Koichiro Iketani

Koichiro Iketani
One of Takumi's friends, Koichiro Iketani (池谷 浩一郎Iketani Kōichirō?, "Cole") works at a local gas station with both Takumi and Itsuki. Itsuki admires him, as Iketani is 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 leader of the Speed Stars.

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, one can simply call it an AE86, or more simply, an "Eight-Six".