Keisuke Takahashi vs Kozo Hoshino

The battle between Keisuke Takahashi and Kozo Hoshino is the fourtieth battle of Initial D.

Prior to the Battle
After the conquest of Saitama, Project D moves into Ibaraki, where they're greeted by Purple Shadow. Keisuke is matched up against Kozo Hoshino, a man known as "God Foot" due to his mastery of pedal work, who drives a mighty R34 Skyline GT-R. Keisuke's recently repaired and upgraded FD RX-7 now sports an RE Amemiya body kit complete with fixed headlights and plenty of aero parts, and the two set up to duel in a hybrid match - all the way uphill, then turning a 180 around a cone at the very top, and back downhill.

During the Battle
The battle is kept close, as Keisuke was instructed by Ryosuke to not get too close to Hoshino (telling him to keep a gap of seven seconds between him and Hoshino) and make the time up in the downhill due to the power difference (and also to save tires). Kozo plans to go all out on the first run itself, unlike Dr. Joshima who takes his time to analyze during many runs. Due to this Kozo speeds up all the way uphill, whereas Keisuke's plan on tyre conservation makes him slow down to make the gap of seven seconds. In between of all this Kozo states about his interests for GT-Rs and he would buy no other cars other than the GT-R despite owning tons of money. Kozo also shouts loudly in his car with words such as "DORIYA!" to attain concentration on every corner, as analyzed by his team members. By the time Keisuke reached uphill on the U turn, Kozo had already passed him in the opposite way. Keisuke then took the u turn and went all out to catch upto Kozo downhill. The spectators at the top thought it would be an easy win for Purple Shadow. Keisuke hopped on top of gutters an d road edges to take the shortest cornering paths to catch upto Kozo, which Kozo did first during his way downhill. As Keisuke approached the latter parts of the downhill section, he finally notices Hoshino's Skyline ahead of him as he races downhill and keeps up with him just before the very end of the round as he finally closes the gap between them.

As the second run began, Keisuke takes up the lead with Hoshino chasing. Kozo was getting irritated by the fact that Keisuke was going too slow uphill for his liking. Halfway to the top God Foot tries to fake an overtake on Keisuke by coming parallel to him, to see how he would react, so that he can make up for the daring move at the top.

By the time they both reached the top with Keisuke leading, Kenta was enthusiastic watching the battle unfold, but then to everyone's shock at the top, Kozo suddenly overtakes Keisuke and comes side by side with Keisuke while they both were approaching the U turn cone. Both Keisuke and Kozo brakes and swerves into the U turn almost at the exact same time, and as both cars appear to turn towards each other, Keisuke pulls a last second decision to turn widely and give way to Kozo for the U turn, giving the latter the lead while that puts Keisuke on the back foot into the downhill. Kenta couldn't process what happened as he stared in shock and awe. Kozo was racing downhill with the lead, however by that time his heavy GT-R's tires are mostly worn out by then, compared to the lighter RX-7 who has managed to keep them intact. Hoshino fights bravely, even deciding to drift the Skyline (which is considered impossible due to the ATTESA E-TS Pro system). When Purple Shadow heard this new, Joshima realized he was doing this in order to corner faster as gripping with worn out tyres could be problematic, and also a method to block out Keisuke from overtaking him in narrow corners. Keisuke decides to drift along with him due to his competitive spirit to fight a drift battle with another drift. Kozo kept going until he began to understeer in his drift as he took corners. Keisuke waited till he seizes his opportunity near the final corners, coming next to Hoshino outside the corner side by side. Keisuke with his superior grip keeps up the cornering while Hoshino due to his lack of grip encounters a fit of understeer that has him hit the FD on the rear side which makes Keisuke hit the guardrail for a bit, but manages to escape.

After the Battle
Keisuke arrives triumphantly with his hand raised out of the FD's open window. While the battle still should have gone into a 3rd round, Hoshino forfeits as he had used up all of the grip of his tires.

Fourth Stage

 * Go Go Money (Friday Night Ver.) - Neo
 * Back On The Rocks - Mega NRG Man
 * So Fragile - Pamsy
 * Looka Bomba - Go 2
 * Rider Of The Sky - Ace

Battle Stage 2

 * Pride - Dave
 * Love For Money 2008 - Money Man
 * Back On The Rocks - Mega NRG Man

Arcade Stage 8 Infinity

 * Super Driver - Daniel

Arcade Stage 8 RivalSide Info
Story arc: Purple Shadow

Driver: Kozo Hoshino

Car: Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II Nür (BNR34)

Opponent: Keisuke Takahashi

Team: Project D

Car: Mazda RX-7 Type R (FD3S)

Mission: Use the Shortcut

1-ryu Condition: Use 3 Shortcuts

Cho 1-ryu Condition: Use 5 Shortcuts

Course: Tsukuba

Rule: Inbound

Start: Standing

Weather: Clear

Time of day: Night

Trivia

 * This is the first battle to use a song featured in a previous stage (Back on the Rocks, originally playing in most of the battles of Takeshi Nakazato), as well as the only battle featured in a Battle Stage OVA to reuse a song from the original stage it was in (again with Back on the Rocks).
 * One of the spectators who watched the match is m.o.v.e, a Japanese group known for doing the opening and ending themes of the series.
 * In the manga, this was the final battle with Purple Shadow, which is after the battle between Takumi and God Hand. However in the anime, its exact opposite, with Keisuke battling God Foot before Takumi battles with God Hand.