At a nearby building.
Last time they needed a half an airplane hangar. Now they only needed about 1 whole floor of an office building's unoccupied basement. Less than six hours ago, this place was empty. Now, it was filled with cloth-covered tables and chairs and plenty of formal dressed guests with the usual buffet table on one side of the room. Large flatscreen, LED TV sets were placed on steel struts around the floor raised eight feet off the ground provided the viewers with high definition images of the event taking place no more than a few blocks away.
The crowd, of course was only half that of the crowd in Voc-Tech. After Stage 1 of the tournament, half of all participants, including the sponsors, had to go. Oh sure, even the losing sponsors were still allowed to bet and watch, just not here. In this place, only winners are allowed.
This was what Virgil thought as he sipped on his champagne glass. He sat at a table of seven, none of the other three he knew. All of them sponsors of different teams. He decided not to sit with Sinclair this time. Just as well, he didn't get an invitation anyway.
With last night's event giving everyone a taste of what's exactly on the table in this tournament, many friendly meetings and acquaintances that were established before engines were started quickly switched to stone cold stares as each and every sponsor knew that it was nothing but business from then on out.
With so much at stake, it had to be nothing but business in this type of crowd.
It always amused Virgil how some of these business-type of people are always so transparent, so plastic in the way they present themselves. Perhaps, he figured, that's what attracted him towards the street.
On the street, away from all the formal suits and leather cases, everything was just so much more…colorful. It wasn't just about money on the street. It was also about charisma, character, reputation. A far cry from the usually drab corporate world. It was a place where he could meet people like Alex.
Speaking of whom.
Jarod's voice came from the speakers. "Kicking tings off for us is a match-up between fellow tuner teams, Wyldcardz from Florida, and Mad Stylez from California. Two teams from opposite coasts, both seem to be predominantly tuners. Hopefully, their driving skills is much better than their spelling skills."
On screen, onlookers applauded and cheered as the orange S15 slowly made its way to the starting line, positioning itself about ten feet from his opponent's car: A Mitsubishi Eclipse GT.
"Team Wyldcardz pulled quite an impressive win during the first stage," continued Jarod. No one expected them to pull off the win against an all muscle team in a straight drag race but here they are."
"And now," said D-rail's voice. "Looks like them cats are back at home with this street x gig here. But then again, so is the competition, yo. No miss-match here. This is a straight up showdown for tuner pride."
"That's right, D. Looks like the crowd is pumped already."
The camera turned towards the onlookers who were, predictably, cheering wildly. They came for a show and they know they're going to get it with this match-up. From where he watched Virgil smiled satisfyingly. Everything was going to plan so far for them. He was feeling optimistic even though he knew he could hardly afford to be.
At the start line.
Both cars were now revving their engines making sure they were at a nice hot temperature and that the oil was properly circulated throughout. Maximum lubrication means maximum efficiency and power output.
Alex peered put his window and shaped-up his opponent's car. A fourth generation Eclipse GT. Alex has faced the Eclipse before. Like the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla, The Mitsubishi eclipse was once of those "tuner standards" as he liked to call it. It was cheap, very common, easily tuned JDM vehicle that was at the forefront of the tuner movement.
Alex knew that the second generation Eclipse was a worthy opponent, especially the GSX model with its AWD system. Later generations have been exclusively FWD much to the chagrin of sports car enthusiasts but in general the car didn't lose any of its sportiness and was still a very good GT by most people's standards. A little tuning took it a long way.
Alex listened in on the exhaust note as the Eclipse revved it's motor. He could hear the faint whirring sound of a supercharger. Smart tuning. This car was definitely built for the Street X. He suspected the driver, someone good enough to be in this tournament, had the good sense of tuning the suspension as well. If the car's performance is even half as good as that outrageous styling (Alex found himself staring at the body kit and paint job) then this was gonna be a challenge.
"Well, it wouldn't be fun if it was easy right?" Alex mumbled to himself, getting pumped up for the race.
