An Anthro's Tale

The Rally-Part 1-2

The other cars were a little too close behind us as Joe gunned the Falcon out of the Raceway Park and out into the closed off Freeway. Joe had handed me a map that had the rally route for the freeway traced out on it. It would take us down Beltway 7, down into the aqua ducts and then back onto the freeway.

“Right in ten”, I said, “34 don't cut.”

We approached a down ramp that took us beneath two overpasses where there was a cop set up to direct the traffic. A few yards before the turn, Joe down shifted without braking and then when the turn came, he pressed the clutch and pulled the E-Brake. The XS made a 180 degree turn to the left and soon we were flying down the road. That street let out in a train yard that was active at the present moment.

“Straight 40 73”, I said,” Look for a blue train car.” . It was rally talk for “straight ahead 40 yards, then make a 73 degree turn. The blue train car was a check point. In a rally, if you missed a check point, you had to get off course and find a way to come back around and hit it, so if he missed it, it could seriously screw us.

Joe drove the 40 yards and then braked for the turn. The blue car was adjacent to another blue car and Joe drove right through them. The course then took us another twenty yards to a tire barricade with a red arrow that pointed down into the aqua ducts. Joe slowed down so much I thought he was going to stop, the turn was that sharp. He punched the car down the ramp and drifted out into the aqua duct, narrowly missing an overpass support pillar.

The Koenigsegg was right behind us as the car began to pick up speed. It's yelling and hollering made my scales crawl. I'd never had so much adrenaline running through me at once.

“That Koenigsegg still back there?”, Joe asked.

“He's right on our bumper”, I replied, “that Supra's back there too, we gotta lose these guys.”

“Already on it”, Joe replied.

He drove down the aqua duct to a rather sharp turn. Once again, he down shifted without slowing down, pulled the E-Brake and then drifted through the corner with very little trouble. The other cars began to brake for the turn as we accelerated, retaking our lead.

“Audios amigos”, Joe laughed shifting into third gear.

We flew down the rest of the duct and then got back onto the freeway. Joe drove for a bout ten blocks and then made a Z style turn before flying down another straight. There were people lined up on the sidewalks behind barriers of tires and concrete. I could hear their screaming and cheering over the roar of the car's engine. Some of them were holding banners which read things like.

“Go Team Falcon!”

or

“Koenigsegg all day.”

One even read “Bow before the might of the Supra.”

The next two hours consisted of navigating the city streets. We went through tunnels, over bridges, underneath overpasses and weaved through sky scrapers. At about four in the afternoon, the rally took us out of the city and down I 31 to a tall mountain. According to the map, the rally would be all hill climb from here. At first I thought it wouldn't be a problem due to the XS's rear wheel drive, but I was dead wrong. The second the back wheels hit the dirt, traction went down by what felt like 27%, bad news. Less traction met slippery turns, lower top speed and decreased handling. Since the XS's engine was located up front, all the weight was over the non-driving front wheels. Anyone who off roads or lives with snow will tell you that front wheel drive is better than rear. In fact, Front Wheel Drive was first pioneered by a man in Alaska who flipped the engine in his Model A around to make it front wheel drive. This was also where mid engined cars shined. Since their weight was over their back wheels, they would suffer less of a traction loss and therefore, could make up the distance we had put between them.