Barely Street Legal League [SURVEY ON PAGE 70]

[VosNox]

It's at this point I realized I should have made a far better car... I was trying to win by points. Instead, all I've managed to do is sheer the oil pan off.

[EnryGT5]

Hey! Leave me alone! the cloaked Enry shouted in choppy but comprehensible Japanese, trying to get away from Strop's unfair trick. He was cloaked, to not be recognized as Seishido's dang CEO and so, be assaulted not only by local gearheads, but also by the media, he had a large black hoodie,80's aviator glasses, and a scarf covering his face, but he could not hide the brutal X90, so they thought it was some crazy Wangan-eater..

Random guy: Wow! are you from the Midnight Club?
Enry: Nope, this is a secret project, get off me!
Random guy #2: How much power are you running?
Enry: Around 6 Type-R's.
Random guy #3: Top speed?
Enry: Not your business, dude
Random guy #4: Can i take some pics?
Enry: Oh, HELL NO!
Random guy #2: What?!

So Enry slammed the horn and cheesed it, leaving a huge raging four-wheel burnout where the car was a few seconds before. Enry can't wait to go in action again, everyone knows

[TheTom]

The japanese car addicts weren't satisfied yet. Immediately, standing on the other side, the Brimstone caught their eyes, being a little hatchback, wearing its fancy yellow bodypaint, with its LED taillights glowing brightly and clearly visible even in the darkest night. Realizing what was about to happen seeing the crowd move towards his car, Tom jumped into the hyper-powered hatchback and floored it, leaving nothing but thick white clouds of tire smoke in the air and deep black tire tracks on the ground. While he could see very well where he was going, the crowd couldn't. After the smoke had finally disappeared, so had the car, leaving only a furious soundtrack of a V8 engine revving to 9000RPM.

[rileybanks]

REALLY?! They STILL want more V8 madness? The engine shall be fired up and all hell will break loose.
And it's a good job we brought spare tyres. A really good job. Cause we're probably going to need a new set of rears every 50 km or so.

[nialloftara]

They always want more V8 music! *sidesteps the clutch and lets 9.7 liters of v8 roar, the big motor bounces off the rev limiter emitting clouds of rich unburnt exhaust through the twin catless pipes. And in a cloud of various smokes the vindicatior rears back in a chassis twisting launch cocking a front wheel for the crowd *

[accent]

To Mister Greasepaws the monkey, Japan air smelled interesting as his cage was pulled out of the cargo hold of the airplane. The humid air carried the smell of a city packed full of automobiles. But as a native of Gibraltar and a fan of high places, he longed to see the mountains. Some of the competitors seemed to be eagerly waiting to try some drifting down the twisty mountain roads. Mister Greasepaws didn't like drifting. He was too small to drive a car himself, and he did not feel safe as a passenger when traction was deliberately lost. Luckily the hired Mystery Driver (who was not the Stig, as this guy spoke to people from under his helmet) was a fan of more traditional driving techniques and the four wheel drive car wasn't exactly the best drifting machine anyways. They would probably not do well here, though. The Mystery Driver was no rookie, but his comfort zone was on the relatively flat European race tracks. But here came engineer Rubik and the Mystery Driver now to take him to the car!

The interior of the car was uncomfortable and noisy, but at least Mister Greasepaws had his own little bucket seat behind the driver and Rubik. A small stereo was the only entertainment on their way to the race course. It didn't add too much weight to the car, but the two tiny speakers were useless when the car was moving. Nevertheless, Mister Greasepaws leaned in to hear at least a bit of the mp3 being played on it. He looked around. A colourful convoy of race cars, the drivers of which now owned the roads. In the rear view mirror he saw a long red car with air vents popping out everywhere. Its bonnet was missing. Whose dumb idea was to leave it off? That can't be good for aerodynamics. Still, that... thing wasn't even the most outrageous car out here. A few cars over he could see a glimpse of poison green. From that direction came a deafening roar of a gigantic engine as it downshifted for a long uphill. They were getting close to where today's race would begin.

[07CobaltGirl]

Kristina skittered past the frenzy around the dock workers clamoring over the Japanese cars, hopped into her Oxford Green, Americanized-German beast, started the motor and loped out of the yard as quietly as the LS7 could muster. As she approached the gate, she gunned it and left a plume of smoke behind her, directly followed by the sneeze of the turbos as she made the turn onto the street. She quickly found a bar to hide in where she ordered nigiri and sake to decompress from last night's events. The car was stressful in Australia, but the mountain road in Gunma was going to be even worse. At least Mt Panorama had straights!

With food on her belly, she could consider her strategy for the downhill roller coaster ride. The only viable choice she had for Mt Haruna was to skillfully feather the throttle for a full-on drift. Not her forte at all. Sure she had drifted the car back home in Atlanta, but Swanson Proving Grounds was not a downhill course. She would have to use brakes here, or risk flying off the side of a mountain. Precision was key here, more than almost anywhere else. She killed the sake and left a tip as she rose up in the corner. She was quite out of place here among the Japanese men handling the girls who brought plates and bottles out to them. Her long, dirty blonde hair was messy, rough leather pants and motorcycle jacket which had seen years of wear, and steel toed leather combat boots from her days in the Marines.

