Project D

"No matter who our opponent is, we won't back down"

- Ryosuke Takahashi

Project D (プロジェクトD Purojekuto Dī, Stylized as PROJECT.D) was a racing team created by Ryosuke Takahashi with the purpose of taking the best drivers in the Gunma Area (Takumi Fujiwara and Keisuke Takahashi), and traveling to challenge other teams in various prefectures. While he vocalizes the purpose of Project D to establish a legend, it is apparent that the primary reason of D is to develop the skills of its drivers to a new and extraordinary level. Ryosuke points out before the formation of Project D that he has only one year left to realize his dream. In the manga, Ryosuke states that he has to move out of Gunma Prefecture as part of a job requirement (though the job itself is never stated), and can only postpone it for another year. While he never states anything explicitly, Ryosuke reveals on separate occasions as Fourth Stage progresses that both the purpose of "D" and the true meaning of "the initial" will come to light. In Final Stage, it is revealed that the D stands for "Dream".

Project D is different from the other mountain racing teams as it has a highly technical regimen and a support team of technicians, who are mostly members of the Akagi RedSuns. Each car has a dedicated mechanic (Shuichi Matsumoto for the AE86, Tomiguchi for the FD3S), as well as other support personnel. Kenta Nakamura, being the only member of the RedSuns other than the Takahashi brothers and Fumihiro seen in earlier stages, is part of the Project D support staff; he usually scouts the course before the team and provides the video recording that the drivers use to study the course and is more or less a gofer for Keisuke and occasionally drives one of the support vans.

Arcade Stage Song

 * Irohazaka: Station To Station - Derreck Simons (Arcade Stage Ver.2 and Special Stage)
 * Tsuchisaka: Fight For Love Tonight - Ace Warrior (Arcade Stage Ver.3 and Street Stage)
 * Tsukuba: Rider Of The Sky - Ace (Arcade Stage 4 and Extreme Stage)
 * Nagao: Fighting! - Cody (Arcade Stage 5)
 * Tsubaki Line: Mad Desire - Stephy Martini (Arcade Stage 6 AA)
 * The Top - Ken Blast (Arcade Stage 7 AAX)
 * I Just Wanna Stay With You - Dream Fighters (Arcade Stage 8 Infinity)

Trivia

 * In Act 1 of Fourth Stage, the URL address of their website is given as "www.project.d". No such website exists.
 * Also in the same episode, one of Project D's first battles are against a red Silvia S15 for the uphill (similar to the traffic S15) and a black 180SX for the downhill (fairly similar to Shinichi's 180SX).
 * Project D was mentioned in MF Ghost in chapter 19.
 * Though Ryosuke mentioned conquering all of the Kanto Plain as being his end goal, the Tokyo and Chiba prefectures are not visited by Project D.
 * In the 2005 live action film, it is mentioned at the end that Ryosuke is planning to create an expedition team, implied to be Project D. The line-up of the team would likely be Ryosuke and Takumi, as Keisuke doesn't exist.