Qin Lianjie found it a bit unbelievable, and immediately turned to the mountaintop observation platform, from where he could see almost the entire winding Nanyun Mountain Road.
Just this long straight section in the starting area, the front Mercedes AMG had already left the Corolla far behind. Now, after the first corner, the trailing Corolla won't even be able to see the tail lights of the Mercedes AMG.
To be honest, being left behind by three to four seconds at the start, under normal circumstances, the outcome of this race could be said to be decided, and the trailing car has no way to catch up.
Could it be that this high school student named Chen Xiangbei's lightning start was just accidental?
"Brother Jie, the taillights are about to disappear, is there still a need to pay attention to this game?"
Someone next to Qin Lianjie saw his earnest look while watching the race, feeling somewhat perplexed.
"Who will win or lose, we'll know after the first corner."
Qin Lianjie replied casually. Whether Chen Xiangbei's start was skill or accident, watching him take the corner would make it clear.
At this moment, Sai Minghui, who was running in front, glanced at the rearview mirror, then showed a scornful expression: "You losers want to run against my AMG, you wouldn't even get to eat the exhaust with just one start!"
As he finished speaking, he had already reached Nanyun Mountain's first bend, which was a relatively ordinary C-bend.
Sai Minghui hadn't run Nanyun Mountain too much, especially not with this Mercedes AMG.
After all, for someone like him who's well-off due to urban redevelopment, racing isn't about speed and passion, but is more for being cool and attracting girls. Why bother running to the mountain just to feel the northwest wind?
In the past, Sai Minghui went through this C-bend at a maximum speed of 90 km/h. This time, to crush Chen Xiangbei and Fatty Wang, and also to show off in front of Xu Yali, he planned not to brake to slow down deeply, intending to take the corner at an extreme speed of 100 km/h!
At this speed, either you drift through at high speed or take the perfect line.
Yet, Sai Minghui was unfamiliar with both, relying on the excellent mechanical tuning of the Mercedes AMG and the grip of this newly installed set of performance tires.
Sai Minghui's Mercedes AMG darted into the bend, and as it was about to reach the apex of the bend, he turned the steering wheel only to terrifyingly find the car didn't move an inch and continued heading straight toward the guardrail!
The Mercedes SLK55's big V8 naturally aspirated engine was indeed powerful, but it also had the unavoidable drawback of a large displacement engine, which is that the engine is heavy, giving the car a muscle-car style.
Coupled with the short axle convertible setup, the car's front-to-rear weight distribution wasn't the standard 50:50; instead, it differed greatly at 60:40!
In 'Initial D,' Takahashi Ryosuke once commented on Nakazato Yuji's GTR with a famous line saying that although your GTR has great horsepower, the front is too heavy, and with so many tight turns on Qiuming Mountain, your car will inevitably understeer every time you enter a corner.
Now, Sai Minghui encountered the same problem. When he pushed the vehicle beyond its mechanical limits yet couldn't compensate with driving skills, the Mercedes AMG understeered right in the bend.
As the guardrail got closer and closer, Sai Minghui's forehead broke out in a cold sweat, and sitting in the passenger seat, Xu Yali screamed in terror.
Perhaps Sai Minghui was exceptionally lucky, or maybe the AMG lived up to its name as a top-tier German performance car, just as a crash seemed imminent, steering power recovered, and the car narrowly passed the bend grazing the guardrail.
This scene left Sai Minghui pale-faced; he didn't expect that just ten more kilometers per hour would take the car to the brink of losing control.
"The game is over."
Sitting in the trailing car, Chen Xiangbei watched Sai Minghui's cornering maneuver and muttered this sentence aloud.
He initially thought this guy bought a top-performance car, combined with his relative familiarity with Nanyun Mountain Road, would have some ace up his sleeve.
Instead, that cornering maneuver just now showed Chen Xiangbei that Sai Minghui was purely relying on luck to gamble his life!
A rival at this skill level didn't even require Chen Xiangbei to win the race; if he didn't slow down and concede, he would crash under the pressure from the trailing car sooner or later.
