Chapter 54: Chapter 51: Fast Enough to Question Life
Sun Tao, who was chasing behind, looked at the receding taillights of the Impreza STI, his face shocked, not any better than Liang Chi’s.
Sun Tao could be considered a well-known underground racer in the Yangtze River Delta region. He has been racing on this Central Elevated Road in East Sea frequently over the past few years. Thanks to his familiarity with the terrain and his boldness, even professional racers who don’t usually race on the streets might not necessarily outrun him.
Moreover, Sun Tao’s Ford Mustang Cobra had undergone lightweight modifications, such as removing some unnecessary interior fittings and replacing some parts with lighter alloy components.
In addition, to address the poor handling of American muscle cars, Sun Tao spent a lot of money to adjust and upgrade parts of the chassis, improved the shock absorbers, spring stiffness, and added stabilizer bars, among other modifications.
Even the abundant horsepower was tuned up during the modifications, increased to 560 horsepower.
It is no exaggeration to say that even if the car in front was a genuine Impreza STI, the Ford Mustang Cobra could still rely on its twice the power advantage to overpower the opponent on the elevated straightaway.
But the reality was that it was getting further away, the opponent’s choice of overtaking was too precise, almost at the level of "finding a gap and drilling in."
If a driver with this level of skill were to participate in the East Sea underground races, not to mention winning, at least getting into the top few wouldn’t be a big problem.
Since when did a skilled driver with an Impreza STI appear in the Yangtze River Delta?
Sun Tao’s Ford Mustang Cobra couldn’t catch up with Chen Xiangbei’s Impreza STI, and the BMW M3 trailing behind couldn’t catch up either.
At this moment, Changmao’s eyes had turned red, feeling taunted and toyed with.
Obviously, such high-performance cars and drivers are not everywhere, and it was such a coincidence to encounter him at the ramp, performing a deliberate brake-and-slow-down maneuver to block.
Moreover, the opponent had disguised the highest performance version of the Impreza STI as a regular production Impreza, and was so "familiar" with street racing maneuvers, clearly well-prepared.
Changmao could only think of a reasonable explanation, which was that the young lad driving the Impreza STI had come specifically to cause trouble!
Being angry was useless; to fight back required strength. Even if Changmao tried his best to speed up and overtake, he was still being left behind by the leading Impreza STI, almost to the point of not being able to see its taillights.
Meanwhile, Chen Xiangbei glanced into the rearview mirror, the chasing Ford Mustang Cobra was becoming smaller and smaller, almost disappearing from view.
He only took a quick look before withdrawing his gaze from the rearview mirror, almost simultaneously pressing the clutch and accelerator, using a downshift and throttle-blip technique to increase engine RPM, once again squeezing out the last bit of performance from the Impreza STI’s EJ20 engine.
He no longer had any interest in getting entangled, he still needed to quickly get to Huasi Sports’ racing base to get a good night’s sleep in preparation for professional karting practice the next day.
Amidst the roar of the engine, Chen Xiangbei wove between lanes with near-limit dexterity, like lightning overtaking two vehicles in front, completely leaving the Ford Mustang Cobra behind.
Although Chen Xiangbei’s intention was not to race against the two performance cars behind, according to the common rules of underground racing, when the lead car pulls away to the point that the car behind can’t even see its taillights, it means the "race" is already decided.
Driving the Ford Mustang Cobra, Sun Tao couldn’t, unlike Chen Xiangbei, precisely judge the extreme car distances of third-party vehicles on the elevated road, and then change lanes to weave through and overtake.
Eventually, he was blocked by vehicles ahead from his chase route, forced to watch as the Impreza STI’s taillights disappeared from his sight.
At this moment, the expression on his face could only be described as astonishment.
Sun Tao’s intuition had actually anticipated that the driver of this Impreza STI might not be an easy target.
But he never expected the Impreza STI to be so fast, that it could easily leave him in the dust.
East Sea has now become the racing center of the country, and over the years Sun Tao has seen many skilled drivers, including some known professionals.
But young drivers with such car control skills, perhaps there are only a few elite formula drivers who have raced go-karts from a young age. Moreover, Sun Tao had a faint feeling in his heart that the kid driving the Impreza STI might be even better.
After all, he hadn’t experienced this kind of utterly helpless feeling in a long time.
With an immensely shocked mindset, Sun Tao signaled and pulled his Ford Mustang Cobra over to the side, with Changmao’s BMW M3 following suit, stopping by the side of the road.
The two opened their car doors and stepped out, and with an unwilling tone, Changmao asked, "Sun Tao, couldn’t you catch that little rascal?"
"Couldn’t catch up."
Sun Tao shook his head and straightforwardly admitted.
"That kid’s Impreza STI has been heavily modified, with steering extremely precise and certainly fine-tuned, there were too many cars on the road, my Ford Mustang Cobra couldn’t keep up."
"Changmao, with such driving skills coupled with tuning ability, that Impreza STI must have some background, I suspect it’s an out-of-town expert preparing to enter the East Sea underground races."
Among the Impreza STIs in the Yangtze River Delta circle, there are only a few, and Sun Tao is familiar with them all, none of them would pull such a stunt of pretending to be weak.
"I don’t care what his background is, if he dares to cause trouble on East Sea’s turf, the underground race won’t let him off easily!"
Changmao shouted with dissatisfaction, seeing himself as a local boss of the East Sea SRT team, being trespassed upon like this without daring to stand up, how could he still mix in the underground racing circle?
Sun Tao did not respond to Changmao’s shouting, still pondering in his mind which figure in the country possessed such overwhelming strength to surpass his own.
...
On the other side, seeing his "opponent" had been left behind, Chen Xiangbei slowed the car to normal speed and glanced over at Liang Chi, first asking how he was doing.
He directly saw Liang Chi’s pale face, and suddenly, a sense of foreboding arose in his heart.
"Uncle Liang, please don’t throw up in the car, I don’t want the first thing I do after arriving in East Sea to be staying up all night washing the car!"
"Screw off, I am not that weak!"
Realizing he had been underestimated by Chen Xiangbei, Liang Chi pretended to act tough with a response.
To be honest, he did feel his stomach churning, but this time at least he was mentally prepared, and as the saying goes, ’things don’t happen three times.’
Having embarrassed himself twice already, even if he had nausea reaching his throat this time, he would forcibly swallow it back down, otherwise, how could he maintain the dignity of an elder in the future?
Moreover, compared to the previous test drive, this time Liang Chi focused more on watching Chen Xiangbei’s actions. He was almost continuously watching the tachometer, noticing the needle barely dropped throughout the drive.
One must know that this meant through Chen Xiangbei’s series of maneuvers, whether braking, accelerating, or shifting gears, he kept the engine RPM in the maximum horsepower output range.
The essence of racing boils down to extreme control of engine RPM.
Whoever can unleash the vehicle’s full performance and maintain top speed, naturally drives faster.
And compared to the racetrack, there are countless unpredictable situations on the street, maintaining speed requires not only skill but also impeccable mental resilience.
The scene of high-speed weaving through lanes would scare a regular person, and even just sitting in the car might cause them to wet themselves.
Today’s personal experience made Liang Chi realize once again just how terrifying talent can be!