In the Eclipse, Rikku Minami was doing the same to the S15.
One of the things that was piquing her curiosity was the sound of the engine. It didn't sound like the usual in-line four of the Silvia. It must've been an engine swap, she concluded. She wasn't surprised at this. The Nissan S cars were famous for their excessively large engine bays that allowed engine swappers to put in just about anything in there. She once heard about some guy who put in a Chevy V8 from an old Corvette in an S14.
But that didn't matter to her. If it was anything other than the stock SR20 engine of the Silvia, it was too little or too much. The SR20 was probably the only engine that could match her own MIVEC V6 engine with its Turbonator Stage 2 electric Supercharger. It might not sound all that much but sometimes a little boost is all she needed. With the supercharger on, the engine produced about 320 hp with around 300 ft/lbs of torque at the peak, her engine was ideally set up for this race.
In short, she can't lose.
"I knew it…" she mumbled to herself. "This race is ours…this tournament is ours."
Somewhere off to the side.
"I'll tell ya, these don't look like good odds, man," said Kate as she stood next to her Impreza waiting tensely for the race to start.
"Good or not, we're not backing down," said Rome. "That's what this team is all about."
"Is That right?" said Brian O'Conner. "Well, I guess you guys wouldn't be much fun if you just packed up when the chips were down."
Kate slowly turned to look to the side. Standing on the other side of the Cuda, opposite of Rome, was a tall, handsome young man wearing a simple NISMO T-shirt, jeans and a pair Chuck Taylors. Kate couldn't remember when the heck this guys suddenly showed up next to them but Rome, for some strange reason wasn't reacting like she was.
"I'm sorry, who are you again?" asked Kate to the stranger.
"Oh, sorry about that," said Rome. "Kate, this is Pig. Pig, Kate."
Brian snickered with bemused humor. Kate just looked even more confused. Brian decided to do introductions himself.
"Name's Brian. Brian O'Conner."
"I see. And Rome thinks you're a...cop?"
"Was."
"About that," butted in Rome. "How'd you lose that last badge? Let your guy go again."
"Actually this time I broke him out of prison."
Now both Rome and Kate were staring at him. "You broke him out of State Correctional?"
"Well not exactly out of prison but more like on the way to prison. We hijacked the bus."
The two Wyldcardz continued to stare incredulously at the man in the NISMO shirt. Brian, despite himself, was enjoying the attention. He hated to admit it but he was a bit of a show-off. It was Rome who broke the silence. "You are the craziest white boy I've ever met, dawg. Is that why you had to high tail to Indo-china or somewhere."
"Japan. And yeah, we had to leave. Things got too hot for us here and we had to bail."
"There not exactly any cooler now, are they?"
"Nope."
"And yet here you are back like a bad rash."
Brian flashed him a bemused look. "Like you said, cus'. I'm the craziest white boy you know."
Rome was about to push the issue when they were interrupted by the roar of the crowd which suddenly got louder. The turned their attention to the start line and saw the starter of the race move to her position in between the two cars. The race was finally starting
Back at the start line.
A young woman who looked like a supermodel in her own right stepped forth from the crowd and positioned herself between the two cars. She gave each driver a look and both drivers gave a nod in response. She took that as he signal to start the race. She raised both her hands with all fingers extended outwards. Starting from the pinkies, she slowly counted down to start. As her index finger fell and her thumb started to fold in…
"This is done...over…it's mine," mumbled Rikku.
"Here we…go," mumbled Alex
The starter girl dropped her arms and smoked erupted from the two cars' tires.
The FWD Eclipse took an early lead by half-a-car's length by the time they reached the corner of the warehouse. Rikku turned left hard and her tires squealed. Having the inside line from the start sure helped her in gaining this advantage. Alex was utilizing all of the S15's baking potential here. He was now sticking to the Eclipse's rear bumper.
