CMS Motorsports is Making AMG Dreams come True

Love old Mercedes shapes but wish they had modern power? How bad was quality control in the 80s? What if you desire a one-off AMG that never existed? CMS Motorsports is who to call. Owner, Shant Meshefedjian, has been in love with wide-body Benzes since he was 8 years old. He grew up around fabricators and body-work experts. Now he builds and restores the coolest Mercedes cars from the '80s and '90s. Many of his cars have won awards all over the country. Odds are you've seen his work. His story is inspiring, his passion and knowledge run deep. Patreon questions include: What's harder: finding original bodykits or doing engine swaps? Best improvement for an E55 AMG The new C-class' giant screen Thoughts on MB-Tex When cars companies started to care about seating position Dream Mercedes project How to improve the complexity of an aging Mercedes Can I make this old diesel cool? Recorded APril 21, 2026 Mac tools Go to https://mactools.org/tire to learn more and see if there’s an open route near you Factor Head to https://Factormeals.com/tire50off and use code tire50off to get 50 percent off and free daily greens per box, with new subscription only, while supplies last until 09/27/2026. (See website for more details). Bluechew Right now, when you buy two months of BlueChew Gold, you get the third for FREE with promo code TIRE. Visit https://BlueChew.com for more details and important safety information Listen to Drive with Jim Farley Season 4 at https://lnk.to/drivewithjimfarleyPS!thesmokingtire Enter to WIN a 2025 Porsche 911 Turbo S! Podcast Link: https://www.dreamgiveaway.com/tickets/porsche?promo=SMOKINGTIRE Get 4X bonus tickets with any donation of $25 or more. With every donation you are helping benefit some wonderful veterans' and children's charities. Use Podcast Promo Code: SMOKINGTIRE Promo Code Offer: Get 4X bonus tickets with any donation of $25 or more. With every donation you are helping benefit some wonderful veterans' and children's charities. Want your question answered? To listen to the episode the day it's recorded? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! For a 10% discount on your first case go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST #cars #comedy #podcast Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman Click here for the most honest car reviews out there: https://www.youtube.com/thesmokingtire

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Matt Farah?

  What up everyone, welcome to the Smoking Tire Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you as always by Off the Record. We love them over here. And as I drive around the country, I know that Off the Record is always looking out for me. If the V1 doesn't get them, if the Waze doesn't get them, Off the Record's gonna get them. Off the Record sets you up with qualified attorneys in every state in America to fight moving violations on your behalf. Don't let it ruin your day, don't let it ruin your vacation, and certainly don't plead guilty. Get Off the Record. Go to offtherecord.com/tst to get 10% off all legal services through Off the Record.

• 0:43Matt Farah?

  Again, that's offtherecord.com/tst to get 10% off all legal services through Off the Record. All right, folks, on this episode, I've got the homie Shont from CMS Motorsports in studio. We're talking about AMGs. We're talking about what it's like restoring them. We're talking about the demand for them. We're talking about what Shont and his team are doing with my car, and a whole lot more. It's vintage AMG day on the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go. Guys, the Smoking Tire is giving away a 992.1 Turbo S.

• 1:22Matt Farah?

  In partnership with Dream Giveaways, we're giving away a $275,000 car with some slick choice mods. The proceeds benefit charity, and you don't have to buy any merch. It's a straightforward entry process. So hit the link in the show notes and get entered to win today. What's happening, Shont?

• 1:43Speaker 01

  Not much, man. Thank you for having me.

• 1:45Matt Farah?

  Welcome in. My neighbor, about a quarter mile up the road from the studio here. CMS, which you won't see because the sign says Marina West Auto Body on it. Business within a business, if you will.

• 1:59Speaker 01

  Well, we have the other side, which was CMS, which is smaller. Now we've grown to a bigger facility in downtown. So now we officially have a showroom and we're building out... So I'm building out the showroom to where... You know, when you walked into AMG.

• 2:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:13Speaker 01

  You had a car. It's a huge office with all the seats, the wheels and everything on display.

• 2:17Matt Farah?

  So you can specify your.

• 2:19Speaker 01

  You can specify.

• 2:20Matt Farah?

  So, all right, reverse it, reverse it some years. We met eight, nine years ago, probably. But you'd already been in this game for a long time at that point. Why, why pre-merger AMGs as an area of expertise?

• 2:37Speaker 01

  I've always been passionate about just AMG, the pre-merger. I mean, back in the eighties, um, if you had anything pre-merger AMG or tuner, it was like the, you were the king of the road. So my first experience with an AMG car, um, so my mom, she designs custom wedding dresses. She's retired, but she used to, she was, um, a private designer that used to get hired through all these like

• 3:05Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 3:06Speaker 01

  very high-end wedding gown businesses. And when someone wanted to design a custom wedding dress, they hired my mom to come in and design it.

• 3:14Matt Farah?

  So some brand name, you know, needs the specialist to actually do the thing.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  So her main clientele was based out of one bridal shop in Beverly Hills, which I probably still there right next to Saks. I don't know if it's there or not, but they used to have, um, a parking lot in the back with like a gazebo smoking area.

• 3:34Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  So in the summer, when I was on summer break, when they used to contract, you know, my mom to go out there, I just used to go hang out, walk around and go eat. So I was sitting in the back of the shop one day and, you know, in the parking lot comes this white SEC, just AMG, white Penta's, brand new car. This was.

• 3:58Matt Farah?

  Late eighties?

• 3:59Speaker 01

  Mid-eighties, eighty-five, eighty-six, you know? And, um, I see them rolling up and they just parked and.

• 4:07Speaker 01

  They were probably engaged, so she walks inside and then he stood out there and was smoking a cigarette in the gazebo and I'm just staring at this car.

• 4:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  And he finally comes up and he's like, you like the car, like with some European accent. I don't remember what he was. And I'm like, yeah, I love it. So the guy opened the door and told me, you know, go ahead and take a seat. And this was, you know, I'm whatever, eight, nine years old. I'm on like cloud nine.

• 4:31Matt Farah?

  Core memory, yeah.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  And I remember like gray Recaros, fully trimmed, the whole nine. And that was, was like, wow.

• 4:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  This is what I like. This is what I want. And then, you know, the whole, the whole thing with Miami Vice. And all the, you know, drug dealers driving all these.

• 4:47Matt Farah?

  And you dress like them guys now when you go to car shows too.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:51Matt Farah?

  Motherfucker dressed like Don Johnson.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Radwood and all that, you know.

