Chapter 5
20 Years Ago
Things had been going well for Taiyang and Qrow, teammates in the 24 Hours of Vytal. They were leading their class by almost a lap with just three hours to go. Then, heading into Amity Corner, at the end to the 6 kilometer Amity Straight, Qrow's right front brake failed. He managed to slow the car considerably but not enough to make the corner. He went straight on and slammed head-on into the barrier. He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. The team was running another car, the one that inherited the race lead, so Taiyang remained at the track until the race ended before heading to the hospital to check on Qrow.
When Taiyang got to the hospital he was told that Qrow had had surgery but was resting in his room. At Qrow's bedside was a black-haired woman. "I saw the car, that was a hell of a shunt Qrow." Taiyang said.
Qrow turned his attention from the woman to Taiyang. "Yeah, sorry about that." Qrow said. "Damnit, we had that race won."
"Don't worry about the race." Taiyang said. "I'm just glad you're alright."
"Well, I'm not, not really." Qrow sighed. He pointed to his left leg, already wrapped in a cast. "Broke just about every bone. They had to fuse my ankle. They say I'll never drive again. Hell, I'll be lucky to walk normally."
"I'm so sorry." Taiyang said.
"I'm going to miss the craziness, that's for sure." Qrow said. "You and the others are a fun bunch to be around."
"You don't have to stay home." Taiyang said. "You're still a heck of a mechanic. I'm sure the team can find a place for you. Hell, I'll make sure they do."
"I appreciate it." Qrow said. "Oh, where are my manners? This is my sister Raven. Raven, my teammate Taiyang Xiao-Long."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Raven said.
"The pleasure's mine." Taiyang said. "I had no idea Qrow had such a beautiful sister. We should go out sometime."
"I'm right here." Qrow said.
"Yeah, and your sister's hot." Taiyang said. "So, Raven, would you like to go to dinner? I know a great restaurant just down the road."
Qrow had done his best to keep Raven away from other drivers. He knew how they were, and Taiyang was probably the worst offender. "Oh for the love of…" Qrow started.
"That sounds wonderful." Raven said. She was smitten, and the fact that dating a driver would piss off Qrow only made her more interested.
"Remember Taiyang, I'm going to be working on your cars." Qrow warned. "It would be a shame if, enraged by how you treated my sister, I were to make some mistakes."
"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Taiyang said. "No funny business, have her back by 10…" He and Raven walked out as Qrow shook his head.
Present Day
"I can work with this." Blake said as she began disassembling one of the engines provided by Nevermore Motors. It was before dawn on the day before the first practice. "It'll take a few days to fabricate the parts but we can do it in time."
"Nevermore asked you not modify their engines." Glynda said.
"Do you want to win or not?" Blake asked. "Ren, back me up."
"We can add 25 extra horsepower for the race, 50 for qualifying trim, if we make the proper modifications." Ren said. "Without that, we can't hope to match the Schnee cars. We'll have to run most of the practices with stock engines, but we can prepare four special engines for time trials and the race."
"Just...make sure it looks like the original motor." Glynda relented. "If we get a good result I'm sure they won't care anyway." She turned her attention to Nora and Ruby who were looking over one of the chassis. "What do you two think?"
"It'll be easy to repair if anything breaks." Nora said, not exactly the feedback Glynda was expecting. "Uh...the aerodynamics look...good?"
"The suspension geometry is perfect." Ruby said from her position lying beneath the car. "It's super light too. I'm a little worried about high-speed stability but otherwise it's very good. It's almost like something I would design."
"Ladies and gentleman, your cars." Ozpin said as he led the drivers into the garage. "I give you the Nevermore VP584." The cars were both painted silver and blue, a mix of the two teams' colors instead of Nevermore's traditional green. Weiss and Yang would drive number 71, Pyrrha and Jaune 72. The cars were short and wide. In the middle was a fully enclosed cockpit, and to accommodate her height the roof of Pyrrha's car bulged slightly upward over the driver's seat. The 5.0 liter V8 engine was located in a compartment just behind the driver with numerous vents to feed it air. At the very back an aerodynamic spoiler protruded upward.
"It's like nothing I've ever seen." Pyrrha said.
"They're top secret." Ozpin said. "Today's practice will be the first time anyone sees them outside of Nevermore's test track."