She left the bar and walked along the sidewalk. She was still close to the ocean, the salty air was ever-present in Edogawa. She needed to get moving. It was 160km to the race, and only 3 hours left. She decided to take the Kan-Etsu Expressway despite it's tolls. At least the tunnel was fun to drive in. She kept it under control though town, and then it was an easy ride into the hills toward the meeting point.

[strop]

Mount Haruna, legendary in stature and popularised by the breakout series Initial D, barely disguised as Mount Akina, yet described in loving detail. The site of many a race, both legal and underground, complete with narrow, twisting roads and scraped guardrails on every corner, with a sheer stone wall on one side and a precipitous fall into the dense tree line on the other. This was the epitome of touge and mountain drift.

The moon was high in the sky, just over half a rabbit pounding rice cakes gazing down from half a million miles away. The silvery light reflected in the shimmering waters of Lake Haruna just yonder, as the drivers jumped in their cars, pulling out of the Harunakomachi parking lot.

The Gryphon Gear truck slowed as it approached the selected mountain pass, none other than the downhill pass mastered by fictional prodigy Fujiwara in his famous Trueno 86 and its 4AG. Much is said about the true wisdom of touge, that balance, and not power, is everything. Yet there were no 4AGs here, only giant V8 blocks, a lone turbo straight six, and of course, Peapod’s turbo inline four, infused with unicorn magic to unleash over nine hundred horsepower. So to them, power was everything, and quite possibly for most of them, their undoing. But that was most of the fun (and pants wetting, bowel evacuating terror) of it.

“Wait a minute,” Hannah held out a hand, and Tesla stopped the truck in the middle of the long straight of the Jomo-Sanzen Panorama Highway. “What is that?” All over the runoff near the end of the straight, were bright lights and trucks and barriers.

“They don’t look like police to me!” Tesla squinted over the steering wheel. “At least I don’t see any blue lights.”

Just then, a small hatchback tore away from the group and surged up the road towards them. As it came closer it became clear it was the Achernar, and once the door opened, it was confirmed as Enry, still wearing his pseudo-gangster disguise, stepped out and knocked on the door of the truck.

“What’s all this?” Hannah asked.

“Good news!” Enry exclaimed, muffled by the scarf wrapped around his face. “Since we’re so close to the Seishido factory, we were able to close the road for the night and organise the event properly!”

Both Hannah and Tesla looked at each other. Hannah frowned at Enry. “How did you manage to close the road at such short notice?”

Enry shrugged. “We’re local, and nobody uses this road at this time anyway. At least, not until the tofu vendor has to make his delivery at four thirty. And we may have told the cops that we were testing… new… prototypes…” at this he shuffled his feet and looked away.

“Oh!” Tesla stifled a giggle. “We couldn’t possibly refuse your generosity. Thank you. We’ll let everybody know.” With that, Enry hopped back into his car and sped off towards the starting line. Hannah picked up the walkie talkie and thumbed the switch. “Hey, Noah, looks like you won’t need to play fake cop today…”

____________________________________________________________

Two o’clock in the morning. With the last-minute formalisation of the event, things were suddenly more organised, but with that, news had clearly spread of the event, and in among the trees and bushes and at various vantage points, curious onlookers and enthusiasts had started to gather, cameras in hand, and without a proper police presence which they couldn’t request anyway lest Enry’s white lie be exposed, they couldn’t move them on. And Noah flatly refused to act as security and move them on, not least because he didn’t know how to say “go away” in Japanese.

Nonetheless, as it was guaranteed that the road would be clear, the team had discussed it with the local factory team and agreed on a much more exciting format. Strop checked the results of the first round, and drew up a table before gathering all the drivers around and announcing the schedule of proceedings.

“Welcome everybody! This is the second round of the Barely Street Legal league. Thanks to Seishido Motors, we have this road to ourselves for the next two and a half hours. So we’re going to use a touge battle format. Head to head, driver against driver against mountain road and fear.”

He then unveiled the large board with lots of blank squares on it. “We used your results from the first round, and divided everybody into brackets of four for the top half, and larger brackets for the bottom because we have an odd number. From that, you’ll draw lots and that will decide your opponent, so step forth and take a number from the box!”