• 4:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  You have to understand, it was a great.

• 4:56Matt Farah?

  It looks good on you though.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  It was a great time, man. It was a great time. And um. And I started, you know, watching, you know, Miami Vice when it was, when it was, you know, the, the show.

• 5:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  I used to record it and rewind and play back all these parts with the, and then my parents were.

• 5:14Matt Farah?

  He's wearing, he's wearing out the tape like, like an old porn.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:17Matt Farah?

  But it's like, but it's like Don Johnson getting out of a Testerosa.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  So all these clips that had these, you know, all, all these clips that had these Benzes. I used to rewind and replay to a point where my parents looked at each other like, is our son grown up to be a drug dealer or what's going on? You know?

• 5:36Matt Farah?

  No.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  So.

• 5:37Matt Farah?

  He's, he's just sexualizing Mercedes vehicles.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  That's where it started.

• 5:43Matt Farah?

  That's hilarious. A guy let me sit in a Countach when I was like seven. And it was like, you know, the next, the next level.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:51Matt Farah?

  There was a place in Atlanta. I was, I lived in Atlanta at the time when I was a little kid. And there was a, an importer called like a gray market dealer called Formula One Imports.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 6:00Matt Farah?

  You might remember these motherfuckers because they were on the back cover of every DuPont registry.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:06Matt Farah?

  In the eighties and nineties.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  Yes, I remember.

• 6:08Matt Farah?

  They own that real estate.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  That was the expensive magazine. That was like eight bucks back then.

• 6:12Matt Farah?

  That was where you bought fancy fucking cars from. That's how you knew what was for sale on the other side of the country. They had the back page of it. So that was when I was a kid, it was around the corner from them. And I was a real nerd about cars. So he would let me sit in all the cars.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  You know, I still have all those magazines.

• 6:26Matt Farah?

  Of course.

• 6:29Matt Farah?

  It's too bad. They have like zero value to any other person. You know, about once a week, somebody's like, would you like my entire collection of road and track? And I'm like, I know I already have one. Well, and once you have like, what am I gonna do?

• 6:42Speaker 01

  Where are you gonna store it?

• 6:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's just, I don't want your garbage, but thank you. And I say this. Plenty of my own garbage. I've had to build fucking warehouses for my own garbage.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Believe me, I know.

• 6:53Matt Farah?

  Right, right, right, right.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  It piles up quick.

• 6:56Matt Farah?

  So did it, did you like become a body guy? A body shop guy in, in, in because you wanted to build custom shit? Or did, did you decide to build custom shit once you got into the bodywork industry?

• 7:11Speaker 01

  Well, my, my uncles both were in the business from back home. I'm Armenian originally born in Syria. So back in Syria, you know, with

• 7:24Speaker 01

  not having parts available like you do, you had to fix everything. Every, every body shop was a fabricator and they used to, you know, sit there and beat the metal, heat it. And that's the way you fix cars because you just didn't have a parts department where you called. So my uncles were real crafty with their hand. When they, they came to the States, they, they flew to Boston. And my, my dad's cousin owned an Osmobile dealer in Boston called Berejikian Osmobile. And they worked there for a few years. And then my uncle bought a sixty-nine four-four-two, brand new, and they drove it to Los Angeles.

• 8:03Matt Farah?

  Cool.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  And that's where they opened up their first body shop in Hollywood called Stallion Auto Body.

• 8:10Matt Farah?

  It's a better, it's better than the name that Osmobile dealer.

• 8:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:13Matt Farah?

  More, more of a ring to it.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then, um. They opened up their second facility and then eventually, you know, grew into, you know, retirement and then that's when I kinda took the business over and continued at Marina West.

• 8:29Matt Farah?

  Did you go like work with them?

• 8:31Speaker 01

  I was there in the summers. I mean, I have photos of me like five, six years old, like pounding on metal like it's, you know, I, I loved working with my hands. So they used to come pick me up in the summer and take them with them to the shop. And I just used to dabble and I remember like, um, back in the day, they, they used to heat up the paint. And that's how they sprayed it. It was like they were spraying glass right even back then, but it was just solvent based pungent. You could smell it like after you painted a car, you could smell the paint for like three weeks after. It was serious stuff. So.

• 9:06Matt Farah?

  That seems bad.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  And he used to be in the booth with, you know, smoking a Marlboro.

• 9:14Matt Farah?

  The fucking pain.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  That's kind of how I grew into it.

• 9:21Matt Farah?

  What kind of flake? It's a camel? Camel blue? Camel blue flake? Camel light? Oh, it was camel lights for sure.

• 9:26Speaker 01

  So that's kind of how it all started, man. And then why Mercedes? You know, I was always passionate about Mercedes. My dad's first car was a fifty seven Mercedes one eighty pontoon rack top. And ever since then, there's been a Mercedes in the family, whether it's a diesel or whatever it is. And the whole, you know, movement with Mercedes and the tuners in the eighties was exciting. I mean, it was just, you know, the car.

• 9:54Matt Farah?

  So when did you start building cars like you're building, more like you're building now?

• 9:58Speaker 01

  My first car that I built, this was right out of high school. Uh, I bought a nineteen eighty six three hundred E. It was grandpa gold on Palomino interior, bone stock. The guy worked for JPL. At the time, my brother worked for Rustneck and he brought it in as a trade in. This thing was like spotless. So my brother called me, he's like, listen, you want a car? It's not that expensive, it's, you know, the color's not too exciting, it's smoked silver, do you want it? I said, "Fine." So I ended up buying that car.

• 10:30Matt Farah?

  My buddy had that exact car in high school. It might have been a three twenty, but it was a one twenty-four.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  This was an eighty-six, you know, just bare bones, you know. Uh, gray bumpers, just real basic. But it was amazing transportation, it ran great. So I ended up buying that car and then a year later, you know, after flipping through magazines, I'm like, hmm. Let me make this thing look like a hammer, you know, like the six-liter hammer. So at the time, I couldn't afford to buy the AMG parts because they were super expensive. So there was a shop that used to sell, it was called Euro Imports. It was in the valley and they had replica AMG parts, which were amazing. And then there was another company called Performance Autosport.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  So I bought European headlamps, I bought this AMG kit, I found monoblocks for it. So I made this thing exactly like a six-liter clone. And that's what I drove, but it was grandpa gold. And everyone used to be like, "Why this color?" That's all.

• 11:35Matt Farah?

