The Legends Still Live On
Bogen Siebundzwanzig-komma-ein: Extras Neun und Zehn
Kapitel Neunzehn: Luftkaninchen
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Over in the hangars aboard the Zuikaku, things were proceeding as could be expected of the Arts of Warfare programs of Ooarai. Which meant things were running smoothly.
Or, at least, as smoothly as was possible. Because life was far from perfect in Ooarai, but they made do with what they could. The Panzerkraft team was holding an informal practice, which mainly consisted of maneuvering drills and target practice. The Jägermeistern team, on the other hand, was busy performing maintenance on the eight flying death machines belonging to them.
Despite that, there were a few people that were left with nothing to do. One of those was Erich. With how simple it was to maintain a Bf 109, and the fact he had a four-man ground crew that were more than able to do the job without him, he was left talking with Aprikose, who was simply too lazy like always to do any work on the Fw 190, and the Automotive Club, who was actually busy with work.
"So, the big day is almost here," Erich began as he and Aprikose watched the Automotive Club undertake maintenance with the M3 Lee. "The 24 Hours of Le Mans…" He referred to how the classic French 24-hour endurance race around Circuit de la Sarthe took place this coming weekend.
"What, are you upset that Porsche won't be able to win again this year?" Aprikose quipped, referring to Porsche's withdrawal from top-level sports car racing last year, despite all their achievements in the category. Just a few of them include nineteen overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most of any one manufacturer, including seven consecutive victories in the same race from 1981 to 1987, another record in its own right, and with an ongoing three-win streak at the French endurance classic when they dropped out at the end of 2017.
Erich shrugged, wearing a carefree grin. "Maybe a little, but I'm willing to give them some slack for their reuse of those Rothmans and Truffeljäger liveries," the blonde responded. He referred to how this year, for their seventieth anniversary, Porsche was running two of their LMGTE Pro-class 911 RSRs in liveries based off some of their past iconic Le Mans contenders, namely the Porsche 956/962 siblings' legendary Rothmans Porsche liveries from the '80s and the Porsche 917/20's very abstract and memorable 'Pink Pig' livery from 1971, also called 'der Truffeljäger von Zuffenhausen.'
"While I do agree that those liveries are fantastic," Nakajima inserted from where she was underneath the M3 Lee with a large drain pan positioned just so, "I'm pretty sure I know what you're getting at, Erich."
"Oh? You do?" the blonde innocently questioned with a smile to match, knowing full well what the Japanese girl was getting at. "Would that possibly have to do with how if Toyota loses this race, then it means the Toyota Curse is undoubtedly very real?"
Nakajima sighed heavily. "Yes," she confirmed nevertheless. She then popped the drain plug on the M3 Lee's Wright R975 9-cylinder radial engine, draining it of oil and filling the drain pan. Following that, she slid out from underneath to look up at Erich and Aprikose. "Toyota's got their best shot yet at winning overall this year now that they're the only factory team in the LMP1 class after Porsche and Audi both dropped out."
"They've always been very competitive, able to remain in contention for the entire race," Hoshino pointed out. She was busy with removing the engine's cooling fan and shroud, which were quite large since the engine was air-cooled, and needed to be removed to access the rest of the engine from the top. "Their cars are fast enough and reliable enough to win."
"And yet they've snatched defeat from the jaws of victory how many times was it?" Erich asked with a teasing smile. "Four? Five?" He was having a lot of fun tormenting the Automotive Club with Toyota's impressive-yet-crucially-lacking-in-victories Le Mans record.
It dated all the way back to 1975, the first year a car was entered that used a Toyota engine, and Toyota-engined cars competed again in 1985 and 1986. Their Le Mans efforts started in earnest in 1987, where they first tried their hand at the competition's top C1 class with their own works team, and trying each year until pulling out in 1994, with 1991 being the lone year during that stretch they had not competed in the race. After a brief absence as a full works team to engineer a new race car - the absence being filled with privateer teams representing them - the team came back in 1998 and 1999 with an all-out effort. Afterwards, they remained absent until twelve years later in 2012, where they began fielding entries again in the top LMP1 category and had done so every year since then. The four automotive girls were rooting for the Japanese manufacturer this coming race like they had done so in past years, even during the more painful years.
