Silly as it might sound, I have to stress that all of the following is pure fiction. I am in no way responsible if you somehow attempt to do the same and injure others and/or yourself in the process.
Subaru, Impreza, STI, Apexi, Blitz, IHI, TEIN, EDFC, KAAZ, Endless, Zero Sports, Porsche, Brembo, Kirin, Lucky Strike and any other branding I may have missed below are all copyrighted. I am in no way using this for any profit.
The Light at The End of The Tunnel
By Kochan
Chapter III - More than meets the eye
-------------------------------------------First impressions might have you thinking her just like any other GC8 Impreza family sedan. She's identical to her non turbo-charged sisters body-wise; with even her signature bonnet scoop tamed in favour of the closed hood that her less aggressive siblings sport.
A larger, more efficient, Apexi front mount intercooler has replaced her original top mount. Some might liken this to the personal choice of a woman increasing her chest size for cosmetic purposes, but my interests were in her increased lung efficiency and little else. Painted black for stealth with a subtle mesh cover over the front grill, few guess its presence until hearing the sound of her engine.
Her breathing is driven by a Blitz Cold Air Intake and an IHI VF37 Turbocharger, with a 3-inch Fujitsubo custom exhaust giving her voice that characteristic rumble.
And last, the brain: a Modified Motec M600 Engine Management System commanding all of these components to crank a modest 300 Horse Power at 6150 RPM.But no car is complete without handling modifications to match the performance enhancements. More often than not, these are the ones that cannot be seen or heard, only felt.
Front and rear Kaaz Limited Slip Differentials help in keeping her feet on the ground. She sits an inch lower with TEIN suspension, sporting coilovers as subtle as 3-inch pumps yet keeping her as sure-footed as flat footed runners.
Six Pot Brembo calipers kiss Endless CC-X brakepads against the cold steel of her 310mm slotted front disc rotors. This setup brings her to a grinding halt in seconds even when the 300 horses under her bonnet run at full gallop.
As an All Wheel Drive, she's notoriously harsh on front as well as rear tyres. I grace her front axle with soft semi-slicks known for their savage grip on dry and wet surfaces alike.
Her rears are little more than commuter standard, balanced between grip and longevity. Their advantage is that they remain durable despite being below half tread, remaining more predictable gripwise for my use. As it may be, the workshop never sees a shortage of these cheap rubber tyres; It's not rare for six to eight discards to come through there every week with about one third tread remaining. Perfect for me; One man's trash is another man's gold...and nothing keeps my girl happier than a fresh pair of golden sandals each weekend.
But despite all of these parts and modifications, as any competent racer will tell you, a car can only unleash its full potential under the skillful hand and watchful eye of the right tuner.
Shigeru Kiyohara is a middle aged mechanic, ex-Zero Sports engineer with several years at Subaru Technica International as a primary Group A tuner. Now he has a wife, two children, and pays his mortgage installing Global Positioning Systems and servicing commuter vehicles in Takasaki.
My best friend Tsuyoshi has described him as a short man of stature with a less than flattering face to match his gruff voice. He's never caught without either a cigarette or beer can in his left hand. Nevertheless, this man is the Magician behind the workings of the GC8.
Shige fits Global Positioning Systems on a daily basis, as many as seven a day. He's in touch with the latest and the greatest when it comes to Satellite-Navigation and Computer Guidance.
Years ago, he attended a convention where new mapping technology was being showcast. One particular system involved Live, Three-dimensional landscape modelling in testing by several military groups throughout the world.
The basis was simple: A mobile laser mounted on a land-based vehicle (such as a car) would be swept over the road surface as the vehicle travelled through its course. Rocks, trees, guardrails as well as the road would be recorded within the system via a computer and then combined with Satellite Imagery to generate a Three-Dimensional model of the course accurate to 0.5 millimeters.
