So Final Bout 5 weekend has come and gone. As usual, it was a great time. I got to see some cool cars and catch up with some cool people. I didn’t realize how many pictures I’d taken until I got home and started going through them. Spoiler alert, I took a lot. Trying to condense it all into one post isn’t going to be practical, so you’ll see a few more posts following this one with a focus on a few cars and teams. With that being said, here is an overview of Final Bout 5…

The LINK cars were pitted near the entrance so I had plenty of chances to get good shots of them. It was my first time meeting Nic Michuda, the owner of this very nice Altezza. He recently relocated back to Chicago after some time in California. He took a lot of inspiration from the Altezza Show-Up had on display at Tokyo Auto Salon some years ago. He sourced the same full Elixir aero kit, and it’s a great look. I thought there weld-on flares in the rear, but he actually had the factor metal hammer-flared like you see in Japan.

There are plenty of engine options for the Altezza/IS200, but I can’t think of a better one than a VVTi 1JZGTE. If I recall correctly, Nic said he’s running a .72AR Garret G25-660. These turbos seem to be all the rage, and having seen a number of dyno graphs I can understand why. I’ve bought into the hype myself and decided to switch from a TD05-16G to a G25-550.

It’s possible James Fitzgerald has been at every Final Bout with his S13. The look gets a bit more refined every time I see it, and I think he may have reached the pinnacle at this point. Good paint, cool aero, Silvia front, and a flashy full livery. I’m not really sure where he can go from here…

I’m always amazed at some of the Final Bout cars. Just looking at them you’d swear they were straight-up show cars. The fact that Kyle Palmer is willing to abuse such a gorgeous S14 on the track is wild. Was cool seeing GP-Sports side mirror covers in the sea of Ganadors. I’m pretty sure they stopped selling those years ago.

If I had to pick a favorite car at Final Bout, this would probably be this JZX81 Mark-II owned by Nick Jones from LINK. Slammed, black, Big Win aero, Gult Stitch, and a 1JZGTE under the hood with an HKS GT30 strapped to it. He knocked it out of the park.

The next team in the pits was D-Realm, and one of a few teams from Texas. It was cool seeing a team made up of all JZX90s. In terms of drifting, these things are tanks. I’ll always be a Nissan guy, but I can definitely appreciate the reliability of Toyotas. These guys drove really well throughout the weekend.

Right next door was Getaway, a team that made the trek up from Texas for the event. Their JZX100 Chaser and Zenki S14 both featured a Meihan stance with the front raised a bit higher than the rear.

I’ll always be a member of the low-style drift club, but I can appreciate the reasoning behind this setup. I have to say, I do love the look of non-stretched tires. I wonder if they were running super low rear spring rates as well. I’ve seen guys in Japan going as low as 3kg/mm~4kg/mm out back.

The Altezza is a car that isn’t hard to make look good. A cool kit, nice wheels, and coilovers and they look great. The D-Style Altezza was no exception with Vertex aero and white TE37s.

It was just as impressive under the hood with a 1JZ VVTi swap rocking a really nifty looking low-mount turbo manifold built by Garage D’Style. The valve covers and and polished surge tank made the bay look even cooler..

Street Magic from Oregon brought out a variety of cars including this very nice AE86 Levin 2-Door. There were lots of small details that impressed starting with the bodywork.

At first I thought the stars on the body were stickers, and then I realized they were carefully cut into the bodywork. Not something I’ve seen before and pretty damn cool.

No 4AGE or 20V under the hood either. Instead, they went SR20. The front tube frame work was nicely done as well.

They also had a very clean S14 Zenki with fancy headlights and what looks like a PS Duce kit and Origin hood. Not sure who does their body/paintwork, but they did a great job.

GLEAM was in attendance of course. I don’t think they’ve missed any Final Bout so far, and I couldn’t picture them not being there. Mike Hahnen seems to drive his R32 at almost every USAIR event. He even runs a drift competition there called Hyperdrift.

