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 18: Six Furious Rotors
.:Day One from the Wreck of the Wangan Legends:.
Early in the morning, thoughts were scribbled onto the memo of one of Tokyo III (or Neo-Tokyo)'s well-known celebrities.
I got a letter dropped on my doorstep from an old friend this morning. Looking out into my driveway, I couldn't believe the note was true. Something old and dear to me was there in place of my latest fun-getter. I couldn't believe it. How did he restore that magic that I had behind her wheel? Rushing to the car, I couldn't believe it.
She was exactly what I remembered before that fateful day last November. Even a few scratches from one of my infamous slight parking accidents were there. It was surreal... unbelievable. I thought the car was smashed out of existance and then burned to ashes, seeing that crazy wreck we all were in before I got thrown out of my own car...
That day changed my life. Maybe for better, maybe for worse, but I don't know at this point. Me and Rei Fukai drew very close, and close we have remained to this day. But... enemies have been made in the process. To me. To him. And I lost two comrades, whether or not I liked them didn't matter.
It was also what broke the bond between me and 'him'. We're casual acquaintances at this point, so I can't understand why he'd possibly go this far for me. After all, didn't I side with somebody he hated to the core? I guess I'm going to hop into my sweetheart and do a few hot laps around Tokyo III's city course just to see if this is truly my beloved.
Maybe I'll even go looking for Lynne Abbamonte. Me and her still have unfinished buisness. I don't exactly consider a blown intercooler pipe a win in my books. I might have pride an an ego, but it doesn't stretch -that- far. But I better hurry and go before the sun rises and traffic becomes annoying.
Setting down the paper and forgetting to write her daily signature, the girl smiled as she grabbed the set of keys that were waiting for her in the ignition earlier. Wearing her New Balance sneakers, that she only wore while driving, she strutted out to her car, caring less about the weather, or that on this unusually cold late-October morning she could see her breath. Sliding her butt into the driver's seat, the car chimed with the familiar ringer bell that she custom-installed, turning the ignition key, and just by will, the powerful, deep rumble of the American stock car-racing derived engine came alive, reverberating out the dual-exit exhaust of her wild wonderfully 80's muscle-like car.
-
Akio Asakura slowly woke up in a dark place, feeling a belt strapped across his body. The place was cool... maybe even cold, and tight. He couldn't hear much around him, but he felt rubber pressing against his face. Lifting his head up and opening his eyes, it became quickly apparent that he was in the cockpit of his car. No... wait, this wasn't his car.
"Huh?" Akio's head ached. He could barely think, much less figure out what the hell was going on. Last thing he remembered, he tapped the brakes going into a corner, began a slide, and then something on the chasing car broke and he was headed torwards the sound barrier on the Tokyo Wangan. Then his memory just kind of blanked out... no memory of anything remotely relating to a crash. But still, this car's interior remained intact... the Z should have been obliterated, and he should have been in pretty messed up condition.
"A Z... Z31?" It was barely light out, and he seemed to be on the top deck of some kind of parking garage. But he could make out the silver "Z" on the tan steering wheel of the car. The dashboard was blacked out... no, it was digital, just like his old Z31. Was it his old car!?
Well, as the sky slowly began to brighten, the car at least seemed be be like his old Z31; it had a back seat, a tan interior, and the hood was red, so likely, the exterior was, as well. Still, something about this car just didn't feel right to him. Popping open the driver's door, he got out, and took a gander at the car, and immediately spotted some differences; the wide fenders, the different wheels, the lower stance.
"No, this isn't my Z. Or, at the very least, it's not my Z when I traded it in. But who knows. Maybe if..." Pulling out a pocket flashlight that he kept handy, and his wallet, the driver who was deemed "Fastest on the Tokyo Wangan" a long time ago took another look at something, just a little closer now. He pulled his old Z's registration card out of his wallet; he never saw a real reason to get rid of it, so he just kept it. But now, it served a purpose;
He shined the flashlight back and fourth between the VIN number on the car's registration and the VIN on this car. Number by number, they lined up perfectly.
