Tatsuya Shima島達也

Biography

He is the main rival of Akio Asakura, as Akio is the only one who regularly gives him a challenge. He drives an almost stock 1987 Porsche 911 Yellowbird (painted black, thus the name Blackbird). The car has 470 hp (350 kW) stock. Tatsuya becomes annoyed with Akio beating him all the time so he hires Kitami Jun to tune the Porsche. Kitami tunes the suspension and adds a second turbo to make it a Twin Turbo Porsche (depicted as a Nissan 350Z in the English version of the arcade racing games) and boosts the car to 500 hp (370 kW) and beyond to try and keep up with the Devil Z. He's an extraordinarily skilled driver and has only been in one wreck during the course of the manga. He knows the limits of his vehicle and will never risk disaster by pushing it beyond its safe limits. This actually cost him a couple of battles, but he always learns from his failures and comes back even tougher. He's a very skilled surgeon and uses his large salary to fund his Blackbird racing efforts. (Source: Wikipedia)