  You only wanted to paint the bumpers, you didn't want to paint the whole car. Actually, a hammer in that color, like today, would be pretty rad.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  I still own that car.

• 11:46Matt Farah?

  Oh, you do?

• 11:47Speaker 01

  I still own it.

• 11:47Matt Farah?

  Did you put a V8 in it eventually?

• 11:49Speaker 01

  Not yet, but eventually I am.

• 11:50Matt Farah?

  How old are you when you built it? Folks, taking a quick break for Mac Tools. You know Mac Tools, you've seen the Mac Tools truck at shops before. But have you ever thought of being the one who actually owns that route? Selling those tools to those shops? For anyone already into cars, working on them, being in and around shops, or at least spending your weekends wrenching on something. This is perfect because Mac Tools franchisees run their own mobile tool business, selling directly to shops and technicians. It's a relationship business, it's repeat customers that you service every week. But you're not left to figure it out on your own. They've got an extensive training program and support. Build this the right way.

• 12:33Matt Farah?

  As a small business owner myself, multiple small business owners myself. I really think this is a good idea because I had to figure out a lot of expensive and difficult lessons to start my business. But if you've got a partner that's been around for a long time and they've got training, they've got resources, they've got support, they can integrate you into their ecosystem and set you up with stable income for a very, very long time. That is incredibly beneficial if you're trying to be your own small business owner and you're not ready to learn some of those lessons in what we call the trial by Inferno way like I did.

• 13:17Matt Farah?

  Mac has been doing this for over a century. There's a reason it still works. So if you've ever thought about doing your own thing in the automotive world, it is worth checking out. Go to mactools.org/tire to learn more and see if there's an open route near you. That's M A C T O O L S dot org. Mac tools.org/tire to learn more. We also got support today from Factor. And for me, eating healthy isn't a willpower problem. It's a setup problem, right? Until I found Factor. Because here's what happens to me. My setup is a mess. I do not put time to eat in my calendar.

• 14:00Matt Farah?

  I've got four jobs, I've got a lot to do, I'm running all over the place. I don't put that hour or whatever to deal with lunch in that schedule. But with Factor, I can hit the nutrition goals. I can eat on time. I can eat correctly without the planning. The grocery store runs the cooking because the Factor food, it's already in the fridge, right? Factor's got meals built around goals, right? That could be weight loss, it could be overall nutrition, it could be protein, it could be GLP-1 support for strength and recovery. They've got the Muscle Pro Collection and every meal is crafted with those functional ingredients like lean proteins and colorful veggies, whole foods, healthy fats. Factor, in fact,

• 14:41Matt Farah?

  Bans 175 ingredients, uh, there's no artificial colors or sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup, all that stuff, everything's fresh, it's not frozen, and they have over a hundred rotating weekly meals. So basically, when I'm running around all morning, I don't get to noon or one when I'm starving, and then I try to figure out what to eat, I make an unhealthy decision because it's whatever's quickest, and, and that's how you just, that's how your diet completely falls apart. But with Factor, the food's here, it's in the fridge, it's ready to go, two minutes in the microwave, no mess, no prep, all good. Factor shops, preps, cooks, and delivers right to your door, so I have more time for

• 15:21Matt Farah?

  work and everything else that I love. So head over to factormeals.com/tire50off and use code tire50off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27th, 2026. See website for more details. One more time, factormeals.com/tire50off, that's five zero, tire five zero off, and use code tire five zero off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box. And now, back to the show.

• 16:03Speaker 01

  Eighteen?

• 16:04Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 16:05Speaker 01

  So that would have been like nineteen ninety? This was ninety-seven. Yeah. Ninety-seven, you know. Cool. Yeah, late ninety-six, early ninety-seven is when I bought the car. That's pretty rad, that's pretty good. And I still own the car, and I actually took my wife on the first date with that car. That's cool. Oh, you should do, you should do the, the fifty-five powertrain thing that I'm doing in that. Eventually, when, when Matt frees up a little bit. Practicing on my car, yeah, no. No, he's, we've done it before, but I, I took my wife on the first date with that car. That rules. And when I picked her up, she's like... What is this? I said, well, this is my Benz. And, you know, she was used to, you know, her parents leasing her new cars and she had a new Benz at the time and, and, I mean, it was amazing how humble she was. I mean, the car was spotless, but it's an old Benz.

• 16:50Matt Farah?

  As long as it's, I think it's clean. I think you could have an old car or a cheap car.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  As long as it's clean.

• 16:56Matt Farah?

  As long as it's clean.

• 16:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:57Matt Farah?

  I think, I think a lot of men put too much thought into what women think about their car. And all they really give a shit about is, is it clean and like in good, good enough condition?

• 17:10Speaker 01

  And at the time, I mean, that's all I had. You know, that, that was my car. And, you know, fast forward, you know, now we're married and I, I built her that wagon.

• 17:20Matt Farah?

  Forty-seven cars.

• 17:21Speaker 01

  Hundred and nine, actually.

• 17:22Matt Farah?

  Get the fuck out of here.

• 17:23Speaker 01

  Hundred and nine.

• 17:24Matt Farah?

  Hundred and nine.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  So I, I built her that wagon, that 124 wagon, and then now her daily driver is, is the 500E, the six liter car I came with.

• 17:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Doesn't want a new car.

• 17:36Matt Farah?

  We originally kind of met because of that red wagon.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:39Matt Farah?

  Uh, which, cause I, I, I had and I, I suppose I still have, although I'm running out of money. Uh, I still standing off her to buy that car for Hannah. She loved it.

• 17:50Speaker 01

  That car is just badass.

• 17:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's awesome.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  I love that thing. And every time I drive it, I mean, she won't allow me to sell it. She's just like.

• 17:58Matt Farah?

  It's a, Zach, if you, it's a, it's a red, essentially a 500E wagon.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, it's, it might be on my Instagram. Uh, it's, it's on the lower.

• 18:07Matt Farah?

  It's somewhere.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  Way down there, okay.

• 18:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah. It's really, I mean, you can't miss it. It's awesome. It's exactly the thing you think it is.

• 18:12Speaker 01

  It's badass.

• 18:13Matt Farah?

  It's great. Yeah, great car.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:15Matt Farah?

  Um, okay, so the, the, the, the trend of these cars kind of, I mean, you know, it, it, it dipped for a while. They were out of trend and now partially because of stuff like Radwood, partially because of, you know, once Mercedes expanded AMG to a full model lineup, plus a, a sub lineup of the AMG, you know, light with the wheels and, but that. The engine and blah, blah, blah. You know, everyone, you know, then flocks to the sort of purity of the original vehicles.