"Jeez", Akio muttered under his breath, putting the registration away in his wallet, and then rubbing his palms together. "Sure is cold", he said, changing his course of direction and walking to the edge of the roof parking lot, eyeing over the dormant Shinjuku District of Tokyo. He shoved his hands in his pockets and shivered a little, knowing from this point on it was only going to get colder, and he'd probably soon have to put this car of his away.
He sighed a little bit, turning to face the Z31 again. "Devil Z... are you really gone for good this time?"
As he stepped torwards his old Z31, he also noticed a few other things about the car. For one, the exterior was cosmetically updated, changing from the original 1983-style two-tone to a more modern single color. The nose-piece, side moldings, mirrors, and rear taillights were all changed over to the 1987-and-up style. It looked like one of the last 300ZX Z31's produced, even though it was one of the first.
When Akio approached the car, he saw a piece of paper laying in the passenger's seat, something he'd overlooked before, hand-written in beautiful manuscript.
The Z was a total loss, mate. Kealan
couldn't
do anything with it. However, he says he's sure
you'll
appreciate having your old car back with
a few tweaks here and
there. The accident wasn't
your fault, so this is the least
apology he can give
to you. Oh, and by the way, when we actually
do
cross paths, you'd better thank me for bringing you
back
from the dead. Now I'm going to need some
hardcore beauty sleep
thanks to all the energy
I spent bringing your young ass back to
this world!
-Karie Sandars
Falling silent for a while, Akio slowly meandered back over to the edge of the rooftop parking lot, looking twice at the morning sky. "So I was dead", he said, very dryly. It made sense to him; after all, he had no injuries whatsoever despite the speed they were going to crash at, but it was something a little on the hard side to swallow. Hopping over the little ledge, he dangled his legs five stories above Neo-Tokyo, his ears picking up on a unique engine sound that he never heard before.
-
Ryousuke calmly stood at the corner of a side-street in Neo-Tokyo, keeping an eye on his stopwatch. Fuhimiro was also there, as well as Takumi's mechanic, and the two Project D vans were quietly parked on the side streets. As the two cars slowly took off - one, a white early-style Mazda RX-7 FC and the other Keisuke's familiar RX-7 FD, with the R-E Amemiya body kit, they made an awkward sound that was clearly not that of the 13B two-rotor... but it was a rotary tune.
"It's time to see how Fujiwara can handle a high-horsepower car. In the city, the AE86 can't stand a remote chance, and the FD would be in trouble without the added displacement", Fuhimiro noted. "Fujiwara should do fine", Ryousuke replied, with a bit of a confident look on his face. "Handling the car isn't going to be the issue here... handling the speed and possible traffic will."
Watching Keisuke take off, Takumi blinked at the rear tires, which ignited into smoke for a few seconds before the car blasted off like a rocket ship. "That's... odd...", he muttered to himself as he feathered the gas pedal, still barely moving in first gear. "The rear tires broke traction on dry pavement, and without a clutch dump, and they still spun a bit in second gear." Prodding the throttle lightly, Takumi felt the engine ready to surge forward, the twin turbochargers spooling just slightly up, giving off a whistle that many American truck drivers would be familiar with.
Finally, in second gear, from about 4,000 RPM, Takumi simply nailed it... and gasped as the car nearly punched him back into his seat. The whole experience was disillusioning - the car's cho-agressive aerodynamic package that included a GT-style spoiler, wide fenders, and set-in headlights replacing the standard flip-up units - the unique smoothness and buzz of the three-rotor 20B Eunos Cosmo-derived, but heavily modified, engine - the immense horsepower and torque the engine provided- and Takumi was pouring all the effort he had into just banging the car from second to third to fourth gear, before seeing the narrow intersection, Keisuke's taillights disappearing before him, and trying to judge the apex of the tight corner, screwing it up almost as badly as his teammate did.
"Oh, sweet god... I thought Suzaki-san's car was powerful... but this engine... this power... it's just insane! It would be horribly impractical on the mountain!" Getting back on the throttle off exit, he had only a second to floor the car before swinging through another intersection, going wide of a traffic car. "And there's traffic on the street to deal with... the drivers from here and Tokyo race through this!? Are they insane!?"
