FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The next morning DJ went on her usual alarm spree, waking us and probably a lot of other people with us.

"Why?", Shelby moaned, "why does she do that?"

"Because she is incapable of sitting still", I laughed, "maybe I'll tie her to her bed tonight."

"Not without me you wont", Tess yawned walking in, "you've unleashed a monster on us all Seth."

"No I didn't", I laughed, "she is out of my control."

Tess rolled her eyes, "Joe's waiting downstairs with the wristbands, let's go see him."

Shelby and I dressed and followed Tess down to the lobby where Joe was sitting. He was dressed in a white shirt, blue jeans, his boots and a jean jacket. I could see his Mustang sitting outside.

"Hey guys", he said standing, "I got your wristbands."

Joe handed us each a yellow band that resembled the bands you wear in the hospital. Each one read in white letters "Great Eight Festival. Yellow Wristband, Entry Level Races."

"With these you can drive in any race no matter your age", Joe said, "not having a license may hurt your chances at qualifying, but if you can run the track and not crash then your in."

"Well yeah because if we crash then we have no car to race", Tess laughed.

"Ha ha", Joe said, "put your money where your mouth is, I'll see the three of you on the track."

Joe left the hotel and slid into his Mustang. It rattled to life as he backed out and drove off. We went to get breakfast with the others and afterwords we hopped into the Ford and drove to the Festival. Dad parked the Ford underneath some trees with good shade and started setting some stuff up and then I went looking for Joe. There were hundreds, or maybe thousands of people here. They were all in possession of some kind of Tuner car with parts varying from rims and bumpers to full custom bodies. Some of them were showing off speakers, while others were challenging each other to see how loud their cars were. I had to navigate a little through the maze of people and sweet looking rides before I finally found Joe. He was with Ross and girl, Ross and the lady were underneath the hood of the new Koenigsegg CCGT and Joe was under the car.

"Try it now Ross", Joe said as I walked up. Ross walked to the cockpit and and tried the key, the car squeaked and sputtered before dieing.

"Wasn't the starter", Ross said.

"Back to square one then", Joe said sliding out from under the car, he sat up and saw me, "hey Seth."

"You guys having problems with the car?", I asked.

"Yeah", Joe said, "damn thing was running fine this morning, now it doesn't even act as if it wants to try and start."

"You got any idea what the problem is?", I asked

"Well it's not the starter cause we just replaced it", Joe said, "it's not the carburettors because they're brand new and it's not the supercharger because we just checked it."

"So usual suspects?", I asked.

"Pretty much", Ross said, "we got to fix this car so I can get on the track and then Joe has to get his Firebird ready for the rally."

"Well let's get this going then", I said sliding under the car.

Koenigsegg's V8 engine was one I had very little experience with and only really knew from specs I'd seen online. The transmission was in the way of almost everything and on top of that, it was dark underneath the car. Joe had said that it wasn't any of the usual suspects, so I was at square one. At first, I thought it might have been the fuel lines. I checked them all, tightened the connections and then told Ross to try and start it, this time the engine made no noise at all, so I assumed the battery might be dead. Joe replaced it and then tried the car again, nothing. After over two hours of the scorching heat, sweating and being hunched over a burning V8, Ross finally found out the ignition wires were loose. We tightened the connections and then tried the car again. The V8 shook and roared it's way to life, a high pitched hissing sound will a deep, rolling muscle car sound made the car somewhat evil. Ross and the girl, who'd I learned was his wife, took the car over to qualifying and then Joe brought out his 1987 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am GTA.

The car was sitting somewhat higher than normal and sported a large, Yaris wing with metal supporting arms and a carbon fiber strut between them. The car was on American Racing Rally Rims and the front of the car had a custom bumper and deer guard on it with stationary headlights.

"I've never seen an 87 GTA without the folding lights", I laughed, "that's a first."

"Wait till you see under the hood", Joe said cracking it.

Under the hood was what looked like a Cummins straight four,but the block was smaller than usual and had a carburettor rather than a fuel injector. There were Twin Roterex Superchargers blowing into the carburettor and the intercoolers were siting right below it.

"Holy", I said, "was this the car they used in that zombie movie...damn what was it?"

"Class five?", Joe asked.

"That's it", I replied, "the car had a custom blocked Cummins in it that inhaled through a carburettor."

Joe laughed, "no, the car they used was a 1992 Opel GT. Your thinking of Apocalyptic Dawn and yeah, they used this Firebird in AD."

"That's sick dude", I said, "your car got used in a movie."

Joe laughed, "it payed well, I actually built this with Susie a while ago. You know how much I dread, yet look forward to, the eventual collapse of society, so I built this to make sure I can still go when others cant, every electric device on Earth can fry and this car will still run."

I helped Joe check the superchargers, intercoolers, radiators, tires, rims, AC, radio, transmission, differentials, batteries and the fuel system. Once that was done, Joe told me to get a shower, pack a backpack and get back here because once the rally started we couldn't get out of the car unless it was to change seats in race or at the end of the race at the safe zone.

I walked back to the Ford and started packing up my pack.

"What you doing little bro?", Tess asked.

"Joe put me on his rally team", I said, "it's a 36 hour race and once we start, we can't stop expect to change seats."

"You can't drive", Frank said.

