The bus arrived at the mountain pass and Todou School had already gathered there waiting to see who their opponents were.Project S had already listed the 2 drivers they wanted to race up front, Ninomiya Daiki and Sakai.
The 2 Todou school drivers watched the heavy 18 wheeler trucks pull into the empty parking lot.

"And I thought Project D was crazy, these guys even transport their cars on trucks, I wonder who these guys are." Sakai said.

"Rumours say they are a foreign team, but not from which country, if any."

"I don't feel like losing twice, but I wonder why these guys chose us as their opponents." Just as Sakai finished the sentence the bus with the mechanics and drivers stopped and started unloading.

Sweeper and Carlos still half sleepy got out and begun stretching out.

"Well Carlos, have they decided who is going to race?"

"I don't know exactly, I was sleeping just like you." Carlos replied.

"Damn, I forgot that, let's ask Keiichi then." Sweeper walked towards Keiichi who was speaking with Jane.

"Keiichi, have you decided who is going to race tonight?" Sweeper asked

"Yes, you and Carlos will be doing the battling against our first opponents, the R34 will according to Jane be very suited for the hill climb and your FD is perfect for the downhill. However should it start to rain we are replacing you with Chang." Keiichi said while looking at Jane for confirmation, after all she was the one that knew cars inside out, but Keiichi knew strategies for winning, something Jane wasn't very good at.

Sweeper looked up towards the sky; there wasn't a cloud in sight.

"Looks like I got to race tonight, Hey Carlos, we better get our cars onto the course." Sweeper turned and waved at Carlos before they walked to the car carrier who had already begun unloading the cars.

"So we are going to race tonight? Oh well, suits me just fine, I am up for it."

While Sweeper and Carlos were waiting for their cars to be taken down from the ramp, Keiichi was walking over to the Todou School members.
He greeted them in a friendly manner.

"We are the Project S team; will you let us use this course for practice with the race being tomorrow?"

"This sounds too much like Project D if you ask me." Daiki commented to Sakai.

"It is allright, you can use the course, just be on the starting line tomorrow night." Sakai replied to Keiichi, Keiichi thanked them and walked back to Jane still simulating on her laptop with a serious look on her face.

"I do not like the way these guys are organized, too much like a real racing team. But they appear to be on a whole different level than Project D; if you look closely the tools the mechanics are using are not standard tools that Project D used. Last time I saw somebody use such tools was on a race track." One of the Todou members said.

"Indeed these guys are oddballs when it comes to this, but I cannot make out who those drivers are, I have seen those 2 before somewhere." Sakai commented while pointing at Sweeper and Carlos joking to each other.

"I guess we will find out later, but I say we do not do the same error that we did towards Project D, lets watch these guys run and see what we can come up with." Daiki commented to Sakai.

"You are right, these guys can be very good, they don't appear to be amateurs, and they are also well funded." Sakai said with a serious look on his face as he watched the mechanics rush in and out of the trailer on one of the 18 wheelers.

"Do you want us to change tires Sweeper?" One of the mechanics asked.

"No, not yet I need to drive a round of the course and decide which tires are suited for the course, for that the current street tires should do, we will have to swap tires before we race though." Sweeper said as he got into the FD and started up the engine.

"I'll do the same thing; I need to feel the linear handling of my GT-R before I go with the right tires for the race." Carlos got off his jacket and put it in the back seat of his Skyline.

The mechanics watched the 2 cars pull out on the road and disappear around the first corner.
Jane approached them after seeing Sweeper and Carlos take off.

"Did you complete the setup on their cars?" Jane asked the 2 chief mechanics.

"No, they insisted on running the course with the cars in present condition before returning up here."

"This starts off just GREAT, wasting our precious time on their foolish games."

Keiichi sensing trouble got over to Jane and asked in his cold voice:

"Is there a problem?"

"Is there a problem? I'll tell you what the problem is, those two top drivers that are going to battle tonight headed off together while they were supposed to bring a mechanic to assist in setting up their car! They used the excuse that they needed to decide on proper tires but I know it is something else and I know EXACTLY what those two are doing."

McClintock was smiling in the background as he knew exactly what Sweeper and Carlos were doing.
Keiichi on the other hand was clueless.

"What do you mean Jane? What are those two doing?"

McClintock came over to Keiichi and started talking.

"Those two are rivals, good rivals actually. They are the best of friends until they get into their cars, then it is a battle to see who is faster, if you had studied those two a bit more you would have noticed that, they often meet in the US to run on the streets, but now they have new machines and a new interesting ground to cover and I bet they couldn't leave the temptation of seeing who was faster to rest. That is Carlos and Sweeper in a nutshell for you, always been like that since they first met on the streets."

"EXACTLY! McClintock here is right on as usual."

"Will this have consequences for the race itself? Will they be out of their prime condition? What about their cars?" Keiichi asked with a worried look on his face.

Jane turned towards Keiichi and in the background they clearly heard a loud 4 rotor and a blow off valve as well as tires squealing.

"I think they will be just fine, once they are done they usually settle down, it is just that this annoys me a bit, I like to have a lot of time when it comes for suspension setups, but these guys usually make me work overtime." Jane shook her head and headed back to the table they had put up with the laptop, Keiichi followed her to discuss the racing strategy.

McClintock on the other hand just laughed silently and walked back to Chang.
Chang was actually just enjoying the fresh mountain air.

"It has been a long time since I have felt this, the tension of racing and the fresh air. I used to just stand like this and enjoy the air before I got into my car and did the battle."