Suzuki sighed at the taunting, knowing the blonde had a point. "Eight, actually," she corrected the number of Toyota's years of misfortune. She was busy with inspecting track tension, which was a bit different on the M3 Lee due to its use of rubber tracks compared to the method for the steel tracks equipping the other tanks. Other than that, she was also doing a basic lookover of the vertical volute-sprung suspension units, which were six in total, three per side.
"1992, where the TS010 came second to the Peugeot 905 Evo 1B," Tsuchiya began listing off, using a loud voice to make sure she was heard since she was inside the tank itself, performing functionary checks of the steering and brake linkages and checking for sloppiness in each of them. In that race, the #33 Toyota proved its capability of matching the pace of the winning #1 Peugeot, but it was just unable to close with them when it counted.
"1994, where the 94C-V suffered a broken shift linkage in the last ninety minutes and handed the win to the Dauer 962 Le Mans," Erich provided the next loss on the list. He knew of that race due to it being yet another of Porsche's many victories at Le Mans, their very last with the legendary 962. This year was noteworthy for the winning 962 being classified as a GT1 car rather than a top-level LMP1 car, the first such time in the race's history that a lower-class car would triumph over the top class and take overall victory. It would happen again in 1995 with the McLaren F1 GTR and in 1998 with the Porsche 911 GT1-98. This was possible via the exploitation of a loophole in the rules for GT cars, allowing for purpose-built race cars to compete in a class originally meant for road car-derived racers. This was the last win for the Porsche 962, a fitting end to the car's long, outstanding, and unmatched legacy.
Toyota's LMP1-class 94C-V was the biggest challenger to Porsche that year, having led much of the race until the lead #1 Toyota suffered a broken shift linkage with only ninety minutes remaining. In the time it took to repair it, the two Dauer-Porsches were able to catch up and pass it. Eventually, the #1 Toyota was able to claw its way back up to second, but it could not catch the winning #36 Dauer-Porsche.
"1998, where the GT-One was the fastest car in the race, leading with eighty minutes to go when it suffered gearbox failure, handing the win to the Porsche 911 GT1-98," the blond-haired ultra-ace mentioned next, again knowing about this race in particular since it was another Porsche victory. The #29 Toyota was leading by forty seconds with eighty minutes to go when it suffered catastrophic gearbox failure, putting it out of the race and handing the win to the #26 Porsche. It was later discovered that, during the previous stop for the car, the transmission drain plug wasn't tightened properly after the transmission was serviced, leading to a gradual loss of fluid that eventually destroyed the gearbox.
"1999, where a tire blowout in the closing hours dropped the lone surviving GT-One out of contention, handing the win to the sole surviving BMW V12 LMR," Aprikose continued, knowing about that race in particular due to it being BMW's sole victory in the race's history. All of the girls grimaced, as the 1999 race was one of the more painful losses for Toyota.
BMW coming away victorious was impressive considering the very same #3 Toyota that had blown a tire in the final hour had previously been catching the leading #15 BMW, setting the fastest lap that race in the process and diminishing the BMW's lead greatly, averaging seven seconds quicker per lap. The GT-One managed to bring home second despite the blown tire, though that was greatly disappointing due to the car being so obviously the fastest one that race. That race was also known for the infamous Mercedes-Benz CLR backflip incidents, one of which was caught on live broadcast footage of the race and seen all across the world.
"2013, where the TS030 Hybrid came second to the Audi R18 e-tron quattro," Hoshino continued the list as she tried handling the large, unwieldy shroud all on her own after it was removed. That race in particular was another one of the thirteen races Audi had come away victorious in. Despite the problems the other two R18s suffered over the race, the #2 Audi was able to clinch the win, with the #8 Toyota coming a respectable second in what proved to be one of the wettest and most dangerous races yet in Le Mans history, proven so by how this was the most recent time one of the competitors had died during the race.
