Blind Attack



The Blind Attack is a technique used by Takumi Fujiwara during which he shuts his Eight-Six's headlights when close to an opponent, so the opponent can't see where his car is from the rear-view mirror or judging from his car's headlights.

There is another advantage, which is reduced aerodynamic drag. Since the car's pop-up headlights reduce the car's airflow by a small amount, creating drag, by turning the headlights off, the car's airflow is smoother, creating less aerodynamic drag.

The blind attack was first used against Tomoyuki Tachi of the Todo School.

In the Arcade Stage series, blind attack can be used by holding the Start button down for a few seconds. However, the player's speed is unaffected by it. Starting from Arcade Stage 4, using it disables the "Advantage" meter for the victim and some of Arcade Stage 8 Infinity and Arcade Stage Zero's story missions require the use of the technique in order to complete an objective.

In the manga, it is said that Kenta tried doing a Blind Attack using his S14, but crashed in the proccess of doing it. It is unknown if he did this in the anime or not, as its not mentioned.

1) Takumi Fujiwara vs Tomoyuki Tachi
Takumi uses the blind attack for the very first time when facing against the professional racer Tomoyuki Tachi. It was his own indigenous idea which Ryosuke knew Takumi would come up with something like that when he is being pressured. In fact, the blind attack was an imitation of Tomoyuki's 'blind line' overtake, which he used to overtake Takumi at the beginning of their battle. Takumi uses this for the first time when inside a tunnel and switches back on the headlights to catch Tomoyuki off-guard after exiting the tunnel. He then reuses the same trick near the end of the battle after Tomoyuki regains the lead. This time he switches off the headlights for a longer period of time and despite Tomoyuki's knowledge about Takumi's whereabouts this time, Takumi succeeds as an animal suddenly jumped on Tomoyuki's lane, making Tomoyuki brake and give space, giving Takumi the opportunity to overtake and switch on his headlights, winning the battle by a mere few centimeters.

2) Takumi Fujiwara vs Sakamoto
Takumi uses the blind attack on Sakamoto after reaching a straight. Realizing there's no other options left for him to overtake, and Sakamoto constantly blocking him from overtaking with his small Cappuccino, Takumi takes this opportunity to use the blind attack in the heavy rain to block Sakamoto's view in the rear, and use that to advantage to take the space which Sakamoto hasn't blocked, overtaking him and winning the battle.

3) Takumi Fujiwara vs Dr. Toshiya Joshima
Takumi uses this as a last resort move to regain his position after Joshima overtook him just moments before. Combining the gutter technique, the move was so effective that Dr Joshima suddenly used both of his hands to take control of his car after Takumi switches his headlights back on.

3) Takumi Fujiwara vs Satoshi Omiya
The use of blind attack was not just for making an opening for an overtake, but also to increase his aerodynamics to make him faster. Since Omiya had turned away his rear view mirrors, it did not have the exact desired effect, but however when Takumi suddenly switched on the headlights, Omiya brakes and turns away by instinct, thinking it was an oncoming traffic. This gave Takumi the space to come right next to him and battle together through the tiny stretch, ultimately costing Omiya his Roadster's GT Wing and his battle.

3) Takumi Fujiwara vs Shinji Inui
Takumi realizes that Shinji corners using his own particular set of cornering lines, and uses this to his advantage by initiating the blind attack and coming next to him on the inside of a corner, making Shinji in the backfoot when cornering and Takumi gaining the lead.

After Shinji overtakes him during the final segments of the course and realizing he's only got one more chance to win, Takumi switches off his headlights for a longer period like how he did against Tomoyuki with the second time. After slowly and steadily gaining the lead from Shinji at the very final corner, Takumi switches his headlights back on, only then realizing he's gone above the limits of his engine, blowing it up and sending his car into a spin, followed by Shinji acting in reflex to save himself from crashing, Takumi then hits the clutch and rolls himself to the finish line, winning the final battle.

Trivia



 * A Toyota GR86 promo ad has an impromptu battle where Takumi used the blind attack against driving a Toyota GT86 (the same one seen in Legend 3).