• 18:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:53Matt Farah?

  Uh, even if, and, and they're so, they're so rare, the original ones, the true original is so rare. That there's plenty of room in the market to create um accurate recreations.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 19:06Matt Farah?

  Using original and, and, and, and, and period parts and whatnot and handmade stuff.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  Right.

• 19:12Matt Farah?

  Um, that splits the difference.

• 19:14Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 19:15Matt Farah?

  You know.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  Even, even if you were to find, like, let's say, an original body kit. It's thirty five years old, that's been repaired multiple times. And just like, you know, the Dinos for a while, they, when they had no value, when people were building these cars, they didn't dump much money into them.

• 19:32Matt Farah?

  Oh dude.

• 19:32Speaker 01

  So.

• 19:33Matt Farah?

  I own a Countach and a fucking, I had a three twenty eight. You're telling me.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:37Matt Farah?

  I got, those two cars were more, full of more Mickey Mouse trash.

• 19:42Speaker 01

  Right.

• 19:42Matt Farah?

  That I've spent more money unfucking.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:45Matt Farah?

  You know.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  And, and the thing is, I used to go collect parts from like pick apart. And back then they didn't have online where you gotta, you know, you knew a car was coming. I literally after school, I used to go, you know, twice a week and walk.

• 19:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 19:57Speaker 01

  And I've bought AMG kits, wheels, AMG wheels, all kinds of stuff from the junkyard because people just didn't care about them. And the condition of these parts is horrible.

• 20:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  Bondoed and drywall screwed. They used to put pieces of wood and, you know, just destroyed.

• 20:15Matt Farah?

  So is there, in, in today's world, in twenty twenty six, is there any, unless a car is a, you know. It's one of these cars you see at Gooding that's.

• 20:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 20:25Matt Farah?

  Seven hundred thousand dollars and it's, you know, it's, it's, it's as, as delivered, unfuck, you know. Outside of that, is there any real value in saying this is an original AMG body kit? Versus, you know, wherever you're getting the stuff that's going on my car, for instance.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  So if you're building an original AMG car, something special, whether it's a six liter or a hammer. Having original parts on that car does make the difference. However. If you see the condition, I mean, I I have an eighty four, five hundred S C C. Factory wide body car with twenty three thousand miles, the car's untouched. And if you look at the body fitment of the body parts on it, you know, over the years, they fatigue. Yeah. And the car's never been repaired, it's just perfect condition, but they fatigue and the technology they had back then, building the, you know. The body kits and the and the body panels isn't what it is now. There is no one that's recreating these as far as on a factory level.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  There's, you know, A M G has a classic program, but it's not meant for parts, it's meant for like. You know, record keeping, preservation, they have this whole like, uh, you know, a certification process now that they do. And um, which is great, but when it comes to manufacturing parts, there's no one doing them. So I've purchased new body panels, new bumper kits, like for the five hundred E, I have brand new fenders. Brand new bumpers, everything brand new in boxes that I've purchased years ago. I bought the last of the stock of everything that's that they had with five hundred E. The back glass is different on a five hundred E, it's thinner, and the defrost lines are different.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  I I have two brand new rear glasses and I just bought everything, this was probably about ten years ago. For pennies to the dollar, because they didn't want them anymore. Yeah. And that's what I'm popping molds out of, because they're just not available. So if you have a five hundred E, or you have a wide body car, or you have anything special. God forbid that gets wrecked or you want to restore, there's no one manufacturing these parts. Yeah, yeah. We're recreating them, you know.

• 22:38Speaker 01

  And I don't see anyone worldwide that's doing it, I mean, there's people. In Russia and Ukraine and all these people that are manufacturing parts, but I see some of these parts that they bring. And they're just not usable.

• 22:51Matt Farah?

  Sure. The QC is just garbage.

• 22:53Speaker 01

  It's garbage.

• 22:53Matt Farah?

  What about, okay, so that's if you, that's if you have an original car that gets damaged, or the body kit is warped and needs to be replaced, or whatever. That's, that's a small percentage of the people we're talking about. The, the, and you do that stuff. You restore those original cars.

• 23:10Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, absolutely.

• 23:10Matt Farah?

  And, and that's, that's a real thing. You also do stuff for people like me.

• 23:14Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:14Matt Farah?

  Who go, I want a, a thing that is a fictional product.

• 23:20Speaker 01

  That hasn't been done.

• 23:20Matt Farah?

  That hasn't been done, or, you know, I would like you to recreate a wide-body SEC hammer.

• 23:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:27Matt Farah?

  But, but I don't have one, you know? And so it's, you know, a, a third or a half of the price to make one from scratch. In that case, is there any value to putting a premium on, on real parts? It's only if it's a whole, part of the whole.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  There, there is no value to go original in that, in that case.

• 23:45Matt Farah?

  And are there reproduction parts that you're, like, it'll look, it looks better probably, right?

• 23:49Speaker 01

  They're actually more perfected than the original. I mean, and everything is made out of steel construction, like the wide-body SECs were doing. They came fiberglass bumpers and fiberglass quarters. The, the later SECs, very few of them came with the metal quarter panels because people were complaining, they were cracking, you know, it's a pillarless coupe. We do everything out of steel construction. It's welded to the car. The, the body kits, the spoilers, the cladding fits perfect. So if you look at it, it's kind of overly restored, but that's just the way I like doing it, you know, to make it look perfect.

• 24:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I went down when, when your, your homie, um, what's, what's that guy's name? Your, your, your metal worker who was working on the car?

• 24:32Speaker 01

  Attila.

• 24:32Matt Farah?

  Attila, yeah, Attila, how do I forget that awesome fucking name?

• 24:35Speaker 01

  That guy's, that guy's on a different level.

• 24:38Matt Farah?

  I had the picture of it. He was, he was at the halfway mark, where he had them tacked on and was just starting to blend it into the one. And then you sent me, uh, you know, the photos of it, a primered.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 24:50Matt Farah?

  Uh, and it's got a really, it's just got a beautiful curve to it.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  It's gonna look unbelievable.

• 24:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 24:55Speaker 01

  I mean, um, once the car comes back from Tennessee, there's a lot of massage. We still have to do to the metal.

• 25:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, wait, okay, so let's uh, let's, let's talk about my car for a minute, cause I'm, I'm so excited, so.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  I'm excited that I'm building this thing.