"2014, where the leading TS040 Hybrid had that FIA-mandated piece of monitoring equipment melt a wiring loom, forcing it out of the race at the halfway mark after having led much of the race by that point, and giving the win to the Audi R18 e-tron quattro," Suzuki added on to the list of disappointing finishes for Toyota. The #7 Toyota had led much of the race after starting on pole, but when the night came, an FIA-mandated piece of monitoring equipment failed and melted part of the wiring harness for the car, which could not be repaired, leading to its retirement. The #8 Toyota had also had bad luck, having crashed early in the race when the rain was pouring down in buckets. The repairs took nearly an hour, but the car was able to claw its way back up to third nevertheless, behind the winning #2 Audi and the second-place #1 Audi.
"2017, where the two dominating TS050 Hybrids ended up retiring after ten hours with mechanical troubles, which eventually resulted in the Porsche 919 Hybrid winning," Erich continued the list. The 2017 race was noteworthy in that both Toyota and Porsche suffered problems that year. At the end of twenty-four hours, only two LMP1 contenders finished the race out of the six that started, and absolutely none of them had escaped trouble. The #2 Porsche had to take a lengthy stop after three and a half hours to repair a broken front axle, though it was eventually able to claw its way back up to the top and win. The #8 Toyota had to come in after four and a half hours, also suffering mechanical trouble in need of repair, which dropped it from contention. The Toyota was able to come back and take eighth overall. The race proved very attrition-heavy for the top LMP1 class contenders, which led to an LMP2 class car holding the overall lead for a time, the first time in the race since the '90s GT1 days that a lower-class car had the overall lead.
This race was also noteworthy for what happened afterwards. Toyota's loss this year had inspired the company's president to issue a huge apology to the drivers and the fans for letting them all down and failing to build a car that could bring home a victory. It was saying something that the fans were being apologized to, as the amount of fans Toyota had rooting for them that year was truly astounding: there was not one person in the motorsport world that wasn't rooting for them. Even their Porsche competitors were wishing them well, as a sportsmanlike gesture after what happened the previous year's race.
"And then there was the 2016 race…" Erich treaded, knowing this was hard territory and having deliberately skipped it at first for that reason. Upon hearing, all four of the automotive girls groaned dejectedly at having to relive that year's event. That year was the most painful loss yet for the Japanese manufacturer, the one that pulled at the sympathetic heartstrings of everybody in the racing world.
The 2016 race had an ending that was, simply put, heartbreaking for Toyota. The opening had the Toyota TS050 Hybrids, Porsche 919 Hybrids, and Audi R18s trade positions at the front, until eventually the #5 Toyota was able to get a firm hold on the lead, with the #2 Porsche trailing in second and the #6 Toyota in third. They remained there for twenty-three and a half hours until there were only eleven minutes remaining, where the #5 Toyota's lead grew even more due to the #2 Porsche having to make an unscheduled pit stop to change all four tires after experiencing a slow puncture. After dominating the front of the field for nearly the entire race, it looked as if it was Toyota's race to lose.
However, drama soon began to unfold. With six and a half minutes remaining, the gap between the #5 Toyota and the #2 Porsche was set at around a minute and fourteen seconds. That was when the Toyota started experiencing a severe loss of power, evidenced by the Porsche starting to rapidly catch up. When there were only four-and-a-half minutes remaining, the gap between the two was only thirty-seven seconds. With the pressure on, Toyota elected to keep the car out on track rather than bring it in and give up any chance of winning. Eventually, when there was only 3:25 remaining on the clock, the #5 Toyota ground to a halt just past the start/finish line as it lost all power completely. The #2 Porsche passed it on what ultimately turned out to be the final lap of the race and went on to take the victory, with the surviving #6 Toyota claiming second. It was discovered in a post-race analysis of the #5 Toyota that a cracked line between the turbocharger and intercooler had been the cause of the most dramatic finish in recent Le Mans history.
"For what it's worth, even I felt bad for Toyota that year," Erich offered a consolation to the four moping automotive girls. "That was so heartbreaking, losing it at the very end after dominating all race."
"Please don't remind me…" Tsuchiya whined as she climbed out of the tank. "We were all ready to pop the champagne and celebrate their impending victory when all that happened!"
"I lost a lot of money betting on Toyota that year…" Suzuki dejectedly revealed, having finished checking the suspension units and finding each to be satisfactory.
"The damned Curse struck again, harder than ever…" Hoshino sighed, depressed, as she began the removal of each of the nine-cylinder engine's spark plugs.