"They've never been raced?" Weiss asked. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Nevermore ran them around their test track for thirty-six hours." Ozpin said. "Well, one of them. The other had some engine trouble after seven but the first completed the test without any issues. With the improvements Blake and Ren will make, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."
"Yang, could you take a look at this?" Ruby asked. She pointed to the steering linkage.
"Did you make that?" Yang asked.
"No." Ruby replied. "It looks like I did though, right? Weird."
"It's not that weird." Qrow said as he stepped into the garage. "I did show you how to make them after all."
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby exclaimed. She rushed over and hugged him. "Did you miss me?"
"Nope." Qrow said with a big smile. "So, what do you think of my design?"
"It's amazing." Ruby replied. "If the aerodynamics work out they'll be perfect."
"So I guess this is the secret project you were working on." Yang said.
"Yeah, sorry I had to kind of disappear for a while." Qrow said. "They were really serious about the secrecy."
"I've always wanted to drive one of your cars." Yang said. "I never thought I'd actually get the chance."
"After all these years, why did you get back into racing?" Ruby asked. "I thought you said you were done with it forever."
"Well, when my niece started driving I decided it would be nice to give it one last go for her." Qrow said. "It's been too long since a Xiao-Long's driven one of my cars. Speaking of which, how's your dad?"
"I wouldn't know." Yang sighed. "He hasn't talked to me since I started racing."
"I'm sorry to hear that" Qrow said. "I'm sure he'll come around."
"What's the meaning of this?!" Weiss shouted from inside her car.
"What's the problem?" Qrow asked. "Don't like the upholstery?"
"The seat is much too far from the pedals." Weiss said. "And too low. How am I supposed to drive this?"
"You'll be sharing the car with Yang and since she's taller, the seat's positioned for her." Qrow said. "You'll have a booster seat." Weiss glared at him, seemingly looking for the right insult. "You'll just have to live with it princess." Qrow beat her to the punch. "You want a chance to beat your old man's team right? I hear he brought in your sister again."
"Winter's running this race?" Weiss gasped. Her demeanor had totally changed.
"She sure is." Qrow said. "I know she said she wouldn't after last year, but she had a change of heart when she heard you were going to. Don't you read the papers?"
"We need to beat her." Weiss said with a look of determination. "You guys had better not screw this up."
"That's more like it." Qrow said.
"Now, I trust you can all take it from here?" Ozpin said.
"Yeah, we'll leave you guys to it." Qrow said with a wave.
"You're not staying?" Ruby asked with a heartbreaking frown.
"Sorry kid, like you said, I'm retired." Qrow said. "Besides, I'm just a drunk old man. This is a young man's, or in your case young woman's game. I know you can handle it. You did have a great teacher."
Qrow and Ozpin left, strolling through the paddock together. "How have you been Qrow?" Ozpin asked as they walked.
"I've been alright." Qrow replied. "It's still hard. I assume it's the same for you."
"You have no idea." Ozpin sighed.
"How's the team looking?" Qrow asked.
"Yang is every bit the driver her father was and Ruby is a better mechanic than you ever were." Ozpin laughed. "With a little more time my engine specialist will give us something really competitive."
"What about Schnee?" Qrow asked. "Is she as insufferable as the rest of her family?"
"So far, yes." Ozpin admitted. "But something tells me she's different. She could have signed with her father's team but chose to drive for me instead. If she and Yang can get on the same page we could really have something. If not, well, it'll be a tough year."
"If anyone can do it, you can." Qrow said. "I'm really glad you brought my nieces onboard. It means a lot to me, even though Taiyang probably wants to strangle you. Have you…"
"No, I haven't spoken to him." Ozpin said. "Not since, well, you know. He doesn't answer my calls and doesn't respond to my letters. I just want to apologize, for everything."
"None of it was your fault and he knows that." Qrow said. "He also knows that you're responsible for just about all the good things in his life too. He's probably just afraid to face the past."
"I know." Ozpin said. "But I still feel bad. When I had the opportunity to sign his daughters, I saw it as a chance to make up for past mistakes, but for him I think I only made things worse. Maybe I was just being selfish, trying to relive the good old days."
"Oh, don't doubt yourself." Qrow said. "Taiyang's got to face the past. It's for his own good. It's painful, but if he doesn't come to terms with it he'll never stop hurting."
