Takumi Fujiwara vs Shinji Inui

The battle between Takumi Fujiwara and Shinji Inui is the forty-ninth and final battle of Initial D.

Prior to the Battle
Following the defeat of Go Hojo, Shinji reveals to Mako and Sayuki that he is the final opponent of Takumi and drives off to the starting line. Notable characters that Takumi has faced provide commentary during the race.

During the Battle
At the start of the battle, Shinji is in the lead position, followed by Takumi. They begin the race and Takumi is barely able to keep up with Shinji's pace. Eiji Kubo, Go Hojo, Shinji's mother and various other characters provide commentary regarding Shinji's technique and characteristics of his car. Spectators explain how Takumi's hatchback, which are used mostly in circuit racings differs from Shinji's coupe, which are mostly used in rallying. This can give Shinji a slight advantage in downhill touge. After some time, Takumi notes that Shinji has a technique similar to his own, while simultaneously realizing that Shinji was actually faster than him at the corners, something which rarely occurs to him (it last occurred to Takumi in his battle with Sakamoto). While the race is going on, commentary puts a heavy emphasis on Shinji's driving technique which is mainly explained by Shinji's mother and Eiji Kubo. According to his mother, Shinji rarely uses brakes when approaching corners, due to the fact that he mostly relies on the momentum from the gravity and not too much on the accelerator, giving him a distinct advantage on the corner entry. Since Shinji used to travel with his mother as she picked him up from school from uphill, Shinji used to notice every detail of the road a child, giving him the advantage in course knowledge. During the later stages of the race, Shinji turns on his hazard lights and purposely slows down, allowing a shocked and utterly confused Takumi to overtake him. Even the members of Sidewinder team and Project D got surprised when they heard, with Keisuke saying even he would be afraid on what to do next. Kubo was in a total state of confusion and shock on what he just heard, but Go Hojo understands why he did that, implying on the earlier conversation he had with Shinji, with the latter saying to the former that he wants to 'become a hero'. This is done in preparation for an attack which he uses in an attempt to impress Mako. As the corner where the spectators including the Impact Blue was located, Shinji suddenly comes side by side to Takumi, taking the very inside of a corner and overtaking in such a way that he bumps Takumi on the side to take lead, all this while in front of a surprised Mako and Sayuki. Takumi realizes his driving style and prepares for a counter attack for later. As some really tough corners passes where in practice runs members of Sidewinders were not able to keep up with Shinji, Takumi manages to keep up right behind of Shinji, making the him feel worried all of the sudden due to Takumi's presence, with him wishing if he had opted out of the battle at the moment if he wanted. Shinji begins to feel pressured with Takumi behind him and gets distracted because of this. Takumi after staying behind Shinji for this much time realizes Shinji's driving patters. This allows Takumi to overtake him with a Blind Attack. Soon after overtaking, Shinji notes the white wings that he imagines on Takumi's car (which was one of the other reason why Shinji gave away his position to Takumi, so that he can see the 'wings' from there). After a while, during one of the final corners of the pass, where the members of Akina SpeedStars were spectating, Shinji decides to overtake Takumi again. By that time Takumi had almost wore down his front tyres from this battle which gave Shinji enough space from the inside of a corner to overtake him by bumping on the side again, as noted by an absolutely the SpeedStars as they were shocked to see Takumi getting overtaken at that very point. Nearing the end of the course, Takumi begins to feel pressured and begins to enter a flashback of Fumihiro and Ryosuke explaining that Takumi can use the engine's full potential as a last resort. Takumi barely manages to get side by side with Shinji using another Blind Attack. Although Shinji attempts to push him out of the way multiple times, Takumi is able to keep next to Shinji until the final corner. Takumi is able to pass Shinji and turns his headlights back on. Takumi quickly notices that he was pushing his engine's RPM to it's limits, which then promptly leads to the engine blowing. Takumi's car is forced into a spin and Shinji also spins out after attempting to avoid colliding with Takumi. Takumi instinctively engaged the clutch to regain traction, and spins 180 degrees before crossing the finish line backwards. Shinji, however, spins a full 360 degrees and isn't able to catch up to Takumi in time.

