FOREWORD: I, HashiriyaGDB, am submitting this Initial D facfic on behalf of Midnight Dorifuta, the author of this fanfic and a fellow user on the Initial D World Forums. The only things I've done to this is correct some (if not all) the typos.
All trademarks are owned by their respective owners.
Chapter 16: Death of the Devil Z
The three Levin enthusiasts were gathered at a booth on the upper floor of the Skylark Family Resturant in one driver's home town of Akina. The younger driver, Itsuki, was sitting side-by-side with Wataru, Kazumi set across from the two, swaying her legs a little, waiting for their order to arrive. The old tables shined with the reflections of the lights that were hung from the cieling, the sign that the place has been well-maintained over the years.
It was a busy evening, too. Only every fourth table was empty, and many people - friends, couples, familys... every seat seemed to have some kind of activity. Outside, the parking lot was packed, a pair of AE86 Levins, one natural born, and one made to be so, sat opposite to one another. It was an overcast evening, with autumn's true colors beginning to show as the wind blew the first leaves from the early-shedding diciduous trees.
Kazumi stirred the ice cube in her cup, looking back and fourth between Itsuki and Wataru. She gave her brother a light nudge, asking, in a bit of a kid-like voice, "Well, aren't you going to say anything?"
"About what?", Wataru asked, as he ;ightly rubbed the rib she just elbowed. Kazumi gave him a bit of a bitter look, feeling slightly insulted. "What do you mean, what? Don't you have anything to say to Itsuki about how things have been? You two are Levin enthusiasts, right?" The two drivers looked at each other, the back to Kazumi, both giving her a a bit of a peculiar look and a faint nod.
"Well, I, uhm... to be honest, Kazumi-chan, not a lot has happened!" Itsuki replied, laughing as he shook his head. "Every day, it's pretty much been the same thing since Takumi started racing in Project D. I've been working very hard, earning money, and buying parts for my Levin. It was only recently that me and the boys threw the car back together and the Levin was reborn as a turbo AE86..."
Itsuki got this bit of a happy look on his face as he imagined the AE86 that he worked so hard on and put so much effort into, that single car of his that he wanted to buy even before he knew that Takumi had one. That little 13 year old hatchback that was just so pretty and appealing to him. His first car. The car that he was so familiar with and loved so much.
"And... I'm so happy to finally have completed the tuning of my Turbo Levin. She's a real piece of work, now. Not the fastest out there, but definately fast in her own right! And now that I've been practicing for so long, I feel I can hold my own as the Speed Stars uphill driver."
Wataru chuckled a little bit again, a little suprised to hear that line from Itsuki. "Uphill, you said?", he asked, interested to hear more about the inspiring driver's new plan. "Yeah", Itsuki replied, with a bit of a grin, "At the moment, my Levin has the best power-to-weight ratio of the Speed Stars' cars... maybe even more power per kilogram than Fujiwara's eight-six! It's only right that a car this powerful would attack the uphill!"
"I'm suprised, Itsuki", Kazumi chimed in, tilting her head just a little as she eyed him eager grin, stirring the ice cubes in her water glass. "I wouldn't expect you to drive uphill. You always talked about Takumi's insane downhill driving, but never uphill... but your engine isn't a 4A-G anymore either, is it?"
"Well, it is and it isn't... it's a 4A-GZE", Itsuki said, nodding to Kazumi. "They came factory supercharged, and mine's fitted with my old 3AC's turbo. I'm guessing she has about two hundred fifty horsepower."
Kasumi got in one last line before the waitress came with their meal. Eyes wide, she knew that was a huge leap forward from the car's old horsepower rating. What wowed her more than the fact his Levin was almost as fast as Wataru's was the fact that he was even able to handle that kind of power.
"N- no way!", Kasumi gasped, in a slight state of disbelief, "That's almost as much as Wataru's supercharged 3S-GTE!"
-
As another chilly gust of fall wind blew in the Tokyo air, a single figure stood next to the panda-colored Fujiwara Tofu Shop car that was now more famous for its involvement in Project.D than it could ever hope to be just selling fried tofu to Lake Akina. "Excuse me, but I do believe I have yet to introduce myself", he said, looking at the pair of exes that seemed destined to reunite.