GPS computers are cheap, the secondary tracking devices and sensors are cheaper. How one of these 20 million yen lasers came to find its way into Shigeru's possession he refuses to tell me to this day. All I know is that it wasn't altogether legal and that someone in a faraway country got one less than they should have. "Better that we use it here to map roads than they use it to fight their wars with.' were his words. That concept I embraced with open arms.
As you might guess, the GC8 is outfitted with one of these on the roof. It's subtle; no larger than a ballpoint pen and passes for an antenna that lights up in the night.
But that's only half the story. Just how is one able to 'see' the road with this setup?
Firstly, there are course instructions: Rally style. My GC8 tells me the direction and severity of the turns ahead through the choice of either a soothing female voice or a series of harsh clicks and bleeps.
Next, data like her current speed, torque and G-meter readings are combined with her orientation on the road (via the laser) at 100 millisecond intervals (10 times every second). The live data is compared with the simulation of a near perfect run on the course through a computer and she warns me as to how close I am to the limit of control via the audiosystem.
Last comes the fine tuning. The capability that allows me to push her to that limit. Sixteen proximity sensors about her perimeter determine just how far or close I am from the guardrails, walls and even other traffic on each course. All this is communicated to me through a set of pitched whines.
To make the most of this, one needs the basics of music theory and an advanced sense of Perfect pitch.
A low C indicates a safe distance for the front left corner, a middle C the front right while the Cs an octave and 2 octaves above represent the 2 rear corners of the car.
As I close on the walls through a drift, the pitch rises for each corner depending on the distance. Hearing C would mean I was within 3 meters of a wall or guardrail. F sharp would mean a distance of between 120 to 140 centimeters. A B flat was the absolute closest I dared get at 20 cm.
A B flat meant a close shave, a red line so to speak. Hearing it meant I was pushing too hard and that to keep doing so was inviting disaster in the form of a quarter panel meeting a wall.
If someone thought it would have all been well and truly at home in a computer game, they couldn't have been more right.
Tsuyoshi was majoring in a Computer Engineering Systems degree at the time. Together,we fed pre-existing GPS data into a computer game engine and connected up the steering, pedals and gearshift of the car to the computer.
We simulated driving through the various courses of Gunma, Ibaraki, Saitama and Tochigi for months, doing little else but tuning the system and honing our skills to perfection
Between us, Course Records were made and broken several thousand times over and we were killed just as many times on the system. But a click of the mouse and we were resurrected, the car repaired and back in top form for us to take on the virtual turns once more.
The final test was late one public holiday night when we took the car out onto the Usui pass knowing it would be empty. Along I drove at grandmotherly speeds, palms sweaty with a deathgrip upon the steering.
Yoshi was beside me blabbering constant updates on the road in a manner that was more harm than good really. The useless commentary just made me nervous...but it was reassuring just to know he was there.
After what we both agreed had been the most nerve wracking hour of our lives to date, we celebrated at Yokokawa with bottles of Pocari Sweat from a vending machine and enough cheering that could have been heard in the next town.
But that was three years in the past. These days I negotiate the turns on the Usui pass faster than any other traffic I come across at night, racers included.
I chose not to challenge cars ahead of me, but Yoshi would sometimes alert me to the lights of the car tailgating us even though we'd given them ample chance to overtake. I'd speed up as they would do the same and we'd play by typical Touge rules.
Ten or so turns later, even the best of them would disappear from behind me despite my driving at half ability.
I was beginning to want to explore, to seek out the other wolves in the woods...
The town of Takasaki is framed on every side by mountains and driving with the window down in late summer is always a pleasure for me. The buzz of the cicadas, the heated breeze caressing my face, the scent in the air that tells of flowers poised in buds, waiting to explode into spring bloom; It reminds me of the time I rode in Father's minibus and still the colours from that morning roll through my mind.
I cruise into the town behind a convoy of holiday makers and make my way through the grid of streets to my car's second home: Shigeru's workshop.
The engine's still running as I step over a pair of large objects the sensors picked up on my arrival and saunter over to where Shige spends the latter part of his mornings: the makeshift office in the corner.