I just held up my wrist, "I CAN drive, just not legally, the band says that I can in the race."

"Well then drive safe son", Dad said.

"Yeah", Tristan said, "don't wreck up."

"Oh heck no", I said, "if I wrecked that car, Joe would have my hide for new seats in his Mustang."

Everyone laughed. I grabbed my backpack and headed back to where Joe had the Firebird as there were showers set up there. The Firebird was idling in the parking lot. It's Cummins inline four putting off that smell of diesel fuel and the signature diesel engine sound. I left my pack in the drivers seat and walked inside the shower room. Joe was standing in front of a mirror putting on a black racing suit with a big "Team Falcon" in red letters against a white bird.

"Nice suit Joe", I said.

"I got one for you too", Joe said, "it's got spots for your wings and a sleeve for your tail."

"How'd you work that out?", I asked throwing off my sweat soaked shirt.

"Carefully", Joe replied, "don't ask, shower and get changed. Trust me, you wanna get clean. I made the mistake of not cleaning up and I regretted it later."

I laughed and stepped in the shower. I soaped every inch of my scaled body, during which some of them came off. I had shed a few times before, but the last times I had, I didn't bleed. I figured I had just pulled them off by working on the car. Once I was showered I slipped into a light suit that went under the racing suit and then slipped the suit on over it. It fit rather snugly, but that was how I liked it. I walked out to the Firebird and saw Joe talking with Ross, who was also wearing a team Falcon suit and standing next to his 1990 Chevy Camaro IROC-Z.

"Get in Seth", Joe said, "make sure your strapped in, this is gonna be a hell of a ride."

I laughed and slid with some difficulty into the car. The interior looked like it was shared with a stock car, having been fully stripped out and redone, resembling something out of the feral, track only Pagani Zonda R. The dash was done in silver polymer and the instrumentation panel was done in carbon fiber and there was a "Falcon XS" logo on the dash broad. The RPM redlined at 12,000, the speedometer had 290 on it and there was a RWD logo in the speedometer. The shifter was right out of the CCGT and the steering wheel was from Momo Italy. Joe finished talking with Ross and then ducked into the car, shutting the door behind him with a low, plastic like thud. He did up his racing harness and then put the car into first gear.

"What's to qualify for this rally?", I asked.

"Two laps around the short circuit in seven and a half minutes or less", Joe said idling to the start line, where he showed the ref a turquoise wristband. I held up my wrist as well and the Ref placed the XS in sixth out of twelve cars.

"Why am I always at the ass end of the start line?", Joe complained.

"Because your car can do 290", I laughed.

"Maybe", Joe laughed.

The light on the GO panel went orange and the cars idled to small white brackets and stopped as it went red. The light went yellow, Joe revved the engine as the light went to a second shade of yellow and again at a third. Now the light was a third shade of yellow and Joe had the pedal to the floor. The engine shot to 12000 RPM as the light went green and Joe released the brakes. The car lurched as it began to skid forward and pick up speed. The RPM glided to 11000 as Joe shifted into second gear and then downshifted for the first corner.

The XS took it with little trouble and began to accelerate again as Joe pushed the pedal down. The car kicked back as Joe went to second gear, and then again to third. There were two loud pops and a jet like sound as Joe downshifted back to second through the second turn and then another whirring, jet like sound as the twin supercharged diesel engine gained throttle and pushed the car forward. Joe slowed down again as the third turn came. He gave the engine a small bit of gas through a short straight and then downshifted through the fourth corner. There was that jet like winding down sound as he took corner five and then the whistling started as Joe gunned it down the long straight. He went through five of seven speeds and reached almost 200 miles an hour and then began to brake for the sixth turn.

We went through turn six without any difficulty and then came the wide, inclined seventh turn. Joe turned the steering wheel so far over I thought he might brake his arms. He downshifted several times and once we cleared the actual turn, he began to accelerate the car even further. He gunned the car down the track at 220 miles an hour and shifted into seventh gear as he hit 245. Even at this speed the little diesel slurping inline four still had a lot to give. The edges of my vision began to grow dark as the car went from 250 to 260, 260 to 270 and then 280. We'd just out run a Venom GT in a diesel sucking 4 cylinder, how was that possible? I didn't care, 280 was unlike anything I'd ever felt.

Joe's time for the short circuit was 59 seconds dead, which placed him in first place for the rally. After the second lap, in which he placed at 58.398, we were told to drive straight to the rally start line or change seats. Deciding not to change seats, Joe drove the XS right to the starting line. Soon the other cars, a Saleen S331, second, 1993 Toyota Supra, third, Koenigsegg CCGT-R, fourth and a high sitting Reventon at fifth were at the starting line.

"Drivers", the ref said, "this is a 36 hour road rally, at no time are you permitted to stop your vehicle except for gas, tires, or to change seats. If you get offtrack, you are not permitted to turn around, you must keep driving until you find a way back on. At the end of today's leg of the race, you are permitted an hour of maintenance and then you must get at least ten hours of sleep. The Ref at the camp grounds will permit thirty minutes of maintenance before start tomorrow and the other thirty minutes will be granted as a head start to the team in last place."

The Ref raised her hands and then brought them down. Joe slammed on the gas as the XS screamed forward and my first ever endurance race began.