"Ah, oh... s- sorry, Akiyuki-san, I forgot to introduce you to Natsuki-chan." Looking at Natsuki, Takumi nodded a bit to her, giving her a bit of a casual hand gesture to introduce Suzaki. "This is Akiyuki Suzaki-san, and he's the other half of the reason why I drove out here. He wanted to schedule a meeting. I talked to him earlier, and he decided to tag along. He drives an interesting car called a Stallion-"
"Starion, Fujiwara. Starion." Chuckling, he patted Takumi on the shoulder. "Although, in a way, you're not wrong. It was supposed to be call Stallion, but the name got lost in translation. It's ironic that you called it Stallion."
"Ah, I see... gomen.", Takumi calmly replied, taking double note of the car's name.
"Ah, so you're a big shot in racing, too? Sugoi!" Natsuki's eyes practically sparkled with excitement, eyeing Suzaki's small figure. He sure didn't seem like the racer kind, but the way he talked sounded like he knew his stuff. The confidence in his voice only backed up the fact.
"Well, I guess... me and my sister own a racing operation, but aside from that, I'm not really all that well known. My racing career was short, you see, only about four years on the circuit - a bad crash caused me to not want to drive much any more... though, lately, seeing Fujiwara's driving, my spark has been slightly re-ignited, I can't deny that."
"Wow, that's pretty cool. Uhm... I've never heard about this Starion car, but since Takumi took the effort to mention it, it seems pretty fast-"
"It's an oddball car, Mogi-chan.", Takumi said. "It has an FR layout like my Trueno, but it drives completely different... it's like an alien car to me." Akiyuki nodded, adding to Takumi's statement. "The Starion is a turbo car, with a very wide, torquey, and forigving powerband. But Takumi's used to a car where part of maintaining stability is keeping on the gas. It's one of the advantages to having an underpowered car."
"On top of that", Akiyuki noted, "The horsepower and torque of the smaller naturaally aspirated 4A-G derived engine puts less of a stress on the tires overall. There are definately strong advantages to having less horsepower - especially on the downhill. The most important thing to remember about any kind of race is the key to a fast time is a matter of average speed. You can be slow in the corners and fast on the straights, or the opposite. The only problem with that theory during a multiple-car race is the fact the lead car could interfere with your overall speed based on his strengths and weaknesses... that's one of the reasons I enjoyed being a rally driver. Without another car to worry about passing or being passed by, I could focus strictly on my own lines and my average speed."
"So, in racing terms... there's a lot more to it than just holding your lead.", Natsuki slowly said, the unsued gears in her head beginning to turn. "Well, no", Akiyuki replied, with a bit of a nervous chuckle. "In most forms of motorsport, that is the basic goal... however, the theories, ideologies, and techniques behind it are what make winning so complex."
"I wholeheartedly agree. Racing... is a very large and complicated world. It's almost scary, even on the street level", Fujiwara added in, catching Akiyuki off-guard. But Suzaki nodded to him, giving him a small smile. Indeed it is, Fujiwara..., he thought to himself.
-
Silently holding the steering wheel with both hands, Kealan stared directly at the road before him. Three seperate lanes on this wide stretch were designed with one thing in mind, suprisingly. Capacity, and efficiency. Well, to a street racer, it might seem suprising, anyways. To a street racer, these wide lanes were perfect for dodging around traffic at over two-hundred miles per hour... especially two-fifty plus, and nearing 300, where you felt you were about to be flung off the face of the earth. The road had a smooth surface... a few of the higher-ups in NERV, the latest research costing much less than expected, being interested in street racing (read: Katsuragi and Ibuki) had decided to invest in maintaining Tokyo's expressways to their finest.
The steering had an odd feel on some of these parts of the highway. Because of the fine surface, it didn't offer the roughness to it that other portions of the streets of Tokyo had. On the flip-side, if he wanted to have some fun sliding around, he knew he would have even smoother control on these stretches of road. The tabletop-like surface also offered less rolling resistance... which was probably why he had thoughts of reaching such a ridiculous speed as 500 km/h on this highway. If he'd have the room to. There was just one stretch where he considered trying it, but for now... 440 was his limit. 440 was already stupid fast. And although Kealan doesn't nessecarily apply to this rule, 440 km/h usually equals instant death.
In the well-lit portions of the highways such as the one he was on, the evolution of the 2000GT was becoming more and more apparent. Riding just a couple of inches off the road, it had effectively lost its original dual foglamps in exchange for a swoopy front spoiler that visually melted into the widened stock fenders, side skirts that had vented openings for the brakes, and side-mounted intercoolers just fore of the shortened (but wider opening, one adds) doors. The car's overall styling much mimicked the wild GT styling of 80's cars (Such as Nissan's heavily modified R31 Skyline, or Porsche's 935 "Moby Dick"), and the look continued with a large single-piece rear wing, not excessively ginormous but enough to generate sizable downforce. Yet, elements of the 2000GT's original look were kept; The flip-up headlights, the taillights, and the basic look of the wheels, although those wheels were billet-cut.