Tobacco smoke and the hint of cheap Kirin draught mix with the prominent odour of motor grease and engine oil as I near; a sign that the Shigeru is in and at his desk.
"So sorry to interrupt your breakfast again, Boss." I mutter as I adjust my sunglasses.
"Che.. Breakfast, lunch or dinner it's all the same these days. Lucky Strike and Draught or Ale." comes the hoarse reply, punctuated by the rustle of his newspaper.
There's a small pause as he sucks in another lungful of smoke with a quiet hiss, "Got an assignment for you Saturday. Pickup from the Suwa Hotel here and drop off at the Chinese Restaurant in your town. I'll leave the details in your glovebox."
"Understood." I nodded my affirmation. The pickups came every so often and were an agreement between Shigeru and I. My part of the deal was to ferry an anonymous passenger from Takasaki to Karuizawa on either Friday or Saturday Night, no questions asked.
The passenger was always a middle-aged male; heavyset and reeking of expensive cologne masking body odour. My guess was that he was some political Heavyweight that couldn't risk being seen by journalists or the general public for fear of scandal. The fact that I was blind made me the perfect driver for the job. His business was none of my concern but once again, I guessed that he visited a mistress in Karuizawa.
Shigeru's part of the agreement was simple: The car had been his to begin with. Along with the navigational laser and complementing sensors, it was mine for as long as I did the pickups. Additional Parts were at my expense but the installation and high performance tuning was a favour of his.
As it was, I'd been looking for an engine upgrade for some months now. The stock engine in the GC8 hadn't enough low end torque for my liking.
Shige anticipated my next question, "News isn't good: The EJ22 from Osaka had tampered internals. Car it came out of was fully modified and run within an inch of it's life."
I frowned under my sunglasses, "They didn't bother to tell you before it arrived?"
"I don't think they picked up on it either. I checked it over just before you got here. It's one of those two blocks you passed on your way in." the smoke whiffed over me as he'd looked up from his paper.
Guess I was going to have to use the existing engine for now. I shrugged, "Doesn't matter, it's something that can wait. No trouble keeping the money in the bank a little longer. Oh, there Was something else I needed to bring up with you though."
I paced back towards the car and knelt beside the bonnet, "Hear that?"
His cheap thongs shuffled beside me and I could sense him kneeling, hear him filling his lungs with smoke again before holding his breath. A moment passed before he exhaled in a cough, "She's idling at about 1200 - that's fine isn't it? Can't pick anything else up. "
"She sits at 1200 for but rises about 15 rpm for just a second." No one else might have been able to pick it up but to me: it'd been quite clear. "Slight hesitation after shifting 2nd to 3rd as well. About 4350. Might have been the injectors I thought, or maybe the fuel pump surging."
I slipped a floppy disk from my shirt pocket. "Tsuyoshi logged the data. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but it's probably something you can do better."
He chuckled as I offered him the disk. "Said it before, boy. That's some skill you've got there." I cut the ignition and traced his shuffles back to the desk.The click of the disk in the drive sounded and mouse clicks followed. "You know, you need to find yourself a woman. Someone who will get you thinking about things other than all this car rubbish."
I couldn't stifle the snicker, at the mere prospect of rejections just at my handicap. Then there was the fact that I hadn't had a formal education, wasn't particularly well off and oh yes...also happened to be facially disfigured to an extent. Four out of three strikes. I laughed, yet again. "I don't know, Boss. It's not like girls really go for my kind."
"Heh.You'll never know unless you try. But you need to meet some new people, boy." He leaned closer, his next sentence hushed "Also, the other boys here tend to think that both the kid you drive with and you aren't interested in women."
"Uhh...how do you mean?"
"Food for thought, Makoto, you know just what I mean." I could feel my ears burning as the pathetic attempt to play dumb fell to the floor. "Now give me an hour or so to plod through this stuff." the flick of his lighter sounded, followed by the hiss of butane from the cartridge as he lit another cigarette .
