Pac Racing Club

"A new Japanese team competing for the first time this season. Their cars are tuned for balanced performance."

―R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (Grand Prix mode team blurb)

Pac Racing Club (PRC) is a Japanese racing team in R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, that had debuted in the 1999 Real Racing Roots season. The name was based on Namco's game Pac-Man. PRC is managed by Shinji Yazaki. The team is best at tuning Terrazi cars. Players experiences amateur, yet experienced drivers. Their tuning is mostly concentrated on well-balanced cars.

Their main colors are red and yellow and their number is 76 (the "76" number is a 2-digit reference to Namco's goroawase number: 765).

Career quotes

See: Pac Racing Club/Transcript

Manager

"That was my mistake. As his teammate, I should have yielded my track position to him [Giuliano]... It was as if I killed Giuliano myself. The press hounded me to death and I thought I would never come back to racing. But the years helped me deal with that mistake... To redeem myself, I wanted to keep a promise I made with Giuliano - to win the RRR Grand Prix."

―Shinji Yazaki, reflecting on the incident with Giuliano Gilbert, after player wins the Heaven and Hell race

PRC Manager's Shinji Yazaki

The team's manager is Shinji Yazaki, a former racing driver from Racing Team Solvalou who was demonized in the press as the "Grim Reaper" after being involved in an accident that resulted in the death of co-driver Giuliano Gilbert, Enki Gilbert's son, during the 1986 Real Racing Roots season.

Haunted by this, he became deeply cynical and pessimistic, initially treating the player with condescending contempt. But when an article about Giuliano's demise appeared in the press, Yazaki came clean about his past.

Post-R4

The complete machine version of Kamata Fiera's Design B seen in Ridge Racer 3D sports the PRC logo and design, meaning that the team still exists as of the events of 3D.

Trivia

• Coincidently, PRC is also the abbreviation for the People's Republic of China, and the colors of PRC are red and yellow, which are the colors of the Chinese flag.
• Reiko Nagase, R4's mascot, is apparently a PRC fan, shown by a fax mail she sent to PRC in one of the post-race cutscenes (after winning the Phantomile race).
• All Preset cars (the default Assoluto and Age Solo cars in the garage) use PRC tuning.
• Before founding PRC, Yazaki was racing for RTS from 1983 to 1986.
• Shinji Yazaki is 36 years old when Real Racing Roots 1999 takes place. As of 2022 he may be 59 years old (birthday unknown).
• Given Yazaki's background and personality in the entire story during the PRC playthrough, it may suggest that Yazaki could potentially have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) due to the incident at Shooting Hoops that caused Giuliano Gilbert's death in 1986 during his time as a Racing Team Solvalou driver.
  • Given Yazaki's involvement in the accident that caused Giuliano's death, it could be possible that he was found innocent from a potential case of involuntary manslaughter, but his earned nickname of the "Grim Reaper" can be used to serve as a reminder of these events.
  • Later on, especially on the latter half of the Final Heat and in the epilogue, Yazaki frequently mentions Giuliano, likely because of his earthly regrets of what he did to him.
  • In the Racing Team Solvalou playthrough, it is implied that Enki Gilbert has a negative opinion of Yazaki, as stated after winning the first and second races of the Final Heat, referring to the fact that he does not want the Player to meet the same fate as Giuliano.
• The car's hood mentions that the Pac-Man series was at its 20th anniversary by the time the game is released.
  • The decal was unchanged in the PRC livery used in Assoluto Promessa in Drift Spirits, likely so that it now stands for the 20th anniversary of R4's Japanese release instead.
• An update/Drift Survival event in Drift Spirits held in June 2021 (to commemorate Pac-Man's 41st anniversary) features a special edition of the Toyota GR Yaris in PRC livery. There, the "20th Anniversary" text on the hood was changed to "41st Anniversary".
• Post-R4, it is highly likely that the team also sponsor Himmel, since in Ridge Racer 6, a livery scheme resembling the PRC livery and colors can be seen on a regular E.O.