After napping for a few hours on some folded cardboard he took from the empty boxes in the operational room, Leon left Alpha Dynamics Headquarters and headed over to the race track stadium to the Tsunamic Foods paddock, right behind the pit box.

  Zoe was already present while Trey still had classes. Luckily, they only needed him for testing, giving them more time to work on the car beforehand.

  “So, what’s the game plan, here?” Zoe asked, crossing her arms.

  “We’ll optimize the levitation system. Rip out the electromagnets, enhance their output while tinkering with the limitations to find the right balance.”

  “That sounds like more than just an optimization. And what exactly do you mean by enhancing their output?” Zoe had a theory in her mind, but she hoped it wouldn’t be true.

  Turning his head, Leon replied with a straight face. “Simple. Stronger magnets, enabling faster acceleration and deceleration.”

  “Stronger magnets,” She almost sneered at the thought. “How do you imagine that to work out? The added G-forces are enough to take out the driver. Even without passing out, the strain will tire out the driver, increasing tiredness and loss of focus.”

  “Then add a G-suit pressure system,” Leon added, but Zoe shook her head.

  “That will increase the weight of the car further, lowering the effectiveness of the stronger magnets. It will balance out the advantage you tried building into the car. If that’s the case, then why go through all the trouble in the first place?”

  “Because I did the math and I’m confident enough in lowering the weight of the G-suit system enough to break even and get a definitive upgrade in the performance of the car.”

  In theory, Zoe was right.

  The maglev race cars being used at this point have been generally optimized by the top engineers, reaching a standard in the industry where it plateaued for the last several years.

  By this standard, they agreed that no assistance to withstand the G-forces during turns is the most effective, as alternative options don’t result in any viable benefits. However, Leon was also aware that this was only true for the current technological progress.

  In maglev racing, magnetic levitation was used similarly to regular hover cars to counter rolling resistance and achieve much higher speeds. By using strong electromagnets and a ferromagnetic track instead of asphalt, the car can use magnetic force to counter the gravitational force and levitate.

  Additionally, by using multiple electromagnets in conjunction, the entire levitation system enables very fast acceleration and deceleration to improve the entire racing experience.

  However, this also means that forces in turn act much stronger on the driver inside the car.

  That is why withstanding G-forces is the most important skill of a driver, requiring them to be healthy and fit athletes to increase their threshold.

  The idea of using a G-suit, a built-in system to use air pressure to counter the G-forces to increase the driver’s threshold, wasn’t something Leon came up with. Many engineers entertained the idea to implement it, only to scrap it later on.

  Adding a G-suit pressure system into a maglev car would increase its weight by several tens of kilograms. A few for the suit itself and many more for the pressure system, regulator and sensors.

  That added weight would require a higher output from the electromagnets to counter the weight, which would increase G-forces in turns as well. Basically, by hoping to increase the threshold of the driver, the forces put on the driver would need to increase, resulting in no real benefit at all.

  That is why no alternative system to withstand gravitational forces has proven more effective, and it’s more up to the driver’s ability to deal with it. Going by that logic, it was natural for Jade Kotova to have a clear advantage. From what he knew, she was genetically engineered to be better, including withstanding more G-forces than the natural human limit.

  But that would also mean that Trey and no other driver would have a chance to ever beat Jade in a race. Her higher threshold to withstand G-forces allowed her to take turns much faster than others, giving her a vast advantage of many seconds after tens of laps.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Leon needed to improve Trey’s threshold, naturally or artificially. That is why he was so hyper-focused on continuing an idea other engineers abandoned long ago.

  He just needed to find a way to make it work. Increase the output of the electromagnets and lower the weight of the G-suit system. All in a timeframe of nine weeks, just a few days before the release of Vulcan.

  “Anyway, you gotta trust the process. You saw the results of the software update in the last race, right?” Leon said.

