Shuto Legend - Vol. 1

Act 3: Banshee's Rebirth

The following day was a Saturday. I spent all day driving around making deliveries, as I usually did on Saturdays. I finished my shift at around 6 PM, and I went back to Ashikawa Motors at 10 PM to discuss things with Mr. Ashikawa, as we agreed before. You have to start somewhere, I guess.

"How knowledgeable are you about cars?"

"Knowledgeable enough, but can you just go over the specifics of this car?"

"Alright, alright, fine."

Although the nitty-gritty details of this car were heavily engraved into my mind, that was just the looks. I'm not sure of anything technical about it. I'm sure Mr. Ashikawa knows enough, considering how much he's worked on it.

"Second generation Mazda RX-7, or FC3S. Specifically, the base model is a 1990 Savanna RX-7 GT-X. Already, it's the top-of-the-line turbocharged trim, but unfortunately the most top-of-the-line factory sports cars here aren't nearly enough to make it on Shuto. That's why every racer runs a custom car."

"First thing that catches your eyes is the looks. All of the custom exterior parts serves a function. I'm sure I don't have to explain this, but when you're going in a straight line, power alone doesn't get you to the highest speeds. You have to make sure the car can efficiently cut through the air as it goes along, so it can use more of its power. With something like a stock FC, it's got a decent drag coefficient for what it is, but it can be made better."

"The FC normally sports pop-up headlights. Some people are into it for the aesthetic, but when they're up, it's such a large protrusion from the flow of the main body that it negatively affects the aerodynamics, so they're often avoided for the expressway. To work around this, you have two options. One is to never have the headlights up while racing, instead using large lights installed in a custom front bumper. The other is to swap out the pop-ups for a pair of fixed headlights, such as what you can see here. They're perfectly flush with the main body to make it overall  more streamlined."

"The front bumper was also designed for aerodynamics. Both the front bumper and the hood have plenty of venting to cool down the engine. The last thing you'd want to happen during a race is your engine overheating while you're pushing it to its limits. The mirrors have also been swapped out for a more streamlined shape, sideskirts for the same purpose, spoiler helps, too."

All of that I at least know.

"What about the wheels?"

"They were just an aesthetic choice. A set of SSR Formula Mesh rims."

"I see."

"All of the exterior parts were made in part with Hiroji's own input. While I was rebuilding the car, I had found a log of every shop that's had a hand in its modifications. That was, admittedly, extremely helpful in the repair. For the body parts, it was MOVE Body Works that produced them, and they claimed that Hiroji contributed to the creation of the parts. He would partake in the development process and guide the shop to create the parts in the way that best fit his vision. You could probably credit Hiroji himself in tuning the car as much as you could with the shop."

Now that's news to me. So my father wasn't just a racer, but he was also very knowledgeable with the technical aspects.

"The engine, I'm particularly familiar with already, even before the incident."

"Why the engine?"

"Because I myself worked on it, though the majority of the work was done by my old friend, Yahiro Kurata. I believe he still runs Kurata Auto Garage, I don't know if you've heard of it."

I've heard whispers of them, but nothing beyond that. The only tuning shop I'm personally familiar with is Iwase Works.

"They call him the 'Motor Meister' for his work on engines. I myself was a core member of his shop, but I left after that day. You could probably imagine how awkward it was for me to approach Yahiro after having left just to ask him a favour. Thankfully, much of the engine remained intact after the crash, and a few shaken-up parts just had to be replaced. You can say that despite the hardships, the heart of the banshee remained whole."