Keisuke growled as he fought the power of his FD, finally getting why he couldn't access the car for a week straight; it was going through this. "God damn it, bro, do I really need this much power for a race? I mean, come on... this is the city, for crying out loud. I can't believe they even race through this shit! They're nuts!" The engine shreiked as Keisuke downshifted, the sound of the Single-Turbo 3-Rotor so different from his 13B-REW. He glanced to the rearview, seeing Fujiwara very far behind.
"Can't keep up yet, eh? It's understandable, Fujiwara... you're used to a low-horsepower car, and must be struggling to just get a grasp on that wild FC's nature. But that car's even crazier than mine. I've seen it built, and thought Ryousuke was doing it for a race team, but this... christ... I'd never have known." Coming to a fork, he lightly swerved right, seeing his rival follow. "But it looks like you're already starting to see just why I love my FD's new body." He then glanced ahead, and in the feint light of the morning, just as sunrise was about to reveal itself, he saw a feint glimmer ahead. Headlights... a car charging in at high speed. But then, the sun hit, and being blinded, Keisuke stuck to his lane; it was the only strategy he had in mind. He heard the roar of an engine, sounding like a NASCAR Winston Cup stocker, roar by at a combined speed between the cars of 400 kilometers per hour. "Jeezus", he muttered, catching only a glimpse of the driver as the red blur shot by, exhaust exiting out its sidepipes. "Car's loud."
Grinning behind the cockpit of her "Turbo Z", one of Tokyo's driving aces saw two incoming cars just as the reflection of sunlight hit her rearview. Re-adjusting it, she then was able to identify the RE-Amemiya kitted yellow beast of Keisuke Takahashi's Project.D FD. So, you finally came here to Tokyo, eh guys? I'm suprised. You've both got guts challenging us on the entire Tokyo Ring, instead of keeping it on the Wangan. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the cars crossed paths, the self-dubbed sexy driver giving a good eye of her possible rival, giggling, just the slightest bit.
Five seconds behind Keisuke, Takumi was finally beginning to acquire a rythm for the streets. The intersections were mostly simple enough; tackle each one the same exact way. A few traffic cars caused him to adjust his lines, but he wondered in his head why a large city like Tokyo would be so scarcely populated. Those answers were Tokyo's dark secrets, but the focus at the moment was first and foremost handling this aerodynamic beast. "I now understand what you told me about downforce", he noted to himself, "Ryousuke." Then, just before sunlight hit his eyes, He saw a glimpse of an oncoming car that seemed to be in the right-hand lane, so he adjusted his line, watching... or doing what he could to try to watch... as the driver bolted past him. "That's an interesting engine sound", he noted to himself, managing to make out the car's shape, "But what body style of car is that? It's like Suzaki-san's Starion, but different."
She then saw the white car in the fast-closing distance, blinking to herself. "Heavily modified FC? Who's that?", she asked herself. She'd seen a white FC before on Hakone, and knew its driver, but that definately wasn't it, nor was it one of her idols, Ryousuke Takahashi's. It had a crazy body kit.
"..."
The FC blew by, her trying to catch a glimpse of the driver, and almost did, if her heart didn't stop at that moment and her driver blanked out. Her grip could strangle the steering wheel, even crush its imaginary windpipe, it was so intense. Her foot lagged off the throttle, the sidepipes letting out little flames of unburned fuel. Her mind blurred a little... before she saw the chicane, and, excuse the french, fukk'd up horribly. The car four-wheel slided to a halt in the middle of the road, the girl slowly climbing out, her legs shaking. Her voice slurred and studdered a bit, as she narrated to herself in the morning rise.
"That driver... his aura is on par with... with... Kaworu-san..." A pause. "No... maybe... even... higher."
-
Iketani held a wrench in one hand, and a handkercheif in the other, wiping sweat off his face before tucking it back into his breast pocket, giving a nod to Mako... and also Kenji and Itsuki - Itsuki having chimed in at around 10 to pull an all-nighter and see if they could actually get the BTCH running as quick as humanly possible. They slowly eased the engine into its respective spot in the bay, their next target being bolting up the transmission. Luckily, for them, the previous owner was trying to mount the engine up to an S14 chasis and transmission, so the required "adaptors" were custom-fabricated and ready to rock.
