Episode 08: Betting Everything on the Downhill

Episode 08: Betting Everything on the Downhill

Every time I got left behind on the uphill,
my chest tightened with frustration.

The AE86 was underpowered—there was no denying it.
The 4A-GEU revved beautifully and felt incredible.
But on uphill sections, it just couldn’t compete.

This mountain pass was narrow.
Overtaking almost never happened.

That’s why the rule of the battle was simple.

When I was in front:
If I could shake off the car behind me, I won.
If I couldn’t, I lost.

When I was behind:
Could I stay glued to the car ahead?
Or would I get pulled away?

That was all there was to it.

But reality was cruel.
On the uphill, I lost almost every time.

“The uphill… that’s just impossible.”

That was when I decided.

At that point,
I gave up trying to win on the uphill.

Instead,
I decided to bet everything on the downhill.

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Shedding Weight and Searching for Speed

To make my underpowered AE86 even a little faster,
I started with weight reduction.

I removed the rear seats.
That alone was nearly 15 kilograms.

Then I stripped off the undercoating.
It was meant for heat and sound insulation,
but it weighed almost 10 kilograms.

Altogether, I cut more than 25 kilograms.

It might not sound like much.

But back then,
that was the best I could do.

Engine tuning wasn’t an option.

Even working multiple part-time jobs,
every yen I earned disappeared into gas and tires.

There was no way I could afford engine upgrades.

So instead,
I had to find speed with my own head.

I read every driving technique book I could get my hands on.

Braking.
Weight transfer.
Racing lines.
Throttle control.

But to be honest—
just doing what the books said didn’t make me much faster.
Not in a car this underpowered.

In the end,
I had to figure things out my own way.

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No Trail Braking

What I focused on was simple:
never carry the brakes into the corner.

In the turning zone,
I came completely off the brakes.

Before I entered the phase where I added more steering angle,
I made sure my foot was fully off the brake pedal.

I let the tires do one thing only:
turn.

On corner exit,
I waited until the car had changed direction before getting on the throttle.

No mashing the gas.
I opened it gently,
feeling for traction.

That was it.

But somehow,
this technique worked perfectly.

Little by little,
undeniably,
I got faster.

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The Only Place I Could Win

On the uphill,
I still couldn’t win.

But—
on the downhill,
one by one,
I started shaking off the cars behind me.

When I was in front,
the headlights behind me slowly shrank.

In those moments,
I could finally think,
“I won.”

Even when I was behind,
I stopped getting dropped so easily.

I could stay glued to the taillights ahead of me
for longer and longer stretches.

But—
I still wasn’t winning.

Still.

Abandoning the uphill
and betting everything on the downhill—
I knew that choice wasn’t wrong.

I was definitely getting faster.

Even though I hadn’t beaten anyone yet,
somehow I knew that much.

And then—

Somewhere on this mountain pass,
there was a Civic EG6—
whispered about as being on another level entirely.

I’d never even lined up next to it.
And yet, before I realized it,
I couldn’t get it out of my head.

The battle still hadn’t begun.

But—

I felt like I was getting closer and closer
to the starting line.