Their AE86 may look “classic”, but it didn’t have a run of the mill 4AGE under the hood. Instead it was running an F20C from a Honda S2000.

Paul Zepka’s Onevia is hands-down one of my favorite cars in the country. It reminds me so much of the cars I used to drive with in Japan back in the day.

His brother Tony has a matching Onevia, but couldn’t make the event because of a mission failure.

Rad Mike had his S14 there as well. This may have been the first time I’ve seen it not looking “perfect” as it had some unfinished bodywork. It’s a JDM-nerd’s dream inside and out. He also has a 180SX built to the same level.

Another team that made the long trip from Texas was Essence. BN Sports and TE37s is never a miss with a 180SX. I like the kouki spoiler as well.

Jimmy “jyw0rld” Yates brought his newly painted HCR32. I’ve never been a big fan of yellow, but it looks great on this Skyline. All the Essence cars featured a play on the old 326power liveries.

In terms of team “looks” it’s hard to beat Karoshi. Every car had the white -> yellow paint fade as well as matching liveries that were very complex. Without Animal Style there, it felt like Karoshi was filing in for them in terms of livery.

I’m not very educated on AE86 aero options, but based on the stickers I’m assuming this one is running a full D-Max kit. The roof wing looked like a one-off piece. I’ve always wanted a hachi, but never pulled the trigger on buying one. With the prices through the roof on them now, it’s probably going to stay that way, unfortunately.

I don’t know much about Roadsters either, but this looks like a PS Duce kit. I really enjoyed the unique touches each of the Karoshi cars had, like the orange roof on this one. Love the 2-piece Meister S1s up front.

The Advan Oni in the rear reminded me of Drake Bianski’s (Team Breaking) old Miata. Maybe a little shout out to one of the early US drift Roadsters? I really like the Garage Vary taillight it was wearing as well.

Rich Whiteman is now competing in Formula D in his JZX100 Chaser, which I believe he won Final Bout Gallery in a few year ago. He brought his slightly more tame S13 Silvia to Final Bout, which I believe he’s willing to part with for the right price…

Haze was in attendance with some very show-quality cars as well. Great paint and great bodywork all around. I haven’t seen a nice set of Work VS-SS in a while.

You have to give credit to guys who not only drive on Blitz wheels, but drift on them as well. Prices have risen to insane levels so there’s a big financial risk involved in this look!

The Haze cars were also running a bit Meihan spec as well. It’s interesting how suspension setups have involved over the years. When I got started GAB struts and KG/MM springs and maybe extended tie rod ends were about as fancy as things got.

I didn’t realize it until I was told, but all the Haze 240SXs are running single-cam KAs. I have to say, it made me like these cars even more. As a person who has jumped off the SR20 bandwagon, I really appreciate putting effort into building something less commonly used.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Simba’s S13 is one of the most recognizable in the US. He had a few mechanical issues throughout the weekend, but still managed to get it out on the track. Behind it was Leigh Roto’s new build, an HKS turbo kitted Subaru BRZ, which replaced the JZA70 Supra he spent years driving. The new chassis seems to suite him pretty well though. He actually ended up winning the individual competition in it.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Z32, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up picking one up down the road. I actually owned one back in the day, but sold it because of was so sick of working on the VG30. I’m not sure if the Rough World Z was still running the factory motor or if it had been swapped, but it looked great.

The Rough Break Z33 looks great. It’s funny how easy it is to make these cars look good, but so many people manage to miss the mark. The owner managed to fix the issue of the VQ35 sounding like shit, by swapping in an SR20DET. Definitely the best sounding Z33 I’ve ever heard. I really liked the matching Nismo style livery the Z and S15 had.

I’m pretty sure this was the first Final Bout for Sabotage, a team out of Virginia and North Carolina. One of their members actually stopped me and asked me if I was the guy who runs the Run-Matsuo blog. Turns out he was stationed in Iwakuni for a while, and just got back to the US. Small world sometimes.

