Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Initial D Fan Fiction ❯ Initial D: Anything Goes Drift Racing ❯ Season 2: Chapter 7: The Hidden Road. ( Chapter 16 )

Initial D: Mt Furinken. Anything Goes Drift Racing.

Season 2: Chapter 7: The Hidden Road.

Even with Edy's map it took some time for Ranma to find the entrance to the Hidden Road course, it required turning off the main road just before you reached the car park at the base of the hill climb and travelling a short way down narrow lane leading to a water purification plant and then keeping a careful eye on the hedgerow for a gap that looked like a single lane farm track, in fact this was because mud and dirt over the years had accumulated across the tarmac washed down by the gutters of the main road but just inside the hedgerow the road took a sharp turn right and started to climb and the road became clear again.

Ranma did however notice several pairs of tyre tracks in the mud, one set belonging to the NSX he recognised but there were at least two other sets he didn't recognise. Was someone still suing the road? He followed the road a little way and found it widened again into two lane for a short climb to a wide concrete area that must once have been a car park or picnic spot but had long ago fallen into disrepair and also a short straight about 20 meters. The uphill launch and downhill finish Ranma concluded. He stopped the car in the road and prepared for the climb to the top, he had no intention of trying to race up drifting but he figured he might as well get in the mindset.

He revved a few times and then started forward up the straight too a long right hander into another straight but here Ranma found how truly incredible this course was as the road narrowed into a single lane that lead into the first series of hairpins five in total but here the road widened again into two lanes for the corners and adjoining straights and then exiting the last corner the road narrowed back to one lane for a short straight leading into a long slow curve to the right which suddenly doubled back in a sharp left and then an even sharper hairpin right, the hairpin itself opened up into two lanes again but closed into one again at the exit.

Ranma felt shivers of excitement, the map really didn't do the course justice and Ranma understood why Edy and Mitzuki who had been fast on this course were so fast on what now seemed a rather benign course.

Leaving the unexpected hairpin the road meandered back and fourth for a good two hundred meters, uphill there would be no point drifting them as they were too shallow but they were still too sharp to prevent any serious acceleration, though downhill they would be excellent drifting corners to pick up speed and being a single road easy to block. Ahead however Ranma could see the road widen again as it began to turn right gently the line of site blocked by as the road passed through a small tunnel in the hillside. Ranma prepared for another hairpin but instead the turn jest kept on coming and to Ranma it seemed like it went on forever, spiralling upwards into the heavens and then it straightened out as he crossed over a bridge and looking out of the side windows he could see the road he'd just come up and he knew the tunnel he'd been through was the bridge he was now crossing.

"Wow, there's a corner like that." He said a load to himself more out of shack than anything. A two hundred and seventy degree turn, three quarters of a full circle in a wide arc. Even thinking about the drift required to take that corner made him feel dizzy. But he realised there was a technique he knew, the only technique that would let drift a turn that long. The air drift, and now he knew what Edy meant about the technique being designed just for this course.

A normal drift looses speed through corners and any other kind of drift would run out momentum before it was complete, but the air drift worked by shredding the tyres on purpose to create a surface of rubber flakes air would be trapped between to slide over meaning very little momentum would be lost making the corner possible but the tyres grip would be halved afterwards. Also Ranma noted it couldn't be used uphill on that corner it was two steep, that would have to be grip driving but downhill it would be one hell of a show.

Ranma's chance to reflect on these thoughts was limited next because the course's difficulty was once again shown, coming out of long corner the road was straight for about four hundred meters and stayed two lanes wide except that foot high, two car length concrete curb stones were placed on alternating sides of the road every 10 car lengths which stuck out half way into their respective lanes. No doubt this had been an attempt to prevent racing or maybe just speeding and overtaking on such a road and of course the easy answer was to drive up the centre but here was major problem for racing. A faster car in front would be able to open a good gap but a slower car in front could block the other car and there was no way of overtaking unless the lead car slowed almost to a halt.

Again Ranma wondered at such a course and even began to feel a little respect for Mitzuki that he could be so fast on such a course, which now at the end of the straight hair pined back on itself to the left and then the right and then Ranma had to slam the brakes on as the road started to dip downhill as it narrowed to single lane again and entered another hairpin and another and another, eight in total from the straights exit to the last hairpins exit and all but the fist two from the bottom or last two from the top were single lane and now coming out of the last corner it was a short downhill straight that then flattened off and stopped after 200 meters in a car park similar to the one at the bottom and to one side atop a small rise was an ancient old temple that had defiantly seen better days.

Ranma slowed and pulled into the little car park to park. He let out a long sigh, so that was the super difficult Hidden Road course of Mt Furinken Edy had told him about. Ranma sighed again, what an incredibly tough course, you couldn't relax for a second while driving it seriously or you'd crash and crash badly for sure. Well Edy had been right, it would certainly even up the difference between cars with different horsepower except that straight, that would lye at the centre of any strategy he suspected and probably his races against Project D.

Well, Ranma thought, Ryosuke said he would come and check out the course tomorrow to decide whether to accept or not and if he does they'll be here to practice too I expect, which means I've got today to practice alone so I'd better use it to perfect the air drift. Ranma smiled to himself, he was slipping back into martial artist mode, after all `a good martial artist always keeps his best techniques a secret until he has to use them' as a wise woman had once said to him.

I guess I'm gonna be up here for a bit, I'd better ask Akane to make me some packed lunches and dinners. Even Ranma was startled to hear himself say that but ever since she'd started leaning to drift her cooking had defiantly take a noticeable improvement, in fact everything she did seemed more precise and careful and he wondered if the same changes were noticeable in himself, maybe the skills of a street racer had a bigger affect on other things than he'd realised after all. At that moment he had another thought though which didn't make him feel as good, he was going to need more tyres. It was going to be a spectacular race but Ranma had a feeling that the race was going to cost him more than he'd originally expected, it was going to cost money.

Ranma took a last look at the view from the hill and wondered if he could see the Tendo house and dojo from there, then started the engine of the NSX ready to start his first practice run down the mountain before he tried to tackle it properly. He already felt the adrenalin starting to pump and a tingle down his spine in anticipation, this would be a real test of his skills and he wondered again what the members of Project D would say when they saw the course. The next couple of weeks were going to be very interesting.