"That was the year the Curse was to have ended!" Nakajima cried, mirroring how upset they all were at the end of that race. "And to have fate so cruelly snatch victory away from them after a nearly perfect performance… aaaaaAAAAAGH!" The de facto leader of the automotive-centered group shook her head as she loudly moaned in frustration.
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While Erich, Aprikose, and the Automotive Club were talking about the impending 24 Hours of Le Mans race, elsewhere, Miho walked into the hangars. Her own crew had finished the drills she had laid out for each tank crew, and she was now left with nothing to do but oversee everything else. She caught sight of the aforementioned six-strong group still talking about motorsports, her gaze having been drawn there by Nakajima's great groan of despair.
Miho knew enough about motorsports to guess they were speaking of the big Le Mans race coming up, of which she had plans to also watch alongside everyone else that normally attended the Automotive Club's 24-hour events to watch those kinds of races. Personally, she was a Porsche fan through and through like Erich, as a consequence of having grown up in Weissach, just across town from Porsche's research center there. Though, of the two of them, the blonde was far more into motorsports than she was. She could recall him goading Aprikose for a week after Porsche claimed overall victory at the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring earlier that year, and for that reason she counted Porsche's lack of participation in the top class at Le Mans as a blessing in disguise. No doubt if Porsche was racing in the top class this coming race and they won, then Erich wouldn't shut up about it for the next month.
But she raised an eyebrow upon catching sight of the six girls of Rabbit Team, also with nothing to do as they sat around. Finding something to occupy herself with, the vibrant brunette Panzerkommandeur strode over to the six freshmen. "Girls?" she prompted as to what they were all doing sitting there.
All of the freshmen – excluding Saki, obviously, who was staring off into space again – turned to face their captain.
"Why are you all here?" Miho asked as nicely as she could, smiling to dissuade any notions they held of her coming over to reprimand them all. "You're missing practice."
"Well, we can't exactly do the drills since our tank's in for maintenance, so there's nothing for us to do," Karina said as the girls all loosened up, shoulders noticeably sagging slightly.
"Ah…" Miho went, now remembering that the M3 Lee was indeed next on the list of tanks bound for maintenance.
Bringing a closed fist to her mouth and another hand to her hip as she looked down in a thinking posture, she thought hard about a way Rabbit Team could still practice even without a tank. It wouldn't do well for them to lose their touch, which seemed rather easy to occur in her eyes since they were never one of the more remarkable teams Ooarai had in terms of skill.
But several seconds of thought later the vibrant brunette removed her fist from her mouth and snapped her fingers. "I've got it!" she said with an accomplished grin on her face. Looking at the freshmen, she jerked her head to the hangar doors in a gesture to follow. "Follow me, I have an idea."
The Rabbit Team girls scrambled to follow their captain, looking much like lost puppies. "Captain Nishizumi?" Azusa had the guts to ask. "What exactly is your idea?"
"Do you girls recall the Americans' tank situation before World War Two began?" the vibrant brunette calmly asked a question in return. She was the epitome of cool-headedness right now compared to the freshmen, who were racking their brains to answer her question.
Finally, after several seconds, Azusa was able to answer with, "Weren't they really far behind in technology and with a severe lack of tanks?"
"Correct," Miho nodded affirmative as they all continued toward the Panzer IV H that was parked outside with all its crew hatches open. The crew of said Panzer was relaxing and chatting atop the tank itself. "They had such a huge lack of tanks that they had to get quite creative in training to circumvent that deprivation. One of the methods they used to compensate was to substitute using armored cars. But there was another method that I think is appropriate for here."
"And what exactly is that, Captain?" Azusa asked for the whole freshman group.
Miho looked up at her crew still chatting away atop the Panzer IV. "Hey, Saori!" she called up to them.
"Now I'll admit, I found him cute when I first saw him, but then I found out Miho was already crushing on him and decided I didn't want to invoke her-what, Mako?" Saori gossiped away before turning, feeling a bit miffed at being interrupted with a shove on her shoulder from Mako. The Panzerfahrer simply wore a deadpan look as she pointed down to Miho on the ground. "Oh… What's up?" the ginger returned.
