Final Bout is the gift that just keeps on giving. It’s been six months, if not more, and I’m still finding ways for it to fuel content. You may or may not know that Club FR – with the help of a few media-type people – is about to release an hour-long video of the Final Bout competition that took place in Shawano, Wisconsin last year.
This past weekend, the video was seen in limited release in a few cities across North America. These cities included Chicago, Vancouver, Seattle and Calgary. Some screenings were held at bars or theaters, but the Vancouver screening was aptly held at the SerialNine shop.
Gerard de Peralta and Kevin Petersen, the two guys behind SerialNine, were nice enough to open the doors of their shop and serve us popcorn and beer.
I was, of course, excited to see the Final Bout video and relive the event all over again, but another part of me was just excited to have an excuse to show up at SerialNine. There aren’t many places in the Lower Mainland that I like more than this place (well, at least places that don’t serve food or beer).
There are few places that demonstrate the benefits of being a Canadian car enthusiast so well. Now, allow me to elaborate. With the 15-year import rule being what it is, it’s rare to see people take advantage of the lesser-known cars available in Japan – let alone build them to be so on point. That is, until you pull up to the SerialNine shop and see the their individual cars.
The pre-cursor to the screening was sort of like a mini meet. Actually, it was more likely the people interested in watching the Final Bout video had pretty good taste… and I took pictures of their cars while they chatted.
Eventually, we shuffled into the garage which, much to my delight, was where Gerard’s project JZS was hanging out with its signature Breed fenders.
Being an Aristo owner myself, I feel a great amount of shame whenever I see Gerard’s project because it reminds me of how much I need to step up my game… but I digress. After watching a few of the old SerialNine drift videos, we started the main event.
Sitting in the garage may have been a little drafty and a tad unconventional. But I thought about it this way: Final Bout was an event designed to get back to the roots of drifting and style. So, there are very few places more fitting to watch their video than at the headquarters of the “Kings of Street Style” – also known as SerialNine.