• 25:08Matt Farah?

  I've wanted, well, I've wanted to, if I couldn't buy the fucking red car from you, I was gonna have you make me my own red car.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 25:15Matt Farah?

  And it just so happens, I mean, that, uh, I, I might not have pulled the trigger had I not gotten a free

• 25:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:21Matt Farah?

  red 124.

• 25:23Speaker 01

  It's the perfect color.

• 25:24Matt Farah?

  It's, it is.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  It's the perfect color for what you're doing. I mean, bless you, you don't understand the, the, the red in a 124, like the wagon. It's just gorgeous. Any, any red Mercedes is just.

• 25:37Matt Farah?

  Same on the 129s on the SLs.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 25:40Matt Farah?

  You know, a silver 129 is like a $20,000 car and the same car in red is a $30,000 car.

• 25:46Speaker 01

  You had a silver one.

• 25:46Matt Farah?

  I had a silver one and it was beautiful.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:48Matt Farah?

  And I only got it cause I couldn't find a red that I liked.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:51Matt Farah?

  So now we're doing a red.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:53Matt Farah?

  Um, okay, so I came to you with the concept, which is 500E Cabriolet and you, we didn't have to say much more than that. You were like, I know what to do here.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 26:02Matt Farah?

  Um, so, but we did, when we post things about it, uh, you know, people are a lot of this, you should have done that, you should do this, you should do that. And oftentimes, uh, there, there isn't even a real debate because the reason we are making certain choices become very obvious once you learn why the choice was made.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:27Matt Farah?

  So, take me through, from when I came to you and I said, here's what I want to do. What are the challenges and what do we do to overcome them in making the convertible look and feel and sound and drive like Mercedes had done it.

• 26:44Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:45Matt Farah?

  But, in a way that is reasonably cost effective, given the challenges and, uh, you know, returns, uh, the best possible result.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  Right. Now, as far as the exterior goes, there's really not much you can do. I mean, the 500E looks pretty badass, the way it is. I mean, with the bumper and everything, the way it's set up, the fender flares, they just, they just make the car.

• 27:12Speaker 01

  It's not really a challenge, but the difference between doing the coupe versus the sedan or the wagon that I did is the flare in the back is is kind of different on the sedan, on the original car, because you have the dogleg molding, which is a separate piece

• 27:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 27:30Speaker 01

  that has the flare. So just taking that design and what we did was we 3D'd that. That's that's what I did originally. I 3D'd that and I made a mold out of it as a separate piece.

• 27:41Matt Farah?

  Without the dogleg.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  Without the dogleg.

• 27:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 27:44Speaker 01

  And then we we created that same shape in a 3D model and then we reconstructed it out of steel. That's what we did to your car.

• 27:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 27:52Speaker 01

  So in essence, it does have the same flare, but it's one piece.

• 27:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 27:56Speaker 01

  The side cladding, obviously, the quarter cladding is one piece as opposed to a separate dogleg molding and the door cladding. So that we basically scanned and we recreated a piece of cladding which has that that taper which meets with with that meets the body.

• 28:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 28:13Speaker 01

  The front fender cladding is the same.

• 28:14Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  And then the rocker molding is the most challenging part to take the four-door rocker molding and recreate it into a size of a coupe that has the taper both in the front and the back. The the whole point is to make it look like as if Mercedes created a 500CE.

• 28:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 28:33Speaker 01

  That's what it would be. And that's the the most challenging part is to make it look factory. See, the wagon was a bit easier because it does have the side profile.

• 28:43Matt Farah?

  The wagon is the same, right?

• 28:44Speaker 01

  Yeah. Only the fuel door was a little challenging because the sedan has the fuel door on the top and the wagon has it on the side.

• 28:51Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 28:51Speaker 01

  But we figured that out. And that's basically what it is. You know, it's just that back section of the coupe.

• 28:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 28:58Speaker 01

  So that's what I pay attention to to perfect because the rest of everything else is bolt-on.

• 29:05Matt Farah?

  It's the same.

• 29:05Speaker 01

  The fenders, the bumpers.

• 29:06Matt Farah?

  And actually, we got super lucky because a bunch of the bits on my car that were shot, like the bumpers, were stuff that we were throwing in the garbage.

• 29:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 29:16Matt Farah?

  And a bunch of the stuff that was in good shape, like the trunk lid and the hood.

• 29:21Speaker 01

  All that stuff is the same.

• 29:22Matt Farah?

  And the doors.

• 29:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 29:23Matt Farah?

  We're like, oh, we're keeping those. So and those were actually in really good shape. We got lucky. There there he is.

• 29:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:29Matt Farah?

  Get at it, Attila. The fucking blend on that is real nice. And then, so I already kind of knew, I'm not as much of a fan of I Am as the 500E.

• 29:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:41Matt Farah?

  I, having owned my SL500, my 120, the 113 that I had, I knew that for the kind of driving we were doing around, we weren't going on the autobahn in this car. I'm rolling around LA. That's what I'm doing. Maybe I'm going on a road trip on the weekends. Like, that's what we're doing here. The 4-Cam engine was not going to be that beneficial to me in the first place. And then you said, "By the way, it won't actually fit." Folks, one more break because support is coming in from BlueChew. You know what it is. The future of erectile function is here. Not dysfunction, Klapman, function. High function.

• 30:26Matt Farah?

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• 31:10Matt Farah?

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• 31:53Matt Farah?

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• 32:35Matt Farah?

  about racing drivers not being interesting to listen to, but if there is one that is interesting to listen to, it is Daniel Ricciardo. I think this guy's takes on stuff and life are great. And, look, Jim is a racing driver also. I personally raced against him, like, two months ago. And, for me, a CEO that drives race cars on the weekends is about the pinnacle of CEO-dom when it comes to car companies. So, the two of them together obviously have a lot of things to discuss on "Drive with Jim Farley", which you can get on your podcast app. Very easy to find, "Drive with Jim Farley", check it out.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 33:18Matt Farah?

  And so, explain why we went with the 5.5 liter from the 2002 E5.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  So, the 500E, the 400E and the 500E was manufactured by Mercedes, and they reconstructed the firewall.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  For that engine to fit in there because essentially the four cam engine is a bigger engine.

• 33:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 33:39Speaker 01

  And the way it sits in there, you need to basically cut away the firewall from a 400 or a 500E. And reweld it, which changes everything, dash, everything comes off. I've, we've done that before too. And it's a lot of work.

• 33:53Matt Farah?

