Millennium D - Vol. 4: The Build!
A/N: With this… err… half-chapter, I wanted to experiment with a new style of writing as I detail the progress of Takumi's build. Here, it's going to be in the format of a few short journals written in the first-person perspective of Natsuki. Originally it was going to be in Takumi's perspective but I decided against it; he simply wasn't the type to do things like this. Besides, Natsuki is the character that's the closest to him in this series, so I decided to choose her instead. On top of that, this felt like a good opportunity to show her character more.
–August 6–
Today's date is 8-6! What a wonderful coincidence, I was thinking of Takumi's old car earlier… Truth be told, I miss it as much as he does. If he brought it along with him, people would be falling head over heels to race him!
We started drafting a list of parts we need to get for the build today, most of which we might have to import from Japan. Turns out it was a lot longer than I thought. Koichi told me that even with all of these mods, the car won't be too powerful on paper, but it's definitely going to be very quick - after all, it's very light! We're looking to keep the weight under 1000kgs. Too much power won't be very nice - Takumi said it doesn't suit his driving style, which I understand. He mentioned how he heard MR cars had a habit of snap oversteering and how he didn't want that to happen to him, so we're going to have to fiddle with the suspension setup a little.
He also said he wanted the car to have the same "panda" look as the 86, but he wanted us to change it a bit. The white paint's staying - I'm drafting up some different designs that might suit it. I don't want to do anything too aggressive… Perhaps something with rounded edges would work best.
–August 7–
Bit of a busy day today; I finally finished my art project! I might be able to use class time to work on the vinyls in the future. Tsugumi and Asuka were both free today, so they bought some suspension and tires today from a parts store downtown. BLITZ coilovers and a set of Bridgestones. It's amazing, the Spyder's only a year old and there are already so many parts available for it!
We added a few new parts to the list - because the tires were so wide, we thought we'd fit them under a widebody kit. Takumi talked about some Super GT-spec Spyders in a magazine he bought on his way home and how he wanted his to look like them. Perhaps a Monocraft kit would work best.
They started tearing the Spyder down after we had dinner - they're putting on the new coilovers as I'm writing this. The tires are too big for the Spyder's current rims, so we're going to take a look at some new ones that fit tomorrow. Takumi's downstairs, watching them. I'm sooo excited to see how this build will turn out~
–August 8–
We went rim shopping today!
Takumi, Suzuka and I went down to another store that opened recently. It was so amazing; the walls were covered in wheels! I think we spent an hour just walking around like it was a museum! We found a set of Watanabe wheels just like the ones Takumi had on the 86, but they were also a bit too small for the tires. Takumi found some Enkei TS-5s and he really, really loved them. We took home a set of 18-inch ones; they were finished in this cool matte black color with chrome silver dishes.
Fujio came home earlier than the others, so he helped us with putting the tires on, and helped us put them on the car. Takumi wanted to help, so we let him screw some of the bolts on. He seemed to enjoy it a lot - he asked if he could keep helping with the build later on. Well that's a no-brainer; it's his car after all!
The Spyder looked amazing with its new wheels on. It's a lot lower to the ground now. The wheels are sticking out a little bit as we expected, even with the stock fenders put back on. This build's coming together very nicely~
–August 9–
We took Takumi to his first street race today! It happened downtown. We were up against Team Bullet today; they brought some serious power along. Two of the guys we were racing drove Mustangs. One of them even had a Plymouth Roadrunner - it had a huge blower coming out of the hood!. Jake, Asuka and Satoshi decided to go up against them since they had powerful cars too. After all, it was needed; there weren't a lot of corners, so it was more or less dependent on straight-line speed. The rest of us watched from the side. Thankfully the cops didn't come along for this one…
Takumi rode in Asuka's Skyline. The race went on for 3 laps around the mall - Bullet had a really good start. The Roadrunner was literally shaking while it was revving its engine… Koichi told me it probably had around 800 horsepower. It even did a wheelie as it came off the line! Bullet got a good start, but we kept up pretty well. Jake did a really cool drifting overtake on one of the Mustangs on the second lap; he led the race from that point on. I heard Satoshi almost got brake-checked, but his car seemed fine in the end; just a few scratches, nothing too major. Asuka was literally side-by-side with the Plymouth at the end of the race - I could see Takumi screaming inside of the passenger seat! I feel like Asuka's Skyline was the most powerful car he ever took a ride in; after all it had 692 horsepower the last time we took it to a dyno.
It was a win for us; Jake got first place. We had to take a photo of the R33 and the Roadrunner crossing the line - turns out the latter got the upper hand. Asuka and Satoshi finished third and fourth. We won the bet and got $3000! We left as quickly as we could, though. It would've been a disaster if we had cops on our tail.
Takumi's legs were shaking ever since he got out of Asuka's GT-R; he was really amazed by the amount of torque and traction it had. Said it felt nothing like his dad's Impreza. He said he'd love to take part in races like this one day, once we finish the Spyder. I can't wait to see him use his inertia drift on these city streets soon!
