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My precious... My precious AE86...
- The scene where Iketani is rushing to make it to Mako, who's waiting for him under the billboard where they first met, only for her to assume he stood her up and drive off frustrated before he can arrive. It's especially frustrating given that we, the audience, see both sides and know how both characters really feel.
- Takumi's reaction to blowing the AE86's original engine during his first race with Kyoichi Sudo (pictured above). Bunta knew the engine was on its last legs, and already had another lined up, but he specifically refused to tell Takumi or simply replace the engine because he knew Takumi would be opposed to it. Instead, Takumi pushes the engine to its limits and still can't catch up to Kyoichi's Evo III (CE9A). Finally, the engine gives out. The whole scene is framed like a death scene, and Takumi is left crushed; the Fujiwara Tofu Shop Trueno is virtually a character in its own right, after all. Even after Bunta tells him they can replace the engine, Takumi desperately tried to get them to fix it instead, despite it being damaged beyond repair.
- The above is made even worse by the fact that Takumi was originally going to ignore the battle, but he wound up going anyway to vent his frustrations after finding out that Natsuki had been engaging in Enjo Kosai with the man in the Mercedes.
- Kyouko and Keisuke's relationship throughout Stage Four, especially their date. It's clear Kyouko is head-over-heels in love with Keisuke, and Keisuke even admits to liking her and finding her cute, but he is determined to stick with Project D and improving himself as a racer above all else, precluding him from pursuing any romantic relationships. He also knows Kyouko isn't the kind of person who would be satisfied with admiring him from a distance, and would eventually want more, so he's forced to break things off once and for all. Kyouko, understandably, doesn't take it well.
- Ryosuke's entire backstory involving Kaori's suicide. He and Kaori were genuinely in love, but she was in an Arranged Marriage with Hojo Rin, as the Hojo family had a substantial amount of influence. Rin had also genuinely fallen in love with her, despite her having been chosen as his fiancee for him. Kaori refuses to marry Rin, and angers his father when she voices her objections to the arrangement. Rin, heartbroken and angry, threatens that his father will make things hard on her, and her own father pressures her into returning to the Hojo estate to apologize before the situation can get any worse. Feeling pressured on all sides and being unable to pursue a genuine relationship with Ryosuke, she calls him to say goodbye and kills herself.
- The "death" of Takumi's legendary AE86. Prior to the final battle between Takumi and Shinji, Matsumoto and Ryosuke remove the 86's rev limiter to allow Takumi to rev the engine back up to 11,000rpms. They had tuned it for better performance at lower rpms, and thus limited them down to 9000 because exceeding that wouldn't produce any more power and would put strain on the engine. However, removing the limiter would allow Takumi to rev the engine higher rather than holding it at a lower rpm or shifting gears, giving him a slight advantage that he could use as a last resort technique. In the final stretches of the battle, Takumi revs the engine past 10,000rpm and uses a Blind Attack to overtake Shinji. Just before the final corner, Takumi switches his headlights back on, and sees that he's been over-revving the engine to well over 12,000rpm. He barely has enough time to register this before the engine blows. He's able to use his experience to spin 180 degrees and release the clutch to coast backwards to the finish line at high speed, winning the race, but the car that's carried Takumi since the start of the series, and the engine that's been with Takumi for the entirety of Project D, would never race again.
- Even worse in the manga. In the anime, Takumi decides to keep the 86 around and slowly repair it over time, not to race, but just to eventually drive again as it's special to him. In the manga they scrap it entirely, and Takumi seems even more upset over the loss.