"Alright! Good!" The engine still looked considerably aged, but for what Iketani knew, it could help add to the aura of it all... an unsuspecting eye wouldn't pick up on the abnormalities of the wolf in Gazelle's clothing, not knowing that this engine was not standard Silvia equipment, per se... not S13/180SX equipment, anyways. Its blue-and-silver cam covers blended beautifully with the body of the RPS13, and Mako approved ot the looks of it.
Iketani slid under the car, taking a few minutes to bolt the engine to the engine mounts. He climbed back up, and Kenji looked at him with a bit of a curious face. "So, ready to tell us about this engine, Iketani? You seemed to almost faint when you saw it, and then your eyes really fell our of their sockets when I told you what was done to it. What's really the big deal with this engine, Iketani?"
Iketani gave off a bit of a chuckle, eyeing his three friends. "Well, alright, I'll tell you about it." "Yes, go on, senpai!", Itsuki chimed in, Iketani replying by giving off another soft laugh and patting his head. "Don't blow a head gasket just yet, Itsuki. Anyways, this engine is called the FJ20ET, and it was in an earlier Silvia model, the S12 chasis... at least, if your model year on this engine is right and the owner's claim that it was from a Silvia is true, Kenji." Kenji nodded back. "It is, Iketani, go on."
"Well, basically, the FJ20ET is the forefather of the CA and SR series of engines. But its roots go back a lot further. Back in the early 1980's, Nissan wanted to compete in Formula One very badly. In that era, turbocharged cars were beginning to completely dominate the field. However, by the time the design was ready, the FIA already instated a rule that put the Turbo F1 cars at an extreme handicap. The engine code was known as FJ15, I think. Well, whatever it was then, it eventually was reworked into a viable passenger car engine, because Nissan was sitting on an otherwise track-ready design and maybe over a billion yen worth the development money and had to do something with it." Mako asked Iketani a quick question, which made sense to her. "So, they put it into the S12 Silvia then, I guess?"
Iketani nodded. "You're partially right. Eventually, it made it to the S12 Silvia, but first, it was used in the DR30 Skyline, and it was also further bored and stroked to 2.4 liters for use in the S110 240RS Rally Car, just before all-wheel drives took control of the off-road racing game. Because of the S12's low hood and bay restrictions, the engine was modified a little when it finally made it into the S12, mainly to the intake and exhaust manifolds... much the way the AE82 Corolla Levin hatch's intake was modified for the FF layout. But, this engine had the manifolds custom-made... and this is a 2.2 liter version, slightly de-stroked and over-bored, according to the crankshaft and piston size specification. It's an odd engine... I believe given the sheet I read over, it has a rev limit of about 8,250... I'd say 8,500 but it's always good to be a little under the absolute limit. Without too many modifications, the engine should be capable of a relatively lag-free three-hundred fifty horsepower."
Mako's legs grew weak before her and Kenji's eyes widened; Itsuki merely stood there and stared at Iketani in a stupor. Kenji was finally the first to break the silence. "Nearly eight-and-a-half grand!? That's incredible for an early 1980's design!" Iketani chuckled a little bit, nodding to Kenji. "Yeah, but consider this engine was originally designed for a thousand plus horsepower and twelve thousand revs, and... suddenly, the output it's making now doesn't seem out of the ordinary." Itsuki finally slowly nodded, in slight disbelief to all this. "Yeah, this engine makes it seem like like Fujiwara's engine is a bread-and-butter family sedan engine. But his is a once-factory engine pushed to its limits and really only meant for the track. This is a pure-genious racing plant detuned to street use. It's ironic."
Mako giggled softly, finally being able to speak. "Me and you will have to make sure your SR20 project on Silvia-chan is at least this powerful." Kenji added in, "Oh, and Iketani, speaking of SR20's, there's a yard in Kyoto that's selling a Sunny GTi-R front clip for nickels and bones, you want to check it out?" Iketani scratched his chin for a second, slowly nodding. "The most powerful and reliable SR20 for nickels and bones? Count me in!" Kenji then pointed to the mostly disassembled engine bay of the Sil-Eighty, pointing at the spark plug valley, which didn't even have its coils put in place or anything.
"But first, let's finish installing this damn engine!", Kenji said, laughing a bit. The group of friends then all enjoyed a laugh, before getting back to work.