An Anthro's Tale

A Dream For A Friend

After I had showered I started back to where Dad had parked the Ford, near the back of the track. When I got there, I noticed the others gathered around DJ's Saleen, which was sporting different rims and a new chameleon yellow and grey paint job as well as a new rear wing and front splitter.

“DJ”, I asked, “what happened to your truck?”

“There's an upgrade shop here that's open exclusively to Great Eight cars”, DJ said, “I traded the Buddy clubs for these Motige Racing Traklites and the Areo upgrades.”

“And the paint?”

DJ smiled, “free for all Great Eight cars.”

“Cool”, I said.

“But wait”, DJ said opening her hood, “there's more.”

I ducked under the hood of her truck to find a huge V8 with a “Saleen S7” written on it. It was breathing through Garret Twin Turbochargers and exhaling through RCA America ceramic lined titanium headers connecting to a straight exhaust pipe.

“Where'd you get cash for a V8 swap?”, I asked.

“What you think I just sat around when I had a truck, a suit, 800 horsepower and hundreds of people all armed with tuner cars?”, DJ asked, “nu uh. I did some racing over the past 36 hours. Even after the swap and a few other parts I still got ten grand in my pocket.”

I whistled, “wow, just like Forza 3.”

“It is”, Joe said appearing from no where.

“Where'd you come from?”, Tristan asked.

“Behind you”, Joe replied, “I actually came to get the GT-ONE”, he held a up a wad of money, “I been saving this in the jet since I pitched the car to you two years ago.”

I smiled, “Jack, where's the GT-ONE?”

“Back by the Ford”, Jack said, “let's go.”

I followed the others over to the Ford, which the Falcon was parked in front of. The setting sun was shining off it's jet matte black paint and rims and I could see a look in Joe's eyes that I'd never seen before. It was one of pure wonderment.

“Question”, Joe said, “does it have the big W-24 in the back?”

I laughed, “you better believe it, all 6,000 horses are present and accounted for.”

“How much was it to build?”, Joe asked.

“The price capped off at 5.3 million dollars”, DJ said, “for a long time, we thought we might have to call you and tell you the GT-ONE wasn't going to happen.”

“Then”, Josh said, “money came in from an unknown source with a letter.”

“What it say?”, Joe asked.

“Do what comes natural”, Josh said, “wasn't signed, no return address, nothing to indicate who it came from.”

Joe smiled, “well if you ever meet the guy, tell him I owe him a big one.”

Joe held up the biggest stack of dollar bills I'd ever seen in my life.

“That's my life savings right there”, Joe said, “two years of racing, building race cars with Ross and Jessie back home, doing speedwell events and saving every penny Toyota sent me, 2.5 million.”

My paw was shaking as I reached out and took it. The single biggest payday in the history of Draco Customs, I was speechless.

“The keys?”, Joe said holding out his hand.