One by one, each driver stepped forward and displayed their number, and bit by bit, the board filled up. Finally completed, it read as follows:

Baltazar Thanatos Estate –vs- Peapod GG Tune
Sleipnir –vs- Mephisto
Gemina XIII GTX –vs- AR.MA. SD-01R
Banks Debrauna Gumball Edition –vs- EGT Achernar X90
AED Griffin –vs- Necronia Emperion
AMW Brimstone –vs- The Hulk
Dalora Infernalis –vs- Raggari Mutant
YCB Yacare ULTRA X –vs- Leeroy Lunatic –vs- Decker Annihilator
HFF –vs- RB-02 –vs- Ruby
E30 LS7 M –vs- Cottam Elegance DA
Testis –vs- Centauri Vindicator –vs- Normandy Kodiak

“We will be progressing through the battles one by one. We only have time for one pass down the mountain each, and while this is a battle, your final time is what counts. May the battle sharpen your wits and break the limits of your car! Good luck and godspeed!”

With that, Strop hopped into his own car, mentally checking through everything, for as the lots fell, he was up against the crazy grannymobile first. But as the cars lined up in order on the straightaway of the pass, Strop realised something was clearly amiss. He couldn’t see among any of the cars, the distinctive handlebar moustache foglights of Sleipnir. Immediately he snatched up the GG walkie-talkie.

“Hannah, where’s Sam?”

“He’s not here?” the voice crackled back. “Shit. I have no idea. He better not be in trouble, he’s got Sleipnir.”

“Argh, I don’t want to think about it,” Strop grit his teeth. “If he’s not here within two minutes though, he’s totally missing this race.”

“Oh, what a pity!” Kai interjected.

“Shut up Kai!” Hannah, Noah and Strop shouted in unison.

Right at that moment, a new set of lights flashed into Strop’s rear view. His heart leapt as he saw the unique quad peek-a-boo lights and the handlebar headlights. It was Sleipnir.

“Sorry I’m late guys, I was… busy!” Sam’s voice crackled over the CB radio as Sleipnir screeched to a halt just adrift off the pack.

“Trying to pick up in Tokyo, I bet,” Kai snarked.

“Whatever, just get your ass on the grid, you’re racing Kai.” Hannah instructed him curtly.

“Nothing would give me more pleasure!” Sam exclaimed with glee. “Are you ready to lose, Crash?”

“Just remember whose car you’re driving,” Kai replied wearily.

Strop forcibly tore his mind away from the banter and towards the road ahead, hearing the engine rev as Noah, reprising his second role as the starting line chick, stood with his arms raised. That grannymobile was the fastest wagon he had ever seen in his life. It was a matter of whether he could hang on for the whole wide ride without getting thrown off.

Noah flung his hands down, and they were off!

[VosNox]

It was with much disdain that Vos drew his horrific number. And upon entering his name on the board, he whipped out his phone and called the shop. The level of swears and unique insults that where audible even over the roar of so many engines was on a level that noone had quite heard before. Funding cuts, jail time and even slave labor where threats he fired into his phone. There was a brief pause in his diatribe that was undoubtedly him giving his team time to cobble together an excuse, after which he yelled very clearly "You know that wife of yours? Yes, the pretty one... If I lose this, I'm turning her into Ethanol." He threw the phone on the ground where it shattered in a spectacular show of immaturity.

[8bs]

After checking the board ... my mind was absolutely absent from any kind of thoughts, except to choose between the die soon and die sooner. I had a pretty tough decision to make here. After beating my nigorizake, it was time to take some more drastic measures ... I went for the bottle of Gin ...

[nialloftara]

So a three way battle of the elderstatesmen, very well. We shall see who's nerve is the strongest and who's balance is most precise, and who allowed enough ground clearance to dip their inside tires into the gutter. Fellow lunitics, my 1986 chassis and I shall see you at the bottom.

*reaches over to the glovebox selects a cassette and turns up the volume.*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCiDuy4mrWU

[TheTom]

Seeing his match-up, Tom felt confident, but also a bit nervous. "That big thing has buttloads of power, but it weighs almost twice as much as my car. Just don't let him win the start because overtaking on a track as narrow as this will be next to impossible. Especially when he's already gonna take the widest line possible if he wants to carry any speed whatsoever through the corners. I can win this, just how am i gonna get past him?"

[Cen]

There's no better way for me to say it, so:

[strop]

DEERECTOR MAKES AN APPEARANCE

Also I don't think I need to say this but if anybody else has any specific thoughts about the lineup, do let me know. I'm halfway through writing the races, which I shall submit, along with the official results tomorrow (note, the times are still purely the times you submitted, I don't alter those at all).

Tom: you have no idea just how perfectly that thought lines up with what I've written for your race.

[EnryGT5]

Enry, after seeing his opponent, started sweating, probably made worse by his really bad cloak.
He surely had a better acceleration and tameness, after all, going AWD with various controls was a good choice, so the start was obviously to be dominated by the X90, the really tricky sections might be his death sentence, since the Debrauna is a corner-carver despite it's oversteering nature. But eventually he got over it, put on his proper glasses to actually see the track and started up the 8.1 once again, with only it's music to entertain the driver.
It's time to defend the X90's reputation, he cannot lose on home ground, that would be shameful for not only EGT, but the whole Seishido, and, most importantly, Enry himself.