Drifting with the Speed Stars

A warm summer night in 199X.

It’s 10:00 PM on Mount Akina, Gunma Prefecture, Japan.

Everything seems calm, when all of a sudden a deafening noise can be heard echoing through the mountains.

Soon, four cars appear out of nowhere, drifting downhill at high speed.
All these cars are part of the local street racing team, the Akina Speed Stars

The first car is a black and white ‘Panda’ ‘83 Toyota Sprinter Trueno AE86 GT-APEX, a car that has recently become famous as the ‘Ghost of Akina’ due to its incredible speed.
Sitting behind the wheel of the 86 is Takumi Fujiwara, an 18-years-old high-school student who works part-time at a gas station. Takumi has unconsciously trained his sublime driving skills by delivering tofu at the hotel at the top of Mt. Akina for 5 years.
Takumi’s driving skills have recently made him a famous street racer in the Gunma Prefecture; he recently defeated strong racers such as the RedSuns’ Keisuke Takahashi, the Night Kids’ Takeshi Nakazato and Shingo Shoji, Impact Blue’s mako and Sayuki and, most importantly, Akagi’s White Comet, Ryosuke Takahashi, the most capable street racer of all time.
Technically speaking, Takumi is not an official member of the Speed Stars, but beign a friend of of the team’s leader Iketani and Itsuki he sometimes hangs out with them.

Following the 86, there is a two-tone ‘88 Nissan Silvia S13 K’s, driven by the Akina Speed Stars’ leader Koichiro Iketani.
Iketani is nowhere near as good a driver as Takumi, but is determined to become a better racer.
Iketani was originally going to race Keisuke from the RedSuns, but an accident during training forced the team to find a replacement. Said replacement turned out to be Takumi, who beat Keisuke and later became a legend in the local street racing scene.
Sources claim that Iketani has recently fallen in love with Impact Blue’s driver Mako Sato, though it seems that their relantionship didn’t end very well…
Iketani currently works full-time at the same gas station where Takumi works.

Behind the S13, we can see a white ‘94 Nissan 180SX RPS13, driven by Kenji, a long-time friend of Iketani.
Not much is known about Kenji, except the fact that he seems to have a lot of friends, thanks to whom he always manages to give Iketani and the team the information they need.
Kenji isn’t a particularly good driver, beign about as good as the rest of the Speed Stars.
It is unknown if Kenji has a work, especially considering he spends most of his time hanging out with his friends.

The last car in the group is a white ‘84 Toyota Corolla Levin AE85 SR5, driven by Takumi’s best friend, Itsuki Takeuchi.
Itsuki is the latest addition to Iketani’s team, and is undoubtedly the least skilled driver here. Itsuki originally wanted to buy an 86, but messed up and accidentally bought an inferior 85 instead, though that clearly hasn’t stopped him from beign part of the Speed Stars.
Itskuki is still learning drifting and techniques such as the heel-toe, but is slowly getting better.
Itsuki is in the same class as Takumi and currently also works part-time at the same gas station where Iketani and Takumi also work.