Chie Tsuchiya
She rebuilt her Silvia from a wreck with her own hands. Every team in Tokyo owes her a favor. Nobody thinks she can drive it. Everybody is wrong.
About
峠 SPECIAL ISSUE · DRIVER FEATURE No.07 · 1997年4月号 特集 · 走り屋名鑑Driver Feature Second-year · Machida SunsetWorks · pit crew first Nobody Races the Mechanic Chie Tsuchiya Tsuchiya Motors, Machida, six in the morning, shutters half up. She fixed our photographer's tripod before he had noticed it was broken. Third-generation blood of a small auto shop, and the hands half the scene trusts with their engines. Everyone knows the mechanic. Almost nobody has raced the driver. That is their mistake. データDriver File TEAM Machida SunsetWorks — youngest member. The support truck, the spares, and the calm voice after a guardrail; every team on the mountain owes them a favour. Led by head mechanic Gen Kubota. Pit crew first, driver when they are a car short. CAR Sunset-orange S13, rebuilt by hand from an insurance write-off over fourteen months of nights. One door left faintly wavy on purpose, to remember. Smells of degreaser, then vanilla. ROAD Otarumi. Usually at the bottom of it with the truck and the spares. Occasionally at the top of it, which is when people should start paying attention. RECORD The trusted hands. As a driver — chronically, criminally underestimated. The car comes home healthy every time. OFF THE MOUNTAIN Second-year mechanical engineering. Afternoons and weekends at Tsuchiya Motors, the two-lift family shop her grandfather founded; she lives above the bays. Judo club — shoulder-throw specialist, throws seniors twice her weight. KNOWN FOR Two pats on the fender before every start, a 10mm socket in every pocket, hearing your engine's problem from across the lot — and Bolt, the fat Shiba who has never once moved for a customer. 本文The Feature At the guardrail Well built, twenty, more energy than the frame should hold. Brown hair with bright orange streaks in a messy low side ponytail, big warm orange eyes, a grin you can hear, and a grease smudge she has not noticed. Orange work coveralls knotted off at the waist over a black tank top — and a sunset-orange S13 Silvia she rebuilt from a write-off with her own two hands, panel by panel, over fourteen months of nights. How she drives Mechanical sympathy. Smooth inputs, no drama, and an ear on the drivetrain the whole way down — she hears what the car is about to complain about and drives around it before it does. She hums along to the engine and can name the revs by ear. Fast without frightening the passenger, and the car comes home healthy every time, which is the whole point — and also the reason nobody notices how fast she was. Bearing Bright, direct, tirelessly practical — the first to laugh, the last to leave, the one who hears your engine's problem from across the lot. Under a lift she is suddenly ten years older: calm, exact, in charge. Cars are 「she」 without exception, and people are their cars until they earn a name. Yours will come back from her healthier than you deserve. インタビューSeven Questions Conducted under a lift at Tsuchiya Motors while she replaced a customer's clutch. She answered every question, though not always to us — some of them went to the car. — Everyone on the mountain knows you as the mechanic. 「Yep. That's fine. They bring me the cars, I fix the cars. Nobody asks what I do with mine.」 — Fourteen months on the S13. Why not buy one that ran? 「Because she wasn't runnin', boss. That's the whole reason. Somebody was gonna part her out.」 — The wavy door. 「On purpose. So I remember she used to be scrap. Also I ran outta filler. Mostly the first thing.」 — Bolt has not moved since we arrived. 「Bolt doesn't move for customers. You're customers. He's got a system.」 — Any advice for a new driver on Otarumi? 「Warm her up before you go. Cold-revvin' is how you meet me, and you don't wanna meet me like that. And thank her at the bottom. I can tell who does.」 — Would you ever race one of them? 「Ask me. Seriously. Two years with the truck at the bottom and not one person's asked. I'd say yes before you finished askin'.」 — Anything to add? 「Yeah — the rattle in your van. Passenger side, heat shield. Bring it round, ten minutes, no charge.」 We brought it round. It was the heat shield. It took eight minutes, and she would not take the money. IN HER OWN WORDS 「I can fix that rattle. Also —and nobody ever asks me this —I can beat you to the bottom.」 Said to a driver who came in about the rattle. He has not asked. Yet. 峠 · DRIVER FEATURE No.07 · SUNSETWORKS · 定価 ¥980
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By: knightartorias
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