  It seems like diminishing returns.

• 33:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's at that point, it's just, it's, you know, financially, it's not the smart thing to do.

• 34:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 34:01Speaker 01

  Other than that, you're gonna have to sit there and beat, and I've seen this happen where people have literally beat the, the, you know, hence the name hammer. That's where it kinda came about.

• 34:11Matt Farah?

  Get the fuck out of here.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  No, they literally beat the firewall.

• 34:14Matt Farah?

  Where the name came from? Cause they hit the firewall with hammers?

• 34:18Speaker 01

  Yes. That's, that's where the name originated.

• 34:20Matt Farah?

  There's your fucking Instagram clip right there. We learned something. Did you know that?

• 34:24Speaker 01

  No, yeah.

• 34:25Matt Farah?

  If, if. Is that a commonly known thing and I'm the last one to know? Do your customers know that shit?

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Very few people that are like real AMG guys know that that's what they did to fit the six liter in there. They literally hammered the firewall to make that fit.

• 34:40Matt Farah?

  That is, you know, from a company that is famously unfunny. You know, that's, that's like, nobody takes themselves more seriously than Mercedes, except maybe Ferrari. And that is a very funny inside joke from an unfunny company.

• 34:55Speaker 01

  If you hear some of the stories, um, you know, I, I got a chance to meet, uh, Hartmut, uh, that owns Rentec.

• 35:03Matt Farah?

  That he's different.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  And, and he, well, he tells me some stories of AMG and what they did, like when they did the Road America shootout and all the stuff they did to that hammer when they brought it to the States. That's, that's a whole different story. But he told me some of the stuff that they did. I mean, it's, it's amazing that they thought of all this stuff back in the eighties. This is 86, 87, but yeah.

• 35:27Matt Farah?

  Zach and I have spent time with Hartmut in Florida. Guy doesn't fuck around.

• 35:30Speaker 01

  No, no, he doesn't. He doesn't. And he's actually in the process of building like a set of SECs. Called the sledgehammer.

• 35:39Matt Farah?

  Yes, yes.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  Which is pretty wicked.

• 35:40Matt Farah?

  Yes, you have to knock the firewall back even further. Fit the fucking V12.

• 35:45Speaker 01

  He's really recreating those SECs, which I'm so happy that actually someone is reimagining this thing.

• 35:51Matt Farah?

  Hartman, don't forget your fucking boy when it comes time to do content on that car. That's gonna be bananas.

• 35:57Speaker 01

  It's gonna be bananas.

• 35:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, okay, so, so anyway, the, the, the, the 500E engine is neither practical to install.

• 36:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:07Matt Farah?

  Nor, in fact, I think is it practical for my use case, actually.

• 36:11Speaker 01

  It's not, because the parts are becoming obsolete. It's becoming harder to, to find people that want to work on these engines. You know, like, if I didn't have, you know, the network that I did, or, as a matter of fact, my brother, which has been with Mercedes almost 40 years, you know, 38 years. He knew these cars when they were brand new. So, I'm very grateful for that. But, a normal person that wants to own a 119-powered 4cam Mercedes, it's becoming very few and, you know, far in between to find someone that knows those engines. And that's when the, the 113 engine comes to play, which is a much newer engine. It's a much more dependable engine, and it has a lot more power.

• 36:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 36:54Speaker 01

  And it's, and it's a smaller package.

• 36:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so it fits.

• 36:58Speaker 01

  Beautifully.

• 36:58Matt Farah?

  More power and torque. And because we got a donor car, this 2002.

• 37:04Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:05Matt Farah?

  Uh, we get a 5-speed gearbox.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:07Matt Farah?

  We get a better diff. We get the E50, we get the entire powertrain from the E55.

• 37:13Speaker 01

  Right, I mean, that's a 350 horsepower, out of the box.

• 37:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 37:17Speaker 01

  Smog legal, smooth as butter. And with, you know, ECU tuned, with the exhaust, I mean, you can easily pull close to 400 horsepower, and still be a daily driver, which gives you 20, 25 miles per gallon. And let me tell you something, man, you're looking for a weekend cruiser. This thing's gonna be a hot rod.

• 37:36Matt Farah?

  No, no, I don't, I wanted to have balls. I just like, with a four cam engine compared to a two cam engine, or a single, whatever, a single overhead cam engine. The up-high power band, when you have a car with a fucking slush box.

• 37:54Speaker 01

  Right.

• 37:55Matt Farah?

  How am I gonna just keep the power up here effectively? You know what I mean? It's not, it's not like I'm talking about a Ferrari. I'm talking about a big, heavy cruiser. So, yeah, I want some power, I want some torque, but I don't, I don't need a dual overhead cam power profile for that type of driving.

• 38:13Speaker 01

  And, and with this car, you know, once it's all dialed in, like, I, I've driven plenty of 124s with a 113 swap. I, I've, you know, I, I was working on one last year and they took it to Monterey with a six-speed gearbox that Matt Quick did. Dude, that car was zesty. That, it's a quick car.

• 38:35Matt Farah?

  We have one, sorry, is that my end one? When you, uh, this, shout out to Matt Quick, Quick Classics in Tennessee, he's doing our powertrain swap.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:44Matt Farah?

  And we should be getting the truck, the truck going there like very, very shortly. Now that we, uh, now that we have sorted that the E55 can be driven onto the truck. That's a detail that I did not know and is good to know. I thought it was more crash than it is.

• 39:00Speaker 01

  No, no, it's right.

• 39:01Matt Farah?

  Okay, cool. Um, but, uh, so he's done, he's kinda known for doing the manual swaps. We have one at our other store, a black series that he did, a CLK black series with a manual swap that is fucking spicy, really nice. And so, we're not doing a manual swap. I don't, this, this, it just doesn't fit the character of the car. It's not, it's fucking, it's a cruiser. We're giving it an extra automatic gear, which is the right move. And so, um, so he's gonna make the whole, put the whole E55 underneath my car. He says, including HVAC. He's also gonna do the suspension. He's gonna do the, the, the Bilstein damper with the H&R spring, which is what the E55. 500 had.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 39:46Matt Farah?

  I saw my homies at HRE came up to laser scan.

• 39:50Speaker 01

  They did, dude. That's some pretty.

• 39:51Matt Farah?

  The laser scan is good. I like the laser scan.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, they, I mean, they, they got some pretty high tech shit. I mean, the guy, and the guy is pretty knowledgeable. Sean came by, really nice guy.

• 40:01Matt Farah?