The US king of 180SX and new father, Josh from Proceed was in attendance of course. It’s hard to argue with the style of his car, but I know he has a super rare Ikeya Formula kit in storage. I can’t blame him for not risking exploding it on the track though.

Chob’s GS/Aristo has had a semi-recent refresh, and looks great. He ran into a faulty alternator issue over the weekend, but was able to locate a replacement and get back on track.

MUSE had 4 cars in attendance including Jacob DeGayner’s full Wonder kitted S14. When I say full, it seems like it had the whole Glare catalog with all the little diffuser/canard add-ons.

Dylan Day’s R32 was no slouch either with full PS Duce aero, Koguchi Power GT-Wing, and an RB25 Neo under the hood. The front fenders look like OEM BNR32 GT-R.

While we were chatting he told me that he followed my engine bay painting post when doing his own bay. He even used the same color. It’s nice knowing a few people actually find some of my posts useful.

I was genuinely surprised when I saw the engine room of their JZZ30. A twin turbo 1JZGTE isn’t something you see every day. It might not be the “simplest” setup, but it’s definitely a head tuner and with a pair of HKS GT10s I’m sure it can make solid power.

Hammer Time made the trip out from California with their S13, AE86 and Altezza. All with matching paint and liveries.

I was expecting to see a swap under the hood of their AE86. Instead I found a turbocharged 4AGE, with lots of custom work including pie-cut piping and a hood-exit exhaust.

My favorite place to take pictures at USAIR is where everyone stages for intermediate course. All the cars pack in close and you can get interesting angles with multiple cars in one shot.

More of Yates’s R32 sedan. This thing is definitely photogenic.

The BN Sports hood definitely doesn’t suffer from a vent shortage…

Ryan McClure from MUSE spent years behind the wheel of a 20v AE86, but has moved onto a JZX90 Chaser.

All but one of the MUSE cars were running OG Volk Racing GTCs. Made famous by the Top Secret D1GP S15 Silvia driven by Ryuji MIki, these are pretty rare these days. Apparently they’ll all have them as soon as they find a set for Jacob DeGayner’s S14.

The LINK S13 is an easy car to take pictures of.

The metallic green paint and reflective livery really pop under the sun.

This year the had a small car show up in the vendor area. Half of them looked like they belonged on the track.

The Bayside AE86 was my hands-down favorite. It looked like it was plucked right out of AE86 Festival in Japan.

The Sexy Knights FC was on display up in the vendor area.

Definitely a good example of how easy it is to make an FC look good.

A’PEXi brought Imamura’s D1GP FD RX-7. They’ve kept it mostly unchanged. It was interesting seeing how pro cars have evolved over the years. Compared to what is competing these days, this is closer to a street car than a comp car.

It’s still running the old A’PEXi RX6 turbo kit, which made it a bit of a pain to drive on USAIR as it’s not exactly a fast track.

Before the competition started they brought all the cars out on the track to lineup.

You never realize how many cars are in attendance until they’re all on the track at one time.

While everyone was lined up they invited the crowd to come out on track for a bit to check out all of the cars.

It was fun shooting these cars from the track. I need to convince them to give me a media pass for the next Final Bout so I can get more than pit shots and action shots from off-track.

I never got a chance to get a shot of the Street Magic JZX90 in the pits with the hood down. Such a great looking car. I should also mention that they drove very aggressive throughout the weekend and their Laurel was tucking in TIGHT.

Proceed drove really well together over the weekend. While Leigh won the individual comp in his BRZ, they managed to take second place in the team competition.

If I had a good action camera this would have been a great photo. I managed to catch the Karoshi Roadster dirt-dropping and ejecting his rear bumper.

Finishing things off with a shot of Rough Break stacking it in before coming up through the judged portion of the track. I really need to invest in a decent action camera, but I don’t feel like I go to enough events to justify it.

As usual, I had a great time at Final Bout. I need to get the Onevia finished so I can drive one of these years. Might have it done by the time Final Bout 10 rolls around…