Takumi Fujiwara is an 18 year-old high school student with no real goals in life. He wants to graduate from high school and get a job. Dunno if he wants to go to college or not. Well, Takumi works at the GS Gas Station (Esso in the manga) with his best friend, Itsuki, Iketani and manager, Yuuichi. Iketani and Itsuki talk about cars a lot and Takumi has no clue what's going on. Iketani and Itsuki always make fun of Takumi for being ignorant about cars but Takumi doesn't care. One night, Iketani invites Itsuki and Takumi to an Akina Speedstars meeting. Itsuki is all excited about it, but Takumi just shrugs it off. As Iketani is driving up the mountain, Takumi is screaming and Itsuki is telling to shut up. When the Speedstars are at the top of Akina Mt., another group, the Akagi Red Suns, challenge them to a race on Akina Mountain. The Speedstars agree to the race and decide to let Iketani race against the Red Suns. Later that night (actually early morning) Keisuke Takahashi, one of the stars of the Red Suns and set to race against the Speedstars, decides to go for a final run down Akina Mountain. But much to his surprise, and 86 comes from behind and beats his RX-7 FD! Keisuke feels really humiliated and vows revenge against "The Ghost of Akina Mountain." The next day, Keisuke visits the GS Gas Station and asks Iketani about the 86. Iketani has no clue what Keisuke is talking about, but Keisuke thinks Iketani is lying and just laughs it off. Iketani begins to get curious and drives all over town for a panda 86. He finds the 86 next to a tofu shop and talks to the owner, Bunta. Iketani begs for Bunta to teach him some driving techniques, but Bunta refuses because driving takes YEARS of practice.