  So what they are doing is, and we'll get a photo of it up when Zach, who will come back from the bathroom, I guess.

• 40:09Matt Farah?

  Everything alright, buddy?

• 40:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, my nose started running.

• 40:12Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's problematic. That's problematic. There's a lot of pollen in the studio. Zach, will you pull up a photo?

• 40:19Speaker 01

  You're talking about pre-merger AMGs and your nose starts running.

• 40:23Matt Farah?

  I'm allergic to them. Uh, we did not talk about stash pockets. Um, the HRE 544 wheel, please. So I had to, HRE has had to restart production of the 17 inch version of this wheel.

• 40:40Speaker 01

  Also, they are gonna go 17.

• 40:41Matt Farah?

  They're making them in a 17. That's why they had to laser scan.

• 40:45Speaker 01

  Amazing.

• 40:45Matt Farah?

  If they were doing them in an 18, they could have gone off the rack. No, no, 17 is the correct move. Um, so it's the, it's the 544. It's the same, the two-piece FMR, which is, it looks like a three-piece, but the barrel is a forged barrel. So it's actually a two-piece. It's stronger and lighter. And, uh, we're gonna do the, I haven't, I haven't chosen the finish yet, but I, you were right. We need to go with like the brightest silver with like the liquidiest clear coat.

• 41:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:17Matt Farah?

  On it to make it like, like with, with that red.

• 41:21Speaker 01

  Almost like a platinum silver.

• 41:23Matt Farah?

  It needs to glow.

• 41:24Speaker 01

  It does.

• 41:24Matt Farah?

  Bright.

• 41:25Speaker 01

  It does.

• 41:25Matt Farah?

  Not, not chrome.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  Clear.

• 41:27Matt Farah?

  Yes, like something like that.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  Frozen polished clear. It, it does need to pop.

• 41:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  Without a blink.

• 41:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so I'm gonna have to go down there and look at finishes in person again, because the, the, the configurator is helpful. Oh yeah, we have, do you have photos of it on the 124?

• 41:44Speaker 01

  124 there.

• 41:44Matt Farah?

  Look at the black one.

• 41:45Speaker 01

  The black one.

• 41:46Matt Farah?

  Second row, second, yeah, that. That's a 124.

• 41:49Speaker 01

  Yes. That looks badass. That's actually a 500E. That is. With a Lorenzer front bumper on it. That's rare. I mean, I think that looks correct, don't you? Gorgeous. That's the best looking wheel on the car. Like the monoblock, whether it's the aero one or the OZ three-piece. You know, you have to keep the car within its, within its era. Sure. That's why when I have clients that tell me, oh, I want to put a newer E55 wheel on it, it just doesn't work. Zach, third from the right in the, in the top row, there's a whole car photo. I mean, bro, that's on a coupe too. That's on a coupe, man. That's wide-bodied. That looks fabulous. That looks great. That's, that's, that's our look right there, doesn't it? Yeah. If I, I mean, if I can get it. But that's an 18-inch, you know that. You think so? That's an 18. Shit. You see the distance between the floor and the rocker?

• 42:34Speaker 01

  To me, that's too much because, and also what they did to this car, not to knock the car, but there's no, there's no side skirt. You see how the front bumper and rear bumper sits lower? Right. To me, it looks incomplete. And the center looks empty. So, but that's an 18, it's too big. I would go 17 and your car's gonna be squatted down a little more. You want it to look period. The car you brought outside is the car I want it to sit like. And that's exactly how you want it to sit. But that is the right style of wheel. Yes, absolutely. The right wheel. Absolutely. Oh, and speaking of style.

• 43:07Matt Farah?

  You see what I have? It arrived today.

• 43:11Speaker 01

  No way. That is beautiful, man.

• 43:14Matt Farah?

  No, you're looking at the wrong side. That's the back. This is the front.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  That is awesome.

• 43:19Matt Farah?

  So this is our.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 43:21Matt Farah?

  Our fabric for the seat inserts and the doors, and I think.

• 43:24Speaker 01

  It's gonna look nuts.

• 43:26Matt Farah?

  This looks, will look great with the black leather.

• 43:28Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 43:29Matt Farah?

  Um, and it's got, this matches, this one tone matches the car. And then this brightness will, will do nice with the silver trim.

• 43:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:39Matt Farah?

  Right?

• 43:40Speaker 01

  I think it's gonna look great.

• 43:41Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and it's like, it's, it's aggressive, but not, not like psychedelic.

• 43:46Speaker 01

  You know what it is? Once it's, once it's in there, uh, we're gonna have to pick and choose the stitching. I would probably go with like a gray stitching. And or piping because the the original seats do have piping. Now, what I'm gonna do with your car, the 500E has perforations on the bolster.

• 44:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, like your.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  So we wanna do the 500E style seat. It's it's an actual Recaro seat. So they my guy can take the factory seat and re-bolster it to where it looks like the 500 to give it a little bit more support.

• 44:20Matt Farah?

  It's really like that's actually important to me is why I have a hard time with old cars. I need I need a new I need a brand new seat.

• 44:26Speaker 01

  You you sat in my car.

• 44:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, it's it's we need that.

• 44:29Speaker 01

  If you wanna take it to the next level, maybe we should talk to Recaro because they do make a newer seat, which does look like the classic, but it's it's a different design.

• 44:39Matt Farah?

  The one that you the one like yours is perfect.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  So the one like mine is the 500.

• 44:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  And what I did with mine um is this it's not a spring yet, the original 500, it has a little firmness to it.

• 44:50Matt Farah?

  That's what we need.

• 44:51Speaker 01

  And you want that support, yes.

• 44:52Matt Farah?

  More structure.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  And with with the cloth insert that I have on my 500, it gives you a lot more.

• 44:58Matt Farah?

  It's grip.

• 44:59Speaker 01

  Grip.

• 44:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, I that's I love a cloth seat because you have that actual tension on your clothes.

• 45:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 45:05Matt Farah?

  You don't slide around.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Right.

• 45:06Matt Farah?

  But yeah, more more support on the bottom, a firmer bottom.

• 45:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:10Matt Farah?

  So it doesn't.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  It you you need that support.

• 45:13Matt Farah?

  Every old Mercedes on earth, the front left of the seat is like completely collapsed and it's fucking destroys my spine.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  Early models have the spring.

• 45:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 45:23Speaker 01

  The late models like your 94, 95 model has the has the foam, which has a lot more support.

• 45:28Matt Farah?