"You are going to get that chance again Chang, should be interesting to see your NSX on the pass, actually I cannot wait for my turn heading uphill, unlike Carlos I haven't done much weight reduction to my car." McClintock said while taking the last sip from the soda can and crushing it in his hand.

"Well, just brings back memories that is all, memories of both good and bad. If you would excuse me…" Chang walked away from McClintock, Jane noticed what was happening, and she told Keiichi to wait for a second and then headed over to McClintock.

"Hey Jane, what's up with Chang? I thought he was a hardcore racer."

"Chang is a little shy in nature, but he is wild behind the wheel of his NSX… Do you know of his past racing?" Jane asked.

"I can't say I have heard is there anything special?" McClintock showed an interested face expression.

"He was involved in a car accident at a mountain pass, the guy he raced was killed, ever since then he has been having a problem with mountain passes."

"Oh, I am so sorry, I didn't know that." McClintock's face changed to a more serious look.

"Just be a little bit careful the next time, he needs to get warm in the seat again, currently I guess it is just the feeling of the fun he experienced when racing with his team that made him accept this challenge."

"I will, thanks Jane, for telling me this." McClintock walked into the bus the throw away the empty soda can and Jane went back to Keiichi.

"More problems?" Keiichi asked.

"Nah, just a few things that needed to be straightened out, we will have to see if there is a problem. How is the weather forecast?"

"No weather change before Monday morning, typical eh? Those darn Monday mornings."

Jane laughed a bit then she smiled.
The Mechanics were standing around the parts trailer talking and joking around, and as the minutes passed the familiar 4 rotor sound and the blow off valve could once again be heard.
The two racers that had taken the liberty of having a private showdown were returning.
The GT-R and RX-7 stopped at the parking lot and as the drivers got out they looked at each other and sighed.

"TIE! My FD was faster on the downhill but your GT-R was better on the uphill, I guess the insane power output was what you had going for it." Sweeper said.

"I got to commend you, that FD is a nice piece of Touge machinery now, even though all I heard was that loud 4 rotor of yours, I take it you don't have it street legal? Judging by your noisy exhaust"

"I got it road legal in Turkey, but I haven't certified it anywhere else, what about the GT-R of yours, is that road legal?"

"Well, you know where I live and what I do; I couldn't care less for getting it road legal…" Carlos was interrupted by Jane.

"THERE YOU ARE! You guys sure do cause a lot of pain; I just hope you are done with your little private race because we got work to do. And we do not have a week for doing all the tuning either!"

"Ok Jane… We will get right on it."

Jane changed face expression.

"So, who won this time around?" Jane asked.

"It was a tie; I was faster on the uphill but lost on the downhill." Carlos said with a smile on his face.

"I am not surprised, just like I thought it would be. Well your little race had a good purpose though; I got to confirm my theories so far."

Carlos' chief Mechanic had grabbed a laptop and some equipment and started setting it up in Carlos' car.
Carlos quickly turned around towards the Chief Mechanic.

"HEY! What do you think you are doing?"

"I am mounting a few sensors that we will need to get suspension data."

Carlos grumbled a while and looked at Jane; Jane gave him that serious look because she knew what Carlos really wanted to say.

"Ok then… But be careful, I don't want you ruining my Skyline!" Carlos bursted out.

The Chief Mechanic shook his head and continued to mount the sensor equipment.

"Carlos likes his Skyline quite a bit; actually he has only let two people drive his Skyline, that's me and Carlos himself. However I do not feel like trying his R34 again."

"Is it hard to drive?" Jane asked

"You bet, with the 1500 HP engine that he uses for highway racing it is quite interesting in handling terms, it keeps over and understeering." Sweeper replied while doing counter steer movement with his hands to explain the motions needed.

"That's why you don't sit around waiting for it to oversteer; you make it slide on your terms instead of entering a surprise slide." Carlos replied.

The Chief mechanic got out of the car and called on Carlos.

"It is ready now, let's head out."

Carlos smiled as him and the Chief mechanic got into the car, they both shut their doors and Carlos started the engine.
Shifting into first gear and letting go of the clutch, the Skyline headed onto the course and disappeared around the corner.

"You think you guys will be ok even without watching video footage of the course first? Not that we any anyways."

"We already got a fairly ok grasp of the course on our private race; it doesn't take long for us to memorize a course. After all the World Cup rarely uses the same street courses twice, only the tracks remains the same, so you have to adapt quickly to that high paced driving. Will take us about 5 runs at least to get the braking points right though but after that the racing should be a breeze."

"Allright, just don't push it too hard out there."

The Chief Mechanic had just finished installing sensor equipment in Sweeper's car; he got up from the passenger side and shouted at Sweeper.

"Yes, yes I hear you. What's your name?"

"I am Miki Tanaka, pleased to meet you."

"Well, I am sure you already know my name Miki, and I have already wasted enough of the team's time as it is, so let's just get started and get this over with it."

Miki and Sweeper got into the FD and into the seatbelts.
Sweeper fired up the 4 rotor engine and after revving it once the needle on the tachometer idled at 2100 RPM.
Sweeper stepped on the clutch, shifted into 1st and released it with some gas to get it moving, unlike 2 rotor engines, a 4 rotor offered much more torque due to the extra combustion cycles by the extra 2 rotors.
The FD disappeared around the corner with a loud exhaust note, a common sign for a 4 rotor.

Jane and Keiichi kept on discussing strategies and car advantages as they prepared the winning simulation for the next day's race.
The mechanics had to prepare to execute the car setup that Jane brought to them, once Sweeper and Carlos was done with the trial run she didn't take long to come up with the best suspension setup.
The work was done quickly and by the morning they were ready to go, it was time to get some sleep before the race with the Todou School.