"I'll uhm...head out for a walk." I pondered what he'd mentioned as I returned to the car to retrieve my walking stick. Were people really reading that of Tsuyoshi and I?
"Oh, one other thing..." came that smoke thickened voice again. Shigeru cleared his throat in a hoarse cough as I turned. "There's a group of racers that meets about 2 kilometers past the Eneos Service station at the top of Usui, Saturday nights, 2am." another chuckle, "Maybe they'll have some attractive sisters they can introduce to you."
"Um...sure. Thanks Boss. I'll uh...keep it in mind." I nodded, tapping my cane out the garage. The idea seemed interesting and yet, the term 'Street Racers' suggested a group...no...Gang of road hooligans as opposed to the true breed of racing enthusiasts I might have seeked.
What did an old goat like Shigeru know about street racing these days anyway?
Replies:
Re: Tiger eyes -
And guess what? This is the 4th month. Here's hoping it was worth the wait. As you can see from the detail and length there ARE reasons why it took as long as it did, like the fact that I had to rewrite the first half or so. As for this chapter, not as much for you to sink your teeth into I think. But the plot IS thickening (and I promise it won't curdle). Here's hoping you enjoyed it. :)
Re: Goose
Oh yeahhhh...about that waiting thing - Hehe...blink and it's suddenly 4 months again. This chapter was TOUGH to write.You can clearly see - it's rather technical. And as much of a bitch as I am on tech detail...well...
As for the points you made:
1) Actually - you certainly picked up well on that. If you have the soundtrack to 'The X files- The truth and the light" have a listen to the first few tracks. There's a narration from Mulder that starts off similar.
2) Karuizawa is the resort town at the top of the Usui pass. Yokogawa is down the bottom. Thing is - I personally don't think Mt Usui exists, despite the comics and games and anime calling it a Mountain. It's just a pass (Touge). Anyone confirm? Impact Blue? Why would you think that? ;)
3) Yeah - Makoto's one of those names which can be used for a guy or a girl. As for the rest of point 3 - stay tuned :)
4) Thing is that Bunta is a driver out of this world - Much respect. This GC8 is only a run of the mill one though - not an Sti.
Till next chappie :)
Re: Eikichi
And thanks for the long review, glad you enjoyed the read. I'm even more impressed by your knowledge on the train systems as well.
Thanks for pointing out that oversight. I did get confused and the town I had in mind WAS Takasaki - not Yokokawa.
The Nagano line that goes through Karuizawa was only completed in 97 for the Winter Olympics. As the accident happened in the 80's (when Makoto was still a boy), the idea of them driving up and down the Usui pass is feasible I think:)
There WAS a train line that went from Yokokawa to Karuizawa, but that was made obsolete with the intoduction of the Shinkansen. What Makoto's father provided was an extra service for their guests :)
Japan was intense last trip...and helluva hot! 36C and 80 humidity. Not pleasant I can assure you. I headed up to Karuizawa twice. Beautiful in the summer heat compared to Tokyo. I had my bike with me (took it on the plane) and cycled about. Fantastic. Been meaning to do a website for a while. I did take quite a few pics.
Will let you know as soon as I get it up!
Oh yeah - hope you enjoyed the latest chappie.
Re: KOKO
Hehe...I knew someone would mention about the lack of racing :) Agreed that it can't be Initial D without cars, but even Initial D isn't about racing EVERY chapter :) Thing about the series is that they have a LOT of time to develop the chars. I haven't too much.
And as for the Patlabor ref - that's a fair comment :D If he's Iconic like Geordi La Forge from ST: TNG or Scotty from the original ST - then it suits to a tee.
I can't remember the relationship between the main girl and the mechanic in Patlabor but you can see that Shige's quite abit more to Makoto than just a mechanic. :)
Hope you enjoyed the latest!
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And once again I've kept yous all waiting :p - oh well, rather than apologise I'll just say that the next chapter is going to be a LOT easier for me to write.
And I do have a competition with someone else to see how which of us gets our respective fics finished (You know who you are) ;)
Till next chapter/review!!!