  Zoe had a pondering look on her face, but soon nodded. “Okay, I’ll trust you on this. Either way, it seems like Trey trusts you on this, so there’s no reason for me to do otherwise. What’s the plan?”

  To that, Leon pointed his finger at the two dark blue race cars in front of him. One was the modified car where Leon installed the Vulcan AI, while the other one was the original car.

  “First of all, we’ll take out the levitation systems from both cars and separate the electromagnets. The magnets for speeding up and stopping are the strongest, which we are taking from the original car and replacing with the magnets used for steering, which are a bit weaker.”

  “Won’t that be problematic for regulating the magnetic fields. Having uniformly strong electromagnets all around?” Zoe asked, to which Leon nodded.

  “You’re right, I’ll have to patch up the output and limitations on the magnets to correct for the change in force. Luckily, the software I installed on the modified car is fully able to adjust to the change in magnetic fields by itself. It shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

  “I see.” Listening to his words, Zoe got curious about the software Leon installed days prior but it wasn’t that important. If he wanted to tell her, he would.

  “The second thing,” Leon stopped as his body turned towards a bigger crate standing a bit further away from the cars. “... is installing the G-suit system. Based on its weight, we’ll see if we need stronger base electromagnets or need to reduce the weight of the system. Most likely, we’ll have to do both.”

  Leon pointed out as he scratched the back of his neck. The whole endeavor was very ambitious, but he was sure they could do it. Solve one problem after the other, that was the approach he decided to use.

  Over the two days, Leon and Zoe worked tirelessly assembling the new levitation system before Leon patched up the magnet output through the Vulcan AI. At first, there were major problems with the electromagnet assembly.

  When Trey came around to test drive the car by driving around the race track, they quickly noticed that the stronger magnets on the steering was extremely janky, unfit for racing at all.

  That’s when both of them realized that a magnetic force equal to acceleration wasn’t the balance they needed. So, Zoe ordered a set of stronger base magnets that were regularly used in heavier maglev trains instead.

  By restricting the magnetic output, they now had much stronger base magnets, as well as steering magnets on par with the original base pairs. As a result, they now had to put more of their focus on the G-suit system, which original design, they scrapped altogether after the car vastly underperformed when Trey performed a practice lap at its best.

  Despite the stronger magnets, the weight interfered enough to be a bother, but even more than that, the bulkiness of the suit lowered Trey’s ability to properly use the controls.

  At the end of the third day, they finally found a solution to that problem. It was Friday, the first night of the weekend.

  Sitting in the paddock, Leon and Zoe opened the blue car door, showing Trey the newly improved system.

  “We chose seat integration for the G-suit assembly,” Leon said as he pointed at the newly mounted seat.

  Zoe came up with the idea to avoid having a separate suit to put on. They would just put indents into the seat between the legs and the side of the torso, which can be pressurized as needed. Plus, the Vulcan AI is calculating and regulating the G-forces while directing the system, sparing them a few extra parts.

  Although it wasn’t as effective as the full suit due to being partially exposed, it still served the purpose of increasing Trey’s G-force threshold while driving without hindering his movements.

  It was, unfortunately, a bit uncomfortable.

  “You built a seat that puts pressure on my body?” Trey asked with a suspicious gaze.

  “Yeah,” Leon replied innocently. ‘It’s actually not that strange, just not commonly used.”

  “I’ve never seen something like that before,” Trey pondered. “Is that even legal?”

  “There is nothing in the regulations that forbids a seat with air pressurized indents,” Leon explained with a bright smile.

  Seeing his expression, Trey’s gaze moved between him and the seat a few times before sighing heavily.

  “If you say so. Just hope it doesn’t kill me.”

  Leon laughed in response but secretly took another look at the seat.

  “It won’t.” He said, finishing the last thought in his head. ‘Probably.’

  ……….

  ‘Sometimes, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You only need to correct the mistakes that other people missed.’

  ~~Dr. Benjamin Harper’s Memoirs~~