After the Battle
After the battle, Takumi and Shinji receive praise from their respective teams, and Takumi laments over his blown engine. Exclusively in the anime, Takumi realizes that every team in Kanagawa and multiple teams from other areas have come to spectate the final battle.

Later on, Takumi, Bunta, along with the Akina SpeedStars and Yuichi are seen at the gas station, repairing Takumi's car. Yuichi explains it was the best time for the AE86 to rest, as it finally completed being a legend of downhill race in all of Kanto region. Takumi asks Bunta if he can keep the AE86, so he could fix it up over time, to which Bunta agrees.

Project D celebrate their victory with a barbeque and alcohol at Lake Akina. The support staff talk about the future now that the team is disbanding, and Fumihiro mentions that both Takumi and Keisuke have received offers from professional racing teams.

Some weeks later, Ryosuke is seen at the cemetery where Kaori is buried, he prays at her grave and explains the true meaning of Project D. He states that the "D" stands for Dream, and represents his dream to take talented drivers and train them until they are good enough to compete worldwide.

Exclusively in Final Stage, Takumi takes Bunta's Impreza to the tofu delivery, before looking at his beloved AE86 for one last time in the anime.

In the end credits, Takumi is shown spectating a D1GP event, who is greeted by a cameo of Keiichi Tsuchiya. Akina SpeedStars members are shown working at the gas station as usual, with Kenji cleaning his 180SX. Mika Uehara is shown as a professional golfer. Keisuke becomes a pro driver with Tomiguchi and his race modified FD3S at Twin Ring Motegi as professional drivers. While Mako is seen as a pro driver in her race modified SilEighty at Tsubaka Circuit while Sayuki and Mako's fans cheer for her. Ryosuke becomes a silent spectator at races, hoping to find more natural talents like Takumi and Keisuke to train. Nakazato and Shingo are seen talking at a parking lot casually when a stranger passes them, causing both of them to move away from each other. Bunta and Yuichi are seen at a restaurant eating food together. After the credits, Takumi is shown on his delivery run in the Impreza. He crosses paths with a Toyota 86 GT (ZN6) during his run. The number plate on the GT86 is written as "86-239", which is shown in the screen as when translated in Japanese, it means "hachiroku ni sankyu", or "Thank you, Eight-Six"; it was a final tribute to the AE86. At the very end of the final scene, the following text is displayed on-screen: "Even today, young drivers keep on racing. Wrestling to realize their dream."

Final Stage

 * Magic Sunday - Dave Rodgers feat. Futura
 * The Jungle Is On Fire - J-Stark
 * Flash Light - Igoda
 * strike on - M.o.v.e
 * 1 Fire - Dave Rodgers
 * Crazy Little Love - Nuage
 * Wild Boy Bad Love - Joe Banana
 * Adrenaline - Ace

Battle Stage 3

 * Powernight - Annie
 * Lost In Time - Mike Danger
 * Come Back To me - Anika
 * Young And Wild - Fastway
 * Eurohero - Neo

Trivia

 * In the manga, Takumi decides to scrap his AE86 after the battle. Meanwhile in the anime, he decides to repair the car and keeps it with him.
 * Dr. Toshiya Joshima and Kozo Hoshino spectated the battle in the manga only.
 * Mako Sato and Koichiro Iketani both attend this battle, however don't see each other.
 * In Final Stage, this slightly contradicts Extra Stage 2 saying the two of them never met again, as it would be difficult for Iketani to not see Mako at the front of the crowd congratulating Takumi, as he was stood right next to him.
 * Takumi only attends the Project D conclusion party in the manga
 * As Takumi was present in the party in the manga, a drunk Keisuke proposed a rematch between the two of them (which Keisuke had been wanting ever since First Stage). They even had a small argument when Takumi mentioned it would be an unfair battle as he would have to use his father's Impreza, an AWD car, annoying Keisuke, due to his perfect record against AWD cars.