"Thank you for the kind words." Ozpin said. "Unfortunately doubting myself is something I've become accustomed to and I don't foresee that changing anytime soon. Well, it was good to see you again Qrow. I'll take good care of Yang and Ruby, I promise."
Qrow smiled. "But who'll take care of you?"
By Thursday the drivers were used to their cars. Practice times looked promising, the two Nevermores just behind the trio of Schnee cars. They might just be able to compete with the Schnees once they got their engine upgrades. Still, all was not well. For one thing, Pyrrha was the fastest driver in the group but entirely hamstrung by Jaune. Pyrrha liked a car with plenty of oversteer, loose is fast after all. Jaune could not come close to handling it. If Pyrrha was driving a 7 on Ruby's scale, Jaune needed a 2. Even then he had trouble. Pyrrha could still put up impressive times, but nothing close to what she could do with her own setup. It was not all sunshine and roses with the other pair either.
"There's too much oversteer." Weiss said after returning to the garage. "It might be good for qualifying but not the race. Once the tires start to wear it'll be undrivable."
"Every time you come in you want less oversteer." Ruby said. "Yang always wants more. You both just keep undoing each other's changes. We can't make any progress like this."
"I'm not driving it unless you tighten it up." Weiss said. "That's all there is to it."
"Can't you compromise?" Yang asked. "I'd prefer even more oversteer than it has now. This isn't going to work unless we work together."
"Tighten the car and adjust the setup for her with air pressure." Weiss suggested.
"That'll ruin the tire wear." Ruby said.
"Might I suggest a solution?" Ren asked.
"Go nuts." Ruby sighed.
"When we change drivers, we'll have time to add a wickerbill to the spoiler." Ren said.
"What's a wickerbill?" Weiss asked.
"Let me show you." Ren replied. He took a narrow strip of metal and bent it onto the top of the spoiler so that it hung over the front at a right angle. "Obviously we'll have to rig up some sort of quick-attach system that's strong enough to hold it in place."
"What's that going to do?" Yang asked.
"It'll give you more rear grip." Ren replied. "The car will be more stable, have better braking and less oversteer."
"What's the catch?" Weiss asked.
"It'll slow you down on the straights." Ruby answered. "That's going to make a decent amount of drag depending upon how big we make it."
"How much slower?" Weiss asked.
"Maybe 5 miles per hour off the top speed." Ren shrugged. "I won't know for sure until we try using it."
"Can't we just take some of the spoiler off for when Yang drives?" Weiss pressed.
"The car is already on the edge at high speed." Ruby said. "If we make the spoiler any shorter it'll probably get airborne. At the very least it would be totally unstable. I am absolutely not willing to risk it."
"Fine, I guess we can give the wickerbill a shot." Weiss relented. "It'd better not slow it down too much."
"Nora, can you rig something up?" Ren asked. "Blake and I still have work to do on the engines. I'll need to focus on that if they're going to be ready for tomorrow."
"I can do it!" Nora exclaimed. She immediately went to work on building the quick-change system. Once that was ready, making the actual wickerbill would be simple.
"Until that's ready I guess I should run some laps." Yang suggested.
"Knock yourself out." Weiss said as she walked away from the car.
Yang stepped into the car and immediately banged her head on the roof. "Ouch, what the…" She said. "Damnit Weiss, you left your booster seat in!"
"Not my problem." Weiss said. "I'm getting something to eat." She left.
"Well, at least she made a little compromise." Ruby said.
"I guess it's progress." Yang admitted. "She's still acting like a spoiled brat though. I don't know what else I could do. I gave her the number she wanted last race, I let her have all the practice time she wants, and she still treats me like garbage. She probably only compromised on the setup because she can't win the race alone."
"At least you don't have it as bad as Pyrrha." Ruby said. "She could win this race if she had a better teammate. It's a real shame."
As Friday morning dawned, Blake and Ren presented the team with a surprise. They had six modified engines instead of the expected four, one extra each for race and qualifying specifications. Working all through the night they had managed to produce a pair of extra engines to be used in the day's practice session. Nora, with a little help from Ruby, had also finished the device for the spoiler. It added a lip the covered about 90% of the spoiler's width. The only modifications they needed to make to the car were four small holes drilled in the spoiler.
"Those engines look...just like the originals." Glynda said.
"As ordered." Ren said.
