Tokyo Drift Arc (10)

Tokyo Drift Arc (10)

"Four-wheel drive racing cars rarely have oversteer problems, but if you want a rear-wheel drive car to take corners by swinging its tail out, you have to upgrade the suspension systems on both axles. At the same time, the driver has to calculate all the factors needed to maintain traction while turning." Takeda Tetsuya puffed out clouds of smoke from the passenger seat.

"This problem is easy enough to solve. You just need to tune the springs and damping coefficients—soften the rear suspension, reduce the compression ratio of the shock absorbers' damping, improve extension, reduce the rigidity of the rear sway bar, or increase the rear track width. In official races, there are usually restrictions on track width, but underground races aren't that particular.

"Also, if you find the airflow becomes unstable after finishing the setup, you can consider increasing the angle of the spoiler. That can improve the downforce effect on the rear half of the car, though your top speed will suffer, of course. At the end of the day, there's no such thing as an absolutely perfect race car. Modifying a car is about finding a balance between different kinds of performance..."

Zhang Heng silently committed those words to memory as he drove. Ten minutes later, the two arrived at Tsukiji Fish Market—and that was only because Zhang Heng had deliberately slowed down.

The moment the L300 reached the entrance of the fish market, Takeda Tetsuya immediately shut his mouth. The guy strictly kept to their previous agreement and refused to say another word. He pushed open the door and jumped out of the car.

However, after taking two steps, the seafood shop owner stopped for the first time ever. After a pause, he said, "Come earlier this Sunday."

Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows. He realized he had probably triggered some new plotline, because four seconds earlier, he had received a new notification: his Automobile Driving Skills had risen from Level 0 to Level 1. At the same time, after a month of study, he had also gained a Modification and Repair Level 0 skill.

So, on the third night, after Zhang Heng and Ameko finished shopping in Shinjuku, they took the bus straight to the seafood shop, arriving three hours earlier than usual. When Takeda Tetsuya saw him, he turned around and shut the shop door, tossing the keys to him. "The shop's closed today."

"Then where are we going?"

"The seaside. Starting today, I'll teach you how to drift."

Zhang Heng was somewhat surprised. Takeda Tetsuya had always guided him in racing and taught him quite a few techniques, but he had never revealed his own signature skill. Zhang Heng had asked several times, only to be dismissed with, "You're not qualified yet." Still, that in itself had been an obvious hint: he first needed to meet some requirement.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been nearly impossible for a complete novice like Zhang Heng to trigger the advanced conditions. He had been learning to drive for more than four months now, long past the original mission deadline, and had only just met the requirements yesterday.

Naturally, Zhang Heng would not let such a precious opportunity slip away. Who knew when that miser Takeda Tetsuya might change his mind? If the guy had not been a D1 GRAND PRIX Tokyo round tandem race champion—and the man closest to the DK title—Zhang Heng would have considered finding someone else to win over, like that mysterious upperclassman from the Racer Study Group.

That man had a much better attitude. For the benefit of younger generations, and to show more people like Zhang Heng who aspired to become racers the way forward, he had freely shared his own insights and experience.

Zhang Heng felt that if he worked hard enough, he might be able to get in on that connection. After all, compared with Takeda Tetsuya, the seafood shop owner, the upperclassman was a legitimate professional racer. But after weighing the matter carefully, he still gave up on the idea.

GT300 was a proper racing competition. Its tracks and its requirements for driving skill differed greatly from underground modified-car races. Take horsepower, for example: as the name suggested, GT300 had a maximum power output of 300 ps. Underground modified-car races, meanwhile, had only one rule—there were no rules. Nobody cared what car you drove or what techniques you used. Whoever reached the finish line first was the winner. As long as you had enough guts, you could even slap N20 onto your car.

He had already reviewed the upperclassman's notes and videos more than once. The other man's aggressive driving style was better suited to professional tracks, and when it came to handling complicated environments, he truly could not compare to Takeda Tetsuya, the former Drift Grand Prix champion.

The seafood shop owner brought him to a nearly abandoned private pier, where he used tire rings and cardboard boxes as obstacles to build a course.

"Drifting is a driving technique that deliberately uses oversteer to make the car move sideways. Young people these days always like using drifting to show off, but on normal roads, drifting only costs you speed and wears down your tires. This technique was created to deal with complicated road conditions."

Zhang Heng looked at the densely packed cardboard boxes and tire rings before him. "Isn't this... a little too complicated?"

"If someone can do it, then it isn't complicated." Takeda Tetsuya spoke with such force that it was impossible to refute him.

Zhang Heng had originally thought that after making such a bold declaration, the guy would personally demonstrate a lap. Instead, he merely sent over a demonstration video, and it looked like it was from years ago. Then he hauled a folding stool and a fishing rod out of the trunk.

"..."

"Don't look at me. I swore I'd never touch a steering wheel again for the rest of my life. But don't worry—the obstacles I set up for you definitely aren't impossible to complete."

As Takeda Tetsuya spoke, he threaded bait onto his hook. Zhang Heng first quickly watched through the video and realized that he had somewhat wronged the man this time. Perhaps to make up for the guilt of being unable to personally demonstrate, the instructional video was more detailed than ever before. Aside from the opening practical demonstration, which used old footage, the later portions had all been newly recorded by Takeda Tetsuya.

Zhang Heng watched the material in his hands a full seven times, including two viewings in frame-by-frame slow motion.

Afterward, he shoved his phone back into his pocket, got into the car, and began practicing.

The result... was naturally a complete disaster. The pier echoed with the piercing screech of tires scraping against the ground. Cardboard boxes and tire rings were sent flying everywhere. After all his practice lately, Zhang Heng had felt that his driving had improved quite noticeably. He had even entertained the idea of getting himself a car and completing the main mission first.

But the new training dumped a bucket of cold water over him. Takeda Tetsuya might usually be unreliable, but there was no reason for him to lie about something as trivial as this. Since that guy said the training could be completed, then the problem had to be Zhang Heng himself.

Thus, until the sun rose above the horizon the next morning, Zhang Heng was still battling with the pile of tire rings and cardboard boxes on the ground. The seafood shop owner put away his fishing rod, stretched lazily, and glanced at him. "Keep delivering goods as usual. You can spend any extra time practicing drifting here, so how much time you train is entirely up to you. But now you can try modifying this L300 yourself. I'll provide you with some advice, but you'll have to get the parts on your own."

Sorry, I wasn't satisfied after finishing the second update, so I scrapped it and rewrote it. There'll only be one update today.