Koichiro Iketani

Koichiro Iketani (池谷 浩一郎, Iketani Kōichirō, known as Cole in the Tokyopop version) is one of Takumi's friends and works at a local gas station with Itsuki. Itsuki admires him, as Iketani is the leader of the local racing team, the Akina SpeedStars. Iketani drives a Nissan S13 Silvia. At first, Iketani thinks that the SpeedStars are the best drivers in Akina but later his boss Yuichi tells Iketani of the mysterious driver of an Eight-Six who was the fastest driver in his time, and that he suspects that the driver is the owner of the local tofu shop.

He is an average racer at best, but his skills are decent enough for him to be the leader of the Speed Stars. He is noted by the Two Guys from Tokyo in the S15 to have good corner entry.

It is Iketani (along with Itsuki) who explains to Takumi the practice of referring to street-racing cars by their chassis codes, since this is the simplest way of denoting different body style/engine combinations. For example, instead of specifying the 1983-1987 Toyota Sprinter Trueno or Corolla Levin with the 4A-GE engine (or Toyota Sprinter Trueno 1600GT APEX), one can simply call it an AE86, or more simply, an "Eight-Six".

He apparently still lives with his parents.

Sayuki calls him "Ichikoro", much to Mako's embarrassment.

He has safely confirmed that he is not a crazy serial killer.

Likes: His beloved Silvia S13, he gets happy when someone says they like the S13, Mako

Dislikes: Silvia S14, Silvia S15, Shingo, two guys from Tokyo.

Special skills: Corner entry, E-brake cornering, heel and toe drift.

Trivia

 * Iketani appears in MF Ghost in chapter 96 where he still lives in Shibukawa and still works at the gas station (although it is an ENEOS EV station). He is the only one of the SpeedStars to be single and without kids. He is also shown to be balding.
 * one reason is that Iketani was not able to forget about Mako in the following years after Initial D and he prevented the young Iketani (also because of his personality) from finding a girl.