"Inside they're a lot different." Blake said. She looked exhausted, entirely reasonable given that she had gotten almost no sleep since arriving in Vytal. "The piston designs were inefficient, so we changed those. The valve timing was off so we made a few changes. We replaced the carburetors because they were quite frankly terrible. A lot of the parts were too heavy or made from inferior metal, so we corrected that. Most of the piping for fuel and air was poorly designed so that was totally replaced. By far the biggest change we made was the exhaust system. We pretty much scrapped the whole thing. Plus there are a whole bunch of little changes we made to maximize efficiency."
"It all still conforms to the regulations?" Glynda asked.
"Of course." Ren replied. "We actually got more of an increase in power than expected. The dyno says we're up 33 in race trim and 76 for time trials."
"It's a good thing we brought our own transmissions because the ones Nevermore provided wouldn't be able to handle the extra power." Blake added.
With the new engine and wickerbill attached, Weiss headed out for a practice run. Without telling her, Ruby and Nora had loosened the car up even further, in line with Yang's preference. Pyrrha took her car out too, prepared for qualifying. Her times would be the team's first indication of whether or not they could compete with Schnee Automotive. The others waited in nervous anticipation.
Pyrrha returned first. "That felt incredible." She said. "With the new engine it's like a different car. You got the gearing just right too. The power is even more predictable." She got out and took off her helmet. "So, what does the time look like?"
"You beat two of the three Schnee cars and weren't far off the third." Ruby replied. "Unless they're really holding back, we've got a good shot."
Moments later Weiss returned as well. "What was the time?" She asked immediately.
"You were two seconds off the times your sister was running yesterday." Ruby said. "That's our best guess for their race pace, so when you factor in the extra grip when the tires wear, it's competitive. How was the car?"
"It's perfect." Weiss said. Ruby nearly fainted from shock. "If only that thing wasn't slowing me down on the straights. Yang should take it out now. I want a comparison." She got out of the car, leaving the door open for Yang to climb in.
Yang removed Weiss' booster seat and tossed it at her. "In the race, you're taking it out with you, or I'm throwing it into traffic." Yang said. She got situated in the car while Nora and Ruby detached the wickerbill, a process that took far less time than it did to change tires. With that taken care of, Yang headed out. Having taken the idea from what was used on Yang and Weiss' car, Ruby and Nora had made a wickerbill for Jaune too. His was quite a bit more extreme. It made it possible to make the car a bit faster for Pyrrha while still having it drivable for Jaune. At least that was the theory. He took to the track to find out of it would work.
When Yang returned to the garage she saw Weiss sitting in the corner looking annoyed. "I guess I beat her time." Yang said as Ruby stepped up to the car.
"You sure did." Ruby confirmed. "You were as fast as her sister ran in race trim."
"I bet she's regretting not compromising now." Yang said.
"Once the tires start to wear I think your times will be a lot closer." Ruby said. "So, did the holes in the spoiler cause any problems?"
"They make a nice whistling sound but otherwise no." Yang replied. "So, does she want another run or should I head back out."
Ruby turned to Weiss and gestured toward the car. Weiss sighed and got up with her helmet in one hand and booster seat in the other. "Looks like she does." Ruby said.
"That's alright." Yang said as she climbed out of the car. "I'm happy with it. I don't need another run until time trials."
Inspirations
- Vytal is based on Le Mans (as stated last chapter). The Amity Straight/Corner is the Mulsanne Straight/Corner.
- The Nevermore VP584 is based on the Ford GT40. VP stand for Vytal Prototype, 5 is the engine displacement, 8 is the number of cylinders, and four is the number of valves per cylinder.
- Yang's relationship with her father is vaguely based on Niki Lauda's with his. Though the Lauda family was wealthy, Niki's father refused to finance his son's career and actively tried to sabotage it at times.
Inaccuracies and Anachronisms
- Wholesale modification of engines by customer teams is not a thing. Plot stuff...
- The real GT40 had a 7.0 liter V8, but I wanted to equalize the stand-in with it's Ferrari rival, putting them both at the top of the Prototype 5.0 Class.
- The first practice before a race would not be the first time a car was seen publicly.
- While the wickerbill solution would work in terms of tightening up the car, no sane team would use it at Le Mans, particularly in the 60's. Then, even more than now, it was a top speed track and anything that hindered that was unacceptable. Plot stuff...
- The increase in power is a bit ridiculous, but not impossible if the original engine was sufficiently bad.