The first to get into the warehouse was Rikku of course and Alex was not far behind (less than a quarter of a second) The moment Rikku entered the warehouse, she realized how little justice the video from the go kart did the place. She's been in tight tracks before but all the "streets" in here were ridiculously narrow by racing standards. It felt like a rally track driving in there.
Rikku didn't really have time to think about all this. Before she knew it the wall was approaching fast. A hard right and into the first straightaway of the course. As soon as she was clear, she floored it, her supercharger whistling loudly. But as she did, she became the victim of an old nemesis.
Alex, whose S15 was following quite closely, recognized this as his opportunity to make a move. As he predicted, the Eclipse, even while turning hard, slid far and went much closer to the outer wall than he did. His S15, with careful application of handbrake, managed to take a tight turn in and stick much closer to the inner wall and the center line of the course. As a result he had a clear path ahead.
"Thank, laws of physics," he exclaimed while smirking.
"And almost immediately," came Jarod, "the Eclipse got into a little trouble. It seems that that driver is a little to excited. In a race like this, what you need is a cool head, right partner?"
"Definitely, dawg," replied D-rail. "Girl's acting like she got all the grip in the world. Driving like that, she shoulda' knew , man, understeer, baby.""
General rule with cars: RWD is to oversteer as FWD is to understeer. Both basically mean a loss of grip at the tires. The difference is where those tires are. Oversteer affects the rear wheels while understeer affects the front wheels and both happen when the driver gives too much power. And if you think about it, it makes sense.
Oversteer happens when too much power goes to the back in a RWD car and the rear wheels start to slide. The usual result is that the back end of the car swings out due to inertia of a turn. The usual danger is that that car will simply spin out or worse, if it has enough forward momentum when it turns sideways, flip the car on its side.
Understeer, on the other end of the spectrum, happens when too much power goes to the front in a FWD car and the front wheels start to slide. The usual result is that the car can't make the turn as sharply as the driver wants and the car ends up sliding outward under its own momentum. The usual danger is that the car will slide all the way off the track and worse, if there's a barrier, crash into it.
This is only a general rule though and neither oversteer nor understeer affects RWD and FWD cars exclusively. They simply affect them more probably due to the nature of the drive wheels of each type of car. But what is most important about this is that a real driver will know how to effectively take advantage of this rule.
Alex did just that. He anticipated that the Eclipse would understeer, noting how excited the driver was early on in the race. That left him with a relatively wide avenue to take advantage off as his opponent's car drifted outward close to the outer wall. Using his handbrake, he induce a little oversteer into his own S15, just enough to swing the back a little bit to get him pointed straight down the track as he emerged from the turn.
The gambit worked and Alex gunned the engine. As both cars drove down the straight, Alex had already taken over the lead by the time they reached half-way down the straightaway. Above them, audience members from the walkways were expressing their excitement.
"Kuso!" cursed Rikku. She wasn't expecting that.
She knew she got too excited and slid in that last corner. She'd have to be more careful. Especially with the chicane coming up. But first, there was the hairpin. The Eclipse was already about a car-length behind the S15 by the time the reach the hairpin.
The S15 braked hard as it took the inside lane. Alex used careful manipulation of the steering wheel. To control the slight swinging out of the tail end. He managed the turn smoothly enough thanks to his experience. Rikku had to follow closely in order to keep any chances of winning this race. But she knew it was useless to try and follow the same line as the S15. She decided to take the outside.
As the S15 braked and started to make the turn right, the Eclipse veered left. Rikku tapped the brake lightly enough to slow her down to a safe speed. Then sharply turned right again, and then gunned the engine. However instead of making the same mistake again, she immediately applied the handbrake for a split second.
Applying the handbrake locked the rear wheels for an instant and this caused the back to swing out. As she gunned her motor, the now swung out back end produced a counter effect to the natural understeer, effectively bringing the car into a drift (yes, even FWD cars can drift!) letting Rikku keep the car pointed in the direction she wanted it to.