"Could you come down here?" Miho asked in return from her place on the ground. "With a whistle, if you have one?"
Saori immediately turned to Yukari. "Yukari, you got a whistle on you?" she asked with a sideways, inquisitive tilt to her head.
Yukari reached behind her and pulled out a silver whistle from what everyone swore was out of thin air before tossing it over to the ginger. Nobody knew exactly where the tank guru kept all of the stuff she carried.
"Thanks!" Saori said before jumping down to the ground and joining Miho and the freshmen making up Rabbit Team. She didn't bother questioning where Yukari kept all her stuff anymore and just chalked it up to black magic.
With Saori now with her, Miho faced the freshmen again and gently gripped Karina by the shoulders, steering her into a particular spot. "Do me a favor and don't move," she requested, before doing the same with the other five girls, arranging them so they mimicked the crew layout for the M3 Lee.
After moving Ayumi, Yuuki, Saki, Aya, and Azusa into what she deemed as the proper positions, Miho stood off to the side of the formation and continued her original line of thought with a smile, "The other method the Americans used to make up for their lack of tanks in training was with what I like to call the air tank method. They would arrange themselves as you are now: into the layout of their tank, while on foot. Then the crew would act just as they would if they were actually crewing a tank, with some extra declarations regarding firing and loading and maneuvering together on foot." She then nodded at them all. "That is exactly what you are all going to do right now, so get ready."
"Ooh, awesome!" Yuuki expressed her positive thoughts on the matter.
"We're an air tank!" Aya eagerly noted.
The other freshmen were also pretty excited about training this way, as it was so new and different. Seeing them motivated as they were, Miho looked over to Saori and nodded to her with a smile. The ginger understood the gesture's meaning, bringing the whistle up to her lips and blowing, letting a shrieking whistle ring through the air and serve as the cue for Rabbit Team to begin their drills.
"Advance! Full speed ahead!" Azusa commanded. With that, the freshmen all began to run forth, eventually building up into a sprint, remaining in their exact positions that Miho had placed them in as they made their way to the practice grounds. "Left here!"
They made their way to the practice grounds rather quickly, all things considered, with the Panzer IV H following behind as Miho observed them.
"Target at one o'clock!" Azusa called out the first target. "Turn and halt!" As commanded, the entire air tank turned to face the target head-on and came to a stop. "Fire!"
"Firing!" Ayumi and Aya both called out, mimicking the action of firing their respective cannons. Saki mimicked loading the smaller 37 mm gun while Ayumi mimicked loading the 75 mm gun all by herself.
Miho smiled as she observed. While it wasn't all that practical to use the air tank method – being little better than nothing at all and appearing quite silly as well – it was refreshing to see the Rabbit Team take to it so readily. It was useless doing weapons training and target practice using that method, but for maneuver exercises, it was passable. She watched the girls fling through the gauntlet of trials she had laid out for each crew with great enthusiasm, observing as they backed up and turned as a cohesive unit, doing the same when it came to dashing across open terrain to get an opportunity to strike and for all other maneuvers she had detailed for them to practice.
"Whoo-hoo!" Saori cheered on the freshmen as they finished up the gauntlet and returned to the Panzer IV. "Now jump with a smile!"
"YEAH!" all the underclassmen cheered as they jumped up together as a unit, still holding their crew formation.
Miho got a chuckle out of that. "No, no, tanks can't do that…" she commented on the nonsense of the Rabbit Team in an amused way, like how one might comment on the silliness of a child.
That was one thing that the vibrant brunette had come to see the value of in Rabbit Team: their childishness. While not normally a desirable characteristic, said childishness did have the effect of bringing a bright spirit to the team, which overall had the effect of helping keep morale high. And morale, Miho understood very well, was one of the most important factors in a team's strength. Despite their rather unremarkable performance in combat, Miho still knew they were greatly valuable to the team because of the effect they had on morale.
That was a trait that Miho knew was a necessity for any team to have to be at its best ability, and at Ooarai, nobody did that better than the Rabbit Team.
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Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.
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The author doesn't claim to own "Girls und Panzer" or any other references made. "Girls und Panzer" belongs to Actas. Any references made belong to their respective owners.
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