In 10 years of doing this, I don’t think I’ve ever covered a bachelor party. That’s not to say that none of my car friends have taken the plunge into marital bliss. Plenty have, and I’ve been on or helped organize some of those bachelor parties.
I’ve always made it a point to not drag super irrelevant content onto DODOlogic and most of my car friends who have had bachelor parties have managed to keep them car-free – or at least “car-light.” That is, until Jack C. (you might know Jack from the Hotboyz) had his bachelor party in Kelowna.
I’ll be honest, never in a million years would I have expected Jack’s bachelor party to be the party most relevant to the site. I mean, I’d expect this sort of shit from Eric Z. aka @therealezap. After all, that dude’s been in Super Street or something.
Jack’s always been the cool one – and I don’t just mean cool for car guy, but like real-life cool.
The guys in Calgary surprised Jack on Friday morning with a seven-hour drive to Kelowna, BC. The funniest part of this road trip is that no one opted to carpool like sensible adults. In the most illogical decision, each person showed up with their own car for the 600 km trip. Jack took turns riding in each car.
Even I opted to drive my Aristo from Vancouver to Kelowna. I catch a lot heat for not ever wanting to drive my car. It mostly sits in my underground parking just collecting dust, avoiding VIs and saving me money to pay for my daughter’s crazy expensive child care. Yeah, I know I “should drive it more” but right now, parts of my life require some level of sacrifice, and it’s fine because in the end nothing is permanent. I’d rather hold onto the car for when I have time for it.
I had been out the night prior with my non-car friends, so I was a day late to Jack’s party. When I pulled up at the large rental house in Kelowna, the driveway and front of the house was littered with JZ-powered cars (and one Civic). This seemed fitting, as anyone who knew Jack in the Hotboyz glory days, knows about his affinity for JZ-powered cars.
I put a few drinks away rather quickly to catch up with a few others, but also to help put my hangover on layaway. Sometimes the only way to fight fire is with fire…
Drink in hand as the sun began to set, I decided it would be a good time to snap some pictures of the cars that brought everyone together. Jack’s car friends seemed to love this idea and his non-car friends were good sports about us spending a solid 45 minutes rearranging the cars on the driveway and the street for some photos.
Luckily Kurtis Goat was there, as he knew exactly what to do and where all the cars should go. Realistically, if that guy does anything, you know he’s going to be good at it. I don’t think he bothers doing something if he isn’t good at it.
After we finished up, we carried on doing regular bachelor party things. The next morning, we tidied up and thought it would be fun to do some burnouts for Jack before everyone hit the road. Then Zap’s brake line broke and we spent the next few hours sitting in the scorching sun fixing it.
It was sort of like being at a drift event with these guys again – without the drifting. It made me miss the times we would go to drift events and Jack would tell random fans of the Hotboyz that I was their media guy… However, like I mentioned earlier, nothing’s permanent. People grow up, priorities shift and change is inevitable. It’s very rare for most people to maintain the life they had when they were younger (especially when it means driving across the country to drift). Don’t believe me? Paul from Shadynasty used to send me photos where he looked like Tom Cruise, and now I get photos of his delightful newborn. I think the most you can hope for is that when the smoke settles, you have enough in common with your car friends away from the track to keep on being in their life. This weekend reminded me that I do, and I’m thankful for it.
Congratulations Jack. Now all the Hotboyz are Hotmenz…