Team V6 Vandals
The Team:
Luke Light - 18 - Storm Automotive’s robotic CEO, and current head of the Raceworks Division. Loves fast and crazy cars, and yet has had just as much fun with junk cars, too. He’s back for round number three, and actually likes the ‘car’ they got this time. Role: Primary Driver, Secondary Mechanic.
Amy Storm - 53 - Storm Automotive’s Engine Design Expert, and the Crew Chief of the Raceworks Division. She’s back for a third try with the junkyard cars, and she’s confident in their V6 powered nightmare. Role: Lead Mechanic, Secondary Driver.
Jake Storm - 30 - Son of Amy Storm, Computer Genius, DOHC Expert-In-Training, and still learning to drive stick. Back for round number two after the glorious defeat of their Dynamite E5, though he’s less than pleased with yet another manual gearbox. Role: Jack-of-All-Trades.
Cody Acorne - 34 - Brother of Marcus Acorne, a friend of Jake Storm, and a former street racer. Returning for a second round of chaos, and doesn’t mind that this car isn’t a Dynamite shitbox. He’s hoping that the two members of Team Twin-Snail can find the gas pedal. Role: Mechanic Assistant, Sound Control.
The Car:
1997 Ishu Truckling V6
This tiny little truck-like car was Ishu’s answer to a problem nobody had. With 5 seats like a sedan, on a compact-car sized chassis, a large amount (for its size) of carrying capacity, and a rugged, tough-looking exterior, the Truckling is the perfect example of failing to realize your target market. A transverse-mounted 2.7 liter V6 powers just the front set of wheels, and the torsion beam rear suspension was supposed to give it unprecedented load capacity for its class.
And it didn’t sell particularly well. Mostly because it sucked as a car, due to cramped rear seat room. And because it sucked as a truck, due to the driven wheels not being the ones under the bed. Dealerships struggled to get rid of them.
Eventually, most of them were scrapped, but a few still kick around junkyards from time to time, or end up in some junk-man’s collection of cars classed as “Too nice to scrap.”
Which is where this one comes in. Trevor Wright sent Cody a message about having ‘the perfect car’ for their little trip. With 139,775.3 miles on the clock, it has seen some better days, but it ran well enough. It had the “Performance Package” installed, giving it individual throttle bodies and long tubular headers.
But, the former members of Team Twin-Snail weren’t willing to leave their legacy in the past. They pointed out that the last V6 car they ran with didn’t even finish on time, and that between both teams, the only cars that finished on time, and did so with ‘respectable’ positions, were turbocharged. And so the Truckling gained a pair of snails and an intercooler.
For the low, low price of $493.86, the combined teams gained a shitbox that has a box to haul shit.
“It’s… Well, it’s certainly unusual.” Amy said, looking at their newly-acquired used car. Jake smiled, then tried to talk up the performance aspects, but didn’t get very far before Luke showed up.
“It’s like a truck, only smaller.” Luke quipped, looking over the Truckling. “But it might just do well.” He got behind the wheel, started it up, then added, “It sounds good enough, I suppose. V6, sounds like it might… No, it definitely has some sort of VVL and VVT. Nice 6 speed. Could’ve done worse.”
“So it’s good, right?” Cody asked.
“No. It’s a shitbox, but on the scale of shitboxes, this isn’t that bad.” Amy said. “And we’re putting some snails on this bitch. Only car we had that did well was our Sinistra Savage, with the twin-turbo 662ci V8. Your car had a turbocharged dumpster-fire of a four-cylinder. The car we did our worst in was a Minerva Midnight, which had a bigger V6 than this, but we didn’t add any boost, and it was so fucking slow.”
“To be fair, it also broke down a lot.” Luke added.
“Yeah, it did, but that’s because Minerva Motors makes cars that have three wheels in the junkyard the moment it rolls off the assembly line. Cheap pile of hot garbage.” Amy replied.
“So, turbos. Got it. Actually makes sense, honestly. We’ll feed it Premium Unleaded and about, say, 10 PSI. Should be worth a good laugh.” Jake said.
“I’ll go install a police scanner and a radar detector.” Cody said, before wandering out to get some parts.
“So, is it true, Jake?” Luke asked.
“What?” Jake said, looking at Luke.
“That his brother got locked up.” Amy said, making Jake look back at his mother.
“Yeah. Dumbass went berserk at one of the other teams over some missing lug-nuts. And it’s not like we didn’t exactly deserve it, we were, well, the Highway Hooligans, and we lived up to that name. Trev, the guy we bought this thing from, well, he was the good kind of crazy. Glitter cannoned a couple of teams, and we launched a firework over the roof of this van, and a peanut-butter filled diaper onto their windshield. Well, Marcus, Cody’s brother, gets it in his mind that they had to be responsible. In the chase, he side-swiped a minivan, then drove into the back of their van and tried to beat their driver with a sock full of toll-change. Didn’t go too well, their driver kinda knew how to fight, and how to fight dirty. Then the cops showed up. Last I heard…” Jake said, though was interrupted by Cody.
“He’s still sitting in a cell in Oregon. Felony hit and run, and then assault with a deadly weapon. Plus some… outstanding parking violations from us leaving the smashed green turd in the parking lot. Jake was right, the cop team, those “Outriders” guys, they were pretty cool. I hope they’ll be there again.” Cody said, his arms full of boxes containing stuff for their Truckling.
“Right. Let’s give Cody a couple extra hands before we lose the radar detector.” Luke said, taking the stack of boxes and putting them on the passenger seat. “I see you’ve got some sound-system gear in here, Cody.”
“Yeah. Can’t have a good sound system without two kilowatts of subwoofers. Just add the box of amplifiers and those two boxes of better speakers, and it’ll be all good.”
“We have a fuckin’ tape deck.” Jake said. He then immediately groaned as Luke held out a cassette adapter.
“And I have a mod for that. This, plus a cell-phone or MP3 player, and we’ve got a party.” Luke said.