Alex noticed this in his side mirror. He tried to take counteraction but Rikku had already positioned herself well enough to take the outside line going into the chicane. With a little bit more power, she regained the lead from the S15. The Eclipse passed the S15 on the outside and made a straight path towards the first chicane.
"Smooth move," said Alex. "She's got real skill."
The Eclipse went tight into first turn taking an aggressive inside line. Rikku was not about to let Alex one-up her again in a corner. Alex had little choice but to follow behind. Making a move here would be dangerous. Above them, assigned cameramen caught the action from atop the containers.
Somewhere in the crowd outside.
Watching from a laptop, SpeedProduction, the most professional team in the whole competition, as they have come to be known, observed closely the ongoing dogfight inside the warehouse. You'd think that with so many competitors in the tournament, it would be impractical to take notes on every team out there. There was just too much to note down.
But the leader of the team, Allen Redfield, was a pro all the way.
Know the opponent; his weaknesses and strengths. Then utilize that knowledge in the field of competition. A few true sportsmen would consider this wise. Most others would probably just view it as paranoia.
"Man, I thought that Nissan was gonna stay in the lead after that move before the straight," said member Oliver Sanders.
"And these are the guys our sponsor warned us about?" asked Matt Anderson with a hint of a giggle as he turned to look back at his teammate standing behind him.
Mark Langford's face was all business and showed no humor whatsoever. He gave Matt a look that seemed to say that he should be quiet. Matt's smile faded and turned back to the screen, following the unsaid command. Mark turned back to the screen itself and kept watching.
By then, the Two cars had already completed the chicane and were entering the short straight right before the deciding straight leading to the track's main obstacle. If that S15 was gonna make a move, it would have to be within the next 30 seconds or else the Eclipse would have this race.
"The race isn't over yet," said their leader Allen Redfield. "Nothing's over until they reach that finish line. Just watch."
Coming out of the chicane.
The Eclipse was keeping a tight lead with the S15 less than three feet from the Eclipse's bumper more often than not. Neither driver seemed affected by this. Tight proximities was a given. It was only a short dash before the right turn into the last long straight leading to the bottleneck. Rikku knew that if she could just keep the lead for a little bit more, the race was won.
"You ain't passing me," she mumbled. "You got no avenues now, baka."
Back in the Silvia.
"Right now, I hope she's thinkin' that I can't pass her," mumbled Alex to himself. "That's gonna make this really sweet."
With that said, Alex pulls back slightly on the throttle and gives himself some distance between the S15 and the Eclipse, Rikku, for her part, didn't see this move. The turn was coming up and she had to concentrate. She knew the best way to take this turn would be the same way she took the turn before the chicane: a wide approach with applied oversteer.
She did just that. As the turn approached she drove outward and did the old but still effective Scandinavian flick of the wheel. Predictably, she felt the front tires lose grip as she put on some power as she turned right into the corner. She yanked the handbrake for a fraction of a second, just enough to lock the rear wheels momentarily locking them, causing them to lose grip and start sliding.
"Looks like the Eclipse is going aggressive again with that slide into the corner," said Jarod. "It seems that she's found a technique that works for her."
"That boy in the Silvia, better pull somthin' man," said D-rail. "Otherwise it ain't gonna take a smartass to know that Eclipse will—wait!...What's that boy up to?!"
Before Rikku knew it, The sound of the S15's V6 engine got really loud really fast. She glanced outside.
"Nani yo!?" exclaimed Rikku as she noticed the Silvia's tail end swinging at her. He reaction was as immediate as it was instinctual: She slammed her foot on the brake and steer away from the oncoming S15…which was exactly how Alex wanted it.
Before the tail could completely swing out towards the Eclipse, the S15 seemed to have regained control and suddenly straightened out and started steaming down the straight leaving the Eclipse in the dust. A fact not at all lost to Rikku as she desperately tried to recover.
