Takumi Fujiwara vs Takeshi Nakazato

"This is it... this feeling!! High tension! My blood is pumping!! This is a real battle!!"

- Takeshi Nakazato

The battle between Takumi Fujiwara and Takeshi Nakazato is the fifth battle of Initial D.

Prior to the Battle
After Takumi's first victory over Keisuke, Takeshi Nakazato challenges Takumi next. Itsuki accepts the challenge for Takumi putting him in panic. Keisuke later confronts him to race him but Takumi didn't have intentions which angers Keisuke unable to accept anyone else defeating him except either him or Ryosuke. Takumi initially accepts after Yuichi's dissuasion (he was actually using reverse psychology to get him to accept the challenge). Then his car goes missing but Bunta came back on time to make minor adjustments to improve Takumi's cornering speed which causes Takumi to arrive late. As the battle just starts, Keisuke and Ryosuke Takahashi chase after the AE86 and GT-R to observe up close.

During the Battle
Nakazato leads, with Takumi following close behind, when him and Ryosuke following them realized that Nakazato was easing off the throttle before the corner. Nakazato wanted the real battle to begin in the first corner, hence he did not plan to gap Takumi from the beginning. At the first corner, Nakazato was initially surprised to see both Takumi and Ryosuke drifting behind them to keep up with him as he states 'with these craby oversteer drifting, you cannot keep up with me'. Ryosuke chases them while he praises Takumi for his godlike drifting at high speeds with the near zero countersteer. The adjustments Bunta made enabled Takumi to drift at full speed which electrified him. Nakazato with his grip cornering skills tries to outrun Takumi, but was shocked when he sees the AE86 keeping up with him after many corners, to which he reacts by stating that all the stereotypes he made about a decade old car was broken. During all this, Takumi slightly uses the gutters around some corners, which is witnessed by Keisuke from behind who is now only seeing the very technique which was used by him to overtake Keisuke in their battle. He also notes that while Nakazato keeps a good 20 to 30cm away from the guardrail while grip cornering, Takumi almost seems to scratch the guardrails when he drifts around the corners. By this time, Takumi had almost closed the gap between him and Nakazato, who was now facing serious understeering problems as he realized that he had been relying too heavily on his ABS to which the load on the front of his car has increased, resulting in the understeer. On approaching the first hairpin on the five consecutive hairpins, Ryosuke tells Keisuke that Takumi will make his move against Nakazato in this part. Takumi keeps with Nakazato in a braking drift, and soon after clearing that corner, Ryosuke suddenly tells Keisuke that Takumi will make his attack on the next hairpin. Then on the next hairpin Takumi suddenly attempts to pass Nakazato from the outside of the corner by drifting side by side to him in the outside, surprising spectators around and irritating a rather surprised Nakazato. Nakazato is able to maintain his lead, although Takumi gains on him slowly in the corners. Near the end of the consecutive corners, Takumi feints to the outside before a hairpin corner, which tricks Nakazato to take the outside to block him, to which Takumi immediately brakes and takes the inside by using the gutter run. The GT-R understeers due to wear on the tires, and Nakazato relies on the accelerator too hard, which causes the throttle response to go over the rear wheels, which promptly causes the GTR to oversteer and hit the guardrail, which makes him spin out, allowing Takumi to pass. The FC following them drifts away from Nakazato as he was spinning to a stop.

After the Battle
Despite the defeat, Nakazato felt satisfied for giving all he had and hope to rematch him someday. Meanwhile, Ryosuke explains to Keisuke how he was able to perform the feinting maneuver. Keisuke believed he had great ABS in the Eight-Six only for Ryosuke to laugh at his statement due to the fact Eight-Sixes have no ABS included. Only the driver's own skills and natural instinct acts as its own ABS.

First Stage

 * Running In The 90s - Max Coveri
 * Back On The Rocks - Mega NRG Man
 * Burning Up For You - Sara
 * Heartbeat - Nathalie

Battle Stage

 * Golden Age - Max Coveri

Ryosuke Takahashi's Fastest Typing-theory

 * Burning Up For You - Sara

Special Stage

 * Back On The Rocks - Mega NRG Man

Legend 2: Racer

 * The Brave (D Version) - Backdraft Smiths
 * Carry On (D Version) - Backdraft Smiths

New Initial D the Movie Battle Digest

 * Bach is Back - Daniel & Cherry
 * Black Or White - Nando
 * My Baby's Gonna Break My Heart - Leslie Parrish

Trivia

 * In First Stage, Koichiro Iketani does the countdown to start the battle, while in Legend 2, one of the NightKids member does the countdown. The countdown is unseen in the manga.
 * Shingo Shoji makes an appearance during the battle in Legend 2 only.
 * In First Stage and Battle Stage, after hitting the guardrail, Takeshi's R32 spins multiple times before coming to stop. Whereas in Final Stage (outro) and Legend 2, his car only spins once before coming to a halt.