"What did you say?"
At this moment, Wang Yidong was completely in a dazed state, gripping the handle tightly, not daring to let go for a second.
He never imagined that a Corolla could run at a speed of 160-170 on Nanyun Mountain Road; you know, the highway has a speed limit of 120!
The surrounding guardrails and streetlights flashed past Wang Yidong's eyes like slide shows; he dared not imagine if there was any mistake in Chen Xiangbei's operation at this speed, how lush their tombstone grass would grow next year…
Chen Xiangbei didn't explain much; he simply pressed the brake pedal, the Corolla's brake disc emitted a piercing metal friction sound, and then the speed dropped to about 100 km/h within a few seconds.
Indeed, Chen Xiangbei intended to take this grocery-getter through the corner at the same speed as the Mercedes AMG!
Tao of the Light Point Team, standing on the mountaintop observation platform, couldn't help but exclaim at this scene: "Damn, driving a Corolla looking for death! The AMG almost lost control at this speed in the bend, and he's planning to go through at high speed?"
"This high school kid really thinks he's the god of Qiuming Mountain."
Someone else chimed in with a sneer, saying that truly both cars belong to those who are ignorant of their limits, at this speed if they careen off the guardrail and down the slope it's unlikely they will survive.
It's just that the AMG was a bit lucky to barely make it through, now let's see if the gods will protect this Corolla in the bend.
Qin Lianjie didn't speak at the moment, his eyes were fixed on the Corolla on the mountain road. He drove a modified Civic Type-R through the No. 1 C-bend just slightly faster, how could Chen Xiangbei manage to take a completely unmodified Corolla through at high speed?
Approaching the No. 1 C-bend at high speed as well, Chen Xiangbei's approach was entirely different from Sai Minghui's. He drove the Corolla to an extreme close edge of the outside guardrail, then precisely passed the inside apex point, finally "sliding" out almost brushing against the other outside guardrail and fully accelerating out of the bend.
The entire outside-inside-outside line was incredibly smooth, even though Qin Lianjie had seen some professional drivers, they probably couldn't achieve such an extreme line.
Just this bend, plus the time wasted by Sai Minghui's understeering, allowed Chen Xiangbei in the Corolla to bite onto the AMG's tail!
"No way, have we caught up already?"
Fatty Wang looked at the tail lights of the Mercedes AMG ahead, asking incredulously.
"Mm, if Sai Minghui doesn't crash at the next bend, he should be able to overtake."
Chen Xiangbei's tone was extremely calm, as if this life-risking mountain road speed was just ordinary to him.
Sai Minghui saw the approaching Corolla in the rearview mirror as well. Compared to Chen Xiangbei's composure, his eyes widened and his face was filled with disbelief.
Even with his mistake at the No. 1 corner, after three to four seconds of starting advantage, Chen Xiangbei had caught up just by relying on one corner, how fast must his cornering speed be?
If it weren't for this long straight in the starting area, allowing the Mercedes AMG to fully exhibit its horsepower advantage, wouldn't that mean he would have lost at the first corner?
The crushing gap in skill made Sai Minghui's will falter, and what was more fatal was he had developed an uncontrollable fear for the next bend.
If he entered the bend at the same speed again, Lady Luck would be unlikely to grace him a second time, and he might really lose control and crash off the guardrail. He only wanted to show off to his girl, why risk his life?
As the wheels rolled forward, Nanyun Mountain's No. 2 bend was already close at hand, leaving Sai Minghui little time for thought. The instinctive fear of death made him step hard on the brakes, not daring to take another high-speed corner.
As the Mercedes AMG turned into the bend, Sai Minghui saw a pair of headlights flash before his eyes; Chen Xiangbei drove the Corolla straight through the inside line and quickly the only thing left in view was the tail lights pulling further away!
The rear car had overtaken the front, the victory and defeat were determined.
PS: Dear patrons, the updates will be scheduled for one chapter in the morning and one in the evening as a minimum. There will be occasional additional updates.