All of this turned the 2000GT into a sheer monster, from top to bottom. It was in hopes that this track-ready beast would be able to finally take on - and beat - that 240Z that Kealan had chased for so long and finally put an end to that car's practically immortal nature. He got his answer as he cruised along at 90 km/h when his mirror reflected the feint flicker of two headlights approaching... and fast. Kealan was in one of Neo-Tokyo's tunnels, too, so even over the loud idle growl of his wide-open four-inch exhaust system, which had almost no baffling, he heard that sound again.
The sound of an over-stroked and over-bored L28.
It was him. The same Z that he had been chasing forever and a half was on his tail, again. Using the draft, the Z was able to quickly catch and slingshot past the 2000GT, challenging Sandars to a battle. Kealan was quick to respond by slamming the gas pedal down to the carbon fiber-formed floorpan, the twin turbochargerss of his 2JZ-GTE raising an audial hell in a furious jet-engined whistle. Grinning, Kaworu glanced over to the passenger's seat, his lovely wife cheering him on.
"Let's, Kealan-san!", she cried. Kealan responded with an eager vigor. "Indeed! I see you've got aero modifications too, mister Devil Z! But I know... I know something about my car that will make it infinitely better than the Z. And that is... the true potential of the JZ engine!!!"
The aerodynamic downforce - even at a "mere" 175 km/h - helped keep the tires glued to the pavement under the force of the engine's torrent of torque. Turbos in full symphony, the immense heat had the exhaust manifolds glowing red-hot. However, modifications he made to the underhood venting kept the temperatures in check as the car continued to gain on the Z, now passing 250 km/h... rapidly approaching 300. There was a heavy corner coming up, an off-ramp that is, and neither car seemed to want to stop as they charged in closer... closer...
At the last second, both cars dived down, heavy on the brakes, blowing by traffic at an insane speed... to nearby traffic, that was. At these speeds, the pads clamping down on the hyper-rotating brake rotors caused so much heat, they lit up nearly white-hot at the general speed of an old incadescent light bulb. They got so hot, they even let off sparks, and the sight of these two uber-cars flying down the Tokyo expressways, seemed more like a Can-Am race than a mere Wangan assault.
Off the corner, the brake cooling vents, and blowers, on both machines allowed the rotors to instantly get down to more sensible temperatures as the engines buckled down for another heavy flat-out assault in the mid-evening traffic. Trailing easily behind the 240Z, the 2000GT tried making moves on the Devil Z, but Kealan's hand-built machine of glory just couldn't pass the uber-Z.
300... 350... 375... 400... 410... 415... The speeds were getting unhuman down the Tokyo Wangan's longest straightaway. They were running side-by-side, approaching the large, sweeping right-hand bend that was followed by a tight left-hander. Again, right at the last second, the two cars clamed down and miraculously maintained stability at a braking rate that rivaled modern Formula 1 cars. Ayrton Senna would be proud of this all-balls late braking. But at this corner, both cars intentionally fell into a drift, preparing for the next corner.
It was more or less a showy technique in a sense, but it was racer's pride between the two drivers that caused this paralell drift. For one, trying to attempt something like this at these speeds was reserved for those straight out of the looney bin, and to add to it, what if there was traffic? A drift isn't the easiest thing in the world to control, as one might guess. But neither driver paid much mind to it as the tires raised a cloud of smoke, both cars floored. It was the only corner on the course - and there was a history of this - that neither driver aimed strictly for speed at. But, there was a developing problem at a very basic part of both cars' workings... an issue of stress, and this recent aerodynamic modification - and the extra downward stress that came with it- on both cars was the straw that broke the camel's back.
"!?!?!?"
From the cockpit of the Devil Z, the driver gasped, eyes widening. The 2000GT... something broke on the 2000GT. No... not broke... blew.
The 2000GT's left-rear tire shredded itself, the car immediately lurching and oversteering inward. The movement was a sign of iminent crashing... but... this close to the Fairlady Z...
His heart freezing as silver sheetmetal met midnight blue sheetmetal, for the first time in his life, Akio Asakura was consumed by fear. The 2000GT was out of control... and it was going to take the Devil Z with it.