–August 10–
WE STRUCK GOLD TODAY!
Today started off as just a regular school day for me. I started drafting some decals. I drew all sorts of things - eagles, cranes, flying bullets… Out of all these, I'm gonna settle with the flying bullet. I think I'll add some stripes and stuff behind it, I want it to spread across the whole body of the Spyder.
Right after class I got a call from Koichi, he told me to come home - he said he found something great. Takumi-kun texted me around the same time too. And so I did. You wouldn't guess what I found sitting on the table in the garage… A COMPLETE 2ZZ-GE! Tsugumi-chan says they salvaged it from a junkyard, from a horribly rear-ended Celica. We were originally gonna get a 3S-GE from somewhere, but this is really as good as it gets. It's lighter AND more powerful than the Spyder's original 1ZZ-GE! Plus, I read that Yamaha helped with this engine's development! We'll put some more parts on it before lowering it into the Spyder… this is gonna be so sick!
–August 11–
I had a half-day of class again today. You can guess what I did… that's right, draft more decals! I can feel it coming together really well. I'm thinking of having these made in a deep, gunmetal silver. Not quite black, but it's close. When I was heading home with Takumi-kun, we saw a VERY cool 240SX. Takumi-kun liked it… said it reminded him of Kenji-san. He seemed to really like the 240SX's paint; it was some sort of pearl white. He kept on asking me about it on the way home. I wonder how the Spyder would look in that color… maybe it would make a good twist on the old "panda" color scheme…
More parts were waiting for us at home. Fujio and Naoko brought back a ton of cool interior parts; comfy Sparco seats, Takata harnesses, gauges with carbon fiber mount pods for them, a full rollcage, a MOMO steering wheel with buttons, and, get ready for this… A DIGITAL DASH FROM AN AE86! It's amazing, even I couldn't have thought of adding such a cool retro touch to this build! We started off with stripping the interior out. We had lots of fun, I've never seen Takumi smile so much! Putting the new parts on took a lot less time than I thought. The rollcage was a little tough though… but once everyone else got home it was a piece of cake!
We're heading to Harry's tomorrow; hopefully they have Japan-imported parts for the Spyder. We'll pick up all we can there!
–August 12–
Jake and Asuka took Takumi-kun to Harry's earlier today. I spent the morning doing some homework… It was pretty boring, but at least I'm done with it, and I'm happy! I went back to working on the decal afterwards. Fujio, Koichi, Suzuka, Naoko and Tsugumi were at home with me while they were gone so we went to get some pizza together for lunch.
I think the others were gone for about 5 or 6 hours… just as I was wondering when they'd get back, the Delica came back. It was FULL OF PARTS! I'm surprised it was able to hold all of that stuff! I think we got basically everything on our list ticked off - a Blitz supercharger kit, a complete KAAZ 6-speed close-ratio gearbox, a TRIAL bumper-exit exhaust kit, a chassis stiffener kit, all sorts of interior trims, a full carbon fiber roof, an ECU and a controller from A'PEXi, the full carbon-fiber Monocraft widebody kit that we wanted, a carbon hood… I could go on and on and on, but then I'd run out of paper to write on!
Koichi's working his magic with the ECU downstairs right now. I just got back from helping put the stroker kit into the 2ZZ. Takumi-kun is helping them with the supercharger stuff. I feel like they might stay up aaaaaall night to work on the Spyder… it's gonna be a completely different-looking car by the time I wake up tomorrow.
–August 13–
We're completing the final step of the build today - paint and decals!
We brought the Spyder to a paint shop today. Takumi was busy with an interview for his new job; he's gonna be working for Harry's! He's going to be delivering parts to customers… Maybe he'll get a new company car. If he doesn't, we'll let him use the Delica.
I gave them the pictures of my decal concept so they could work on that as well. But… we weren't about to spend our whole day at the shop. That would be sooooo booooooring. We left them with the Spyder, while we went to the new Millennium mall that just opened down the road! We bought some clothes, sunglasses and even a nice black jade necklace for Takumi-kun. We went back to the shop after dinner; it was all done! It looked amazing, the decal looked amazing on the new pearl coat paint! All the sponsor stickers are also helping things pop out.
We had them bring the car back on a flatbed truck. Around the same time they left our place, Takumi-kun came home. We had the car under covers, and left the keys on the toolchest with a note… a surprise won't hurt anybody~... After all, I feel he'd appreciate having the car all to himself after days of us working on it together.
I think I just saw him drifting out of our driveway just now. I think I'll pack my things up. He might be headed for the race downtown...
I do not own any property from Initial D, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story.
All characters and situations, created by Shuichi Shigeno, Rob Cohen, Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist and David Ayer are taken from Initial D (1995-2013) © Kodansha Ltd., The Fast And The Furious (2001) and Redline (early screenplay draft; 2000) © Universal City Studios LLC
This story is released under the GPL/CC BY: verbatim copying and distribution of this entire work are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided attribution is preserved.