"Kono yarou!!" exclaimed Rikku
"See you later," mumbled Alex inside his own car as if in response to something he didn't hear. He grinned confidently as he shifted up to third gear and watched as the image of the Eclipse get smaller on his rearview mirror.
His move to regain the lead was gutsy and full of risk. But, as Alex himself like to think it, he was nothing if not daring and just a little bit too reckless for his own good.
As the Eclipse was turning into that right corner in its slide, Alex saw that as his perfect opportunity. Copying the opponent's technique, Alex performed a clutch-kick which essentially did the same thing as a handbrake yank: by quickly taping the clutch pedal with your foot, it upsets the drivetrain by momentarily disconnecting the drive shaft from the engine's power. The rear wheels lose power and grip then slide, causing oversteer and bringing the car to a drift once the driver puts the power back on and countersteers.
Alex did the while deliberately aiming his car's back end at the Eclipse in a gamble that the driver would react by backing off. And, fortunately for Alex, it worked like a charm. He wanted to try that trick for a while now, ever since he saw it used by a F1 race car to force another racer to back off. It was a risky move that might've led to a spin out but, because of this event, it was now in Alex's top ten list.
"Whoa! Check this guy out!" excitedly said D-Rail.
"A brilliant offensive strategy by the Wyldcardz leader there, mate," said Jarod. "The Eclipse is now in the dust and the S15 is sailing through that last straight."
The S15 indeed left the Eclipse completely flummoxed. After losing all that momentum, it would be impossible to catch up with the S15 now. Rikku knew this and cursed her damned luck for it. Now all she could do was stick as close as she could to the S15 in hopes that might give her next teammate an easier time.
Alex reached the bottleneck obstacle a full 2 seconds before the Eclipse. He was surprised how the narrow walls made him claustrophobic. The speed at which he was going wasn't making things better. Heck it probably made the walls feel closer around him. No way there wasn't gonna be an accident at this part of the stage of the tournament.
Coming out of the bottle neck it was just a quick turn to the left, a short dash, and a quick right out the door mirroring how they first got into the warehouse. Just outside the door, plenty of cheering onlookers greeted Alex's S15.
Meanwhile, near the start/finish line.
"Dammit! That didn't go well," said Ryosuke, watching a live video feed on his cellphone much like the people around him, now growing only a slight bit more nervous. This wasn't how he had seen things going.
It was very clear that the Wyldcarz were a formidable team to go up against. To be able to spook Rikku like that, these guys had balls alright. They'd have to up the ante a bit more to increase their chances. Ryosuke turned to his left side where his teammate was preparing to leave as soon as the Eclipse crosses the finish line.
"Sato," called out the leader.
The driver of the 350Z turned to look at his team leader.
"Looks like this might be a little more difficult than we thought," continued Ryosuke. "Make sure you use every mod in your car to give us back the lead, alright."
Sato hesitated answering for a second. "Every mod?"
"Yes, whatever you need to use."
"…Understood."
It was just then that the S15 appeared out of the corner of the warehouse and made a mad dash straight for the finish line. The Eclipse followed about a second-and-a-half later.
As soon as the S15 crossed the line, Kate's Impreza WRX roared to life with screeching tires. Soon she was on her way down the course. The Eclipse eventually crossed the line as well and Sato's 350Z followed suit. He knew what he had to do. All he needed was one opportunity to use that particular mod on his car and then he would be assured of retaking the lead for his team.
"This race is just starting," he said to himself as his 350Z crossed the start line.
Author's note: Hope you all had a happy new year. Holiday stuff, and lousy internet service sure slowed down this process. Plus I wanted to update my fics one at a time. So here's the next installment of FNF:SU and we finally got some action again. Next update will see the conclusion of Wyldcardz vs Mad Stylez.
Other notes: Trnslations: "baka" = "idiot / moron." "Nani yo?!" = "What the?!" "Kono yarou!" = "You bastard! / You asshole!"