Chapter 2
Later that day, Paolo comes face to face with his first blacklist racer, Ho Seun (Sonny). Sonny’s ride was a blue VW Golf Mk5 with Chinese decals on it. With the race about to start, Paolo makes the final adjustments to his car via a computer that has been programmed to the cars ECU chip.
The race gets under way but Paolo’s Focus gets off to a slow start, which gives Sonny a slight lead, but almost instantly, the Focus gains ground and overtakes the Golf. Sonny tries to slide into the corners to catch the Focus, but hasn’t got the handling of the Focus. Paolo slides the final corner of the course and takes the first race.
“Yeah, I’ve won”, said Paolo excitedly on the phone to Mia. Mia then calls back and breaks the news to Paolo, “you’ve still got another race before you can bring down Sonny.”
“WHAT? You’ve got to be joking Mia, nobody told me about a 2nd race against these guys.”
Paolo is disappointed, but deep down inside, he knows that he has overcome the first obstacle and has one more obstacle to overcome in order to make it on the Blacklist and one day become the Most Wanted.
The next race starts in Rosewood Forest, past the garage and through the housing estate before coming on to the motorway and back through Rosewood Forest to the line.
“This is going to be easier than I thought” Paolo said to himself, “I’ve done this route many times trying to evade the police. And it’s paid off eventually.”
Sonny then says over the radio in his best English, “Don’t get cocky, punk, there’s all to play for. If you beat me, I will hand over the keys to my ride, but if I defeat you, then both races will have to be run again to determine the overall winner.”
“What? If I beat you, you’ll hand over your keys to me just like that? No tricks or anything?”
“No tricks kid, just a simple pink slip wager.”
Paolo thought to himself, “this… I mean… I didn’t know that this was a pink slip wager where the victor gets the loser’s car. OUCH! That must have been why I lost my BMW to that idiot Razor.”
The final race gets under way, again, the Golf pulls ahead, but the Focus has the power to regain ground and overtake the Golf, in the process, trading paint with the Golf. Narrowly avoiding the oncoming traffic, Paolo launches his Focus past the Golf and slides the corner taking him on the motorway. Sonny is slowly falling behind. As Paolo reaches the forest to complete the 1st lap, Razor calls over the radio, “you’re getting luck punk, doesn’t matter how hard you try, you’ll be good enough to run with me. It only gets harder from here. Good luck in your attempt to challenge me, you’re going to need it.”
With the Golf slowly catching him, Paolo passes through the forest and enters the garage, when all of a sudden he sees a mass of blue smoke from Sonny’s engine. So Paolo stops his car and gets out of it. He walks up to Sonny and asks, “Hey man what happened? All I saw was a mass of blue smoke billowing from your car.”
Sonny tells Paolo, confused, “My engine’s gone. What are you doing anyway?”
“Listen, Sonny, in the Underground scene, I was taught by the best, ever heard of Rachael Teller?”
“Yeah.”
“She was my mentor and taught me everything I needed to know about street racing, and one lesson that I was taught was ‘never leave a fellow street racer behind, unless of course in a Drag Race’, but you know.”
Paolo and Sonny got into a brief conversation and talking about what was going on when Sonny told him, “According to the mechanic, the crankshaft and the camshaft have both split cleanly in two.”
“Ouch! Complete engine rebuild in my opinion, and I know that a complete engine rebuild is not cheap unless you know the right people.”
“You know somebody that could rebuild the engine cheap, but do a good job?”
“Yes I do. Tell you what I’ll do; do you have any rope that I can attach the cars together with?”
“I have rope.”
“Good, do you mind getting it for me?”
“What are you doing?”
“Trust me Sonny; I’ve done this many times in the Underground.”
While Paolo is helping Sonny, one of his tyres bursts. Sonny says to him discretely, “I think you’d better get a tyre changed because one of them just burst”
“WHAT?”
“Have you got a spare tyre anywhere in your car?”
“Yeah, I have one under my ICE install.”
“What’s an ICE install?” Sonny queries. “An ICE install is a custom feature that can be loaded into a car in a special unit called a surround.” Paolo explains.
“We don’t sell ICE around here, where’d you get it from anyway?”
“I got it imported from the Bayview Underground Racing Scene from a friend of mine who took it out of my old 350Z when I left the scene to come and explore new places and experience new things.”
Finally Paolo changes the tyre and attaches the rope to Sonny’s car as tight as possible. In order for both cars to start moving, Sonny needs to be in the Golf in order for Paolo to tow him. However, Paolo tows the Golf in such a way that it makes out that the Golf is slipstreaming the Focus. Both cars complete the race and Sonny hands over the keys to his Golf. “Here are the keys like I promised.”
“Hey, if you ever need anything, just call me and I’ll be there. And don’t worry; I’ll have the Golf fixed in no time. Here is my address and contact number if you want to come and pick up the Golf alright.”
“OK kid, be careful with her and good luck for the rest of your time here in Rockport.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but engine is under the bonnet?”
“It’s a 300bhp Nissan Skyline RB25 engine, completely rebuilt.”
It’s not everyday that a Japanese supercar engine powers a hot hatch. But it’s possible, because Sonny’s engine was in fact the engine from a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V. That was powering a VW Golf Mk5. Not far short of having enough money to modify both his Focus and put some new rims on the Golf, he could also buy himself a new car. But what car? With $100,000 in the bank, he could fully modify the Black Focus that he used in the Underground Scene a few years ago, he could increase its performance by increasing the attributes to maximum and he could also buy himself the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift Toyota Chaser. What Paolo doesn’t realise is that the Chaser is in fact a standard drift ready model when it first leaves the factory bound for the showroom. He buys it for the drift events, but it can also be used for the circuit events when drifting is pivotal.
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