Hi there folks, it's Nagamatsu, the mysterious Judo man. Hai-yaa!!

As designer Takahashi asked in the last Future Lab News, just what is happening to my Mazda RX-7 (FD3S)!!!Well, right now the standard muffler is being changed for a sports muffler. I got some fatter wheels, and the whole car is getting progressively cooler.

(Here is the first photo of my car for ages. It's not a public road, by the way!!)

Oh yes, muffler exchange and new wheels are the fundamentals of tuning! After being coaxed from all sides by the project members, I finally changed over the muffler.

Sports mufflers make such a reassuring sound. It really feels like the sound is flowing directly into your body!
Saying that, the car has only had a bit of work done to it, so it's far from deserving the title of "Special" just yet.

By the way, we are now reaching the final development stages of our new game, "Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3DX"

The project members are rushing around in a final crazed dash to bring the title to completion.
Of course, I've been working every day to make sure we can give you guys the best possible game.

I've been debugging endlessly, by day and by night. When we do the debugging, we often concentrate on one particular game mode at a time.

I am doing "Time Attack Mode".

In this mode, there are none of the yellow Other Cars or the Rival Cars that appear in Story Mode. It's all about fighting for your own personal record.

For this new game, and the new additional course, we have been driving around the course like mad, trying to take out the bugs, just like when we were making the additional course - the Hanshin Expressway Loop Line - for Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3.While doing this work, I've been getting progressively better at Time Attack, and I've been getting better records. That feels really good, and makes me want to keep on playing...

I have of course been doing loads of running round the additional course for 3DX - the Nagoya Speed Loop.
Just before going into a corner, I move right out to the furthest outside edge, take the corner as close to the inside edge as possible, then get back over to the far outside and accelerate out.
Just who is faster, the old me or the new me!!?

Yup, that's the feeling you get when you play Time Attack Mode. It's such a sweet feeling when you feel you have improved.
Make sure to give Time Attack Mode a try.

Ok then, that's all for this time, see you later!!

(Original article in Japanese released on 11.5.2008)