview and guessed that the other guy was now in fourth. He gained on her. She could now see the front clip of his car in her side mirror.
Tran gave it more gas and checked stuff over. He was almost ready for NOS. Then he remembered the corner that was coming. Could he use NOS to get ahead of her and still get to a speed that would let him take the corner without burning out? Maybe. He had to decide now how bad he wanted to win.
Kat knew she'd have to stick her shift to 4th or she'd give him a window to catch her. She shifted up and lost a small amount of ground. He was now visible out her window in her peripheral vision. She was thinking she was gonna have to use her NOS to get ahead of him and then drift the corner. At these speeds the stability controls of the car were gonna fight her all the way on that. The car wanted to stick to the road not drift across it sideways. She saw she was now going 120 and she started to pant, she wasn't sure if she was scared or incredibly high on adrenaline. She knew when the adrenaline was flowing because she tasted it. Some called it the taste of fear, and in a way they were right, it was part of the fight or flight response, but she knew it was the taste of risk, of excitement. The sweet taste of honey on pennies in her mouth.
Then she remembered Leon telling her she'd do fine and she very briefly closed her eyes then hit the NOS. For some reason the thoughts of letting Leon find out she lost were painful. The tires squealed and she was thrown back into the Sparco seat with considerable force. Then she did something that was either going to be the gutsiest move she ever made, or the stupidest. She touched a button on her aftermarket LCD screen that disabled the Yaw and traction controls on her car. Now she was totally on her own. If she started to skid or anything she'd be on her own and would have to compensate for it herself. She'd done that before at drifting competitions but speed didn't count there, form did and she'd never done anything like this at this speed.
Tran could not believe the girl had used NOS before the turn, he had been considering it himself but he did not think the girl had it in her. He quickly checked and also used his NOS. He almost caught her with the NOS and the corner was right ahead. He prepared himself to take the corner, he was going to have to slow down slightly, but as he and the girl were now in a dead heat that should be ok, because she would also have to slow down. The corner loomed right ahead. He began to decelerate slightly.
Kat was going 130, she'd never tried anything like this corner at this speed. She'd normally slow down to 100 and let the traction system stick the corner but not this time. She sped up to 135. If she was gonna do something potentially this stupid then she was gonna go all out too.
Tran saw the imamate corner and started to slow down. It then became apparent the girl wasn't going to do the same, in fact he would have to think she was going faster then she had been. He had no idea what she was planning to do, but he thought she was crazy and they would be scraping her off that warehouse on the corner in about 1 second. He'd win by default after she killed herself. The thought didn't hold any joy for him. He wanted to beat the girl, but not see her dead. However she must be slow witted to accelerate into that corner, even in a skyline. He slowed to 100 and took the corner like a left hand turn, just like normal people took it only twice as fast.