  Still, it's so old now, it's all fucked.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  It fatigues.

• 45:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so uh and then, all right, what else? We've got the the 500 suspension. Who did you say is doing the who did Matt say is doing the exhaust for this car?

• 45:39Speaker 01

  Super Sprint, yeah. Yeah, it's out of the UK.

• 45:42Matt Farah?

  He said all the HVAC will work like factory, which I was great. And my top is in okay shape.

• 45:49Speaker 01

  It is.

• 45:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 45:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, the hydraulics um probably would need to be rebuilt because those have a tendency to leak, which my guy can do.

• 45:56Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  Um, I would do that because you're gonna put the top up and down. It's it has like things that you need.

• 46:02Matt Farah?

  Old car shit.

• 46:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, it it has to be done, but good part is the top is good, the canvas is good, the headliner is nice. You know, I would I wouldn't I wouldn't put a brand new top on it because you're not gonna drive that car with a top up. You're gonna constantly put it down.

• 46:16Matt Farah?

  No, the top, the top doesn't leak. It doesn't have tears. It's indecent. It was replaced maybe like four or five years ago.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  It needs a good cleanup.

• 46:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  We can clean it up and that's it.

• 46:25Matt Farah?

  I'm so excited about this car. I think it's gonna be so cool.

• 46:27Speaker 01

  Brother, you're gonna love this car. You don't understand. It's gonna be so fun to drive. You have no idea. I mean, this is gonna be your first experience with a V8 powered Mercedes that didn't come with a V8. That's the whole thing around it. It's like, you're gonna be like, wow, this car can do this.

• 46:45Matt Farah?

  I like old school hot rodding shit.

• 46:47Speaker 01

  It's gonna be a hot rod.

• 46:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  And the beautiful thing is you can drive the shit out of the car. It's not a car that you have to be afraid of. It's just.

• 46:54Matt Farah?

  The mileage, like whatever, who gives a shit?

• 46:56Speaker 01

  You lay in this thing. I mean, and it's gonna, you know, anytime, like, my first experience with the swap, I sent my SEC to Matt Quick and I sent him an SEC and a 2005 S55. And he swapped that with a supercharged engine transmission. I mean, we were driving, we were gonna drive this thing to Monterey. I sent him both cars. And literally three weeks later, he drove my SEC down from Tennessee and the second day I drove it to Monterey. This thing is an absolute beast.

• 47:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 47:31Speaker 01

  550 some horsepower.

• 47:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 47:34Speaker 01

  And it's like, the first time I drove this thing, I'm like, I couldn't believe this car can go this fast. And the same thing with the 124. With that V8 in it, you lay in that thing, it's just gonna lay rubber, like.

• 47:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, the stock engine's 220 horsepower. This is gonna be like 380, 400.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  Close to 400 horsepower.

• 47:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  In a little car, in a little ass wide body.

• 47:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it transforms it. That which, you know, some people have asked, do we have to reinforce the structure of the car for this?

• 48:01Speaker 01

  You know, listen, if, if you're gonna track it, I get it. If, if you're gonna, you know, if, if you're gonna drive it on the street,

• 48:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  you're gonna be fine. The convertible already has the chassis, which is super strong. I mean, you lift this car from one end, the whole, the whole side of the car goes up. It's pretty beefy, you know? It depends on your use. I mean, if you're gonna drive it on the street. And your wifey's gonna drive it around, dude, you're not gonna need to do any of that. As long as your brakes are good, you have good brakes.

• 48:31Matt Farah?

  Well, Matt Quick said we're gonna use the R129 SL600 brake, which is the OEM upgrade and.

• 48:38Speaker 01

  It's plenty.

• 48:39Matt Farah?

  That'll be fine.

• 48:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:40Matt Farah?

  So, yeah, it's, it's a pretty straightforward, but he did say, he, he, we talked about maybe doing uh, dry ice underneath, maybe, we talked about, uh, and he was going to, you know, when he takes the motor and everything out, he was gonna do all the seals and service the motor, service the gearbox and stuff, so, you know, it's not just like, he, he's expensive. I mean, and, and he's, he's, he, I, he's, he's giving me, uh, friends and family, which I greatly appreciate. Um, and, and this is, he's like the guy for this, from what I gather.

• 49:14Speaker 01

  He's, he's getting it done.

• 49:15Matt Farah?

  But I was like, you know, this is, this is quite pricey, and he was like, well, let me literally run down the whole thing, and when you do it all out, it's like, the bushings and the seals, and the this, and the this, and you're like, fuck, and just, yeah, I could see.

• 49:30Speaker 01

  You have to keep in mind, it's not just the engine swap. You know, I had a hard, you know, in, in the beginning, I was kinda figuring it out, and, you know, he's doing a lot of work to the car, it's not just dumping the engine in there.

• 49:42Matt Farah?

  No, no, for sure.

• 49:43Speaker 01

  Suspension, brakes, I mean, the Super Sprint exhaust system is a full stainless steel, I mean, that, that on its own.

• 49:49Matt Farah?

  No, I had to send a deposit for that.

• 49:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 49:52Speaker 01

  And, and he does pretty good work, you know, you, you, you get the Super Sprint, and then the, the continuation all the way up to the manifolds, he does himself. So he's putting a lot of time and effort, and he's the only one that I see that's doing it now. I mean, there's a lot of people out there that claim they can do it. I mean, look, my, my brother, which, which works for Mercedes, doesn't wanna really get into it. He's kinda figuring it out for his own, but. It's quite a bit of work, man, to do it the right way.

• 50:21Matt Farah?

  It seems, well, there's also like the merging of two cars wiring harnesses in order to like make

• 50:27Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 50:28Matt Farah?

  The

• 50:28Speaker 01

  From two eras, really.

• 50:29Matt Farah?

  Like, yeah, to make the gauge cluster work.

• 50:32Speaker 01

  The key, the gauge cluster, all, you know.

• 50:34Matt Farah?

  He said we're gonna use the key from the E55.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:37Matt Farah?

  He said he's gonna change the ignition over and it's gonna be the key from the E55, not the old.

• 50:42Speaker 01

  It's probably better. I mean, my car has the original key and the, and the cluster's original and the shifter's original.

• 50:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 50:48Speaker 01

  I mean, you look at the car from the outside and you won't know that it's, if I pop, if I don't pop the hood, you won't know it's been swapped. But I mean.

• 50:55Matt Farah?

  I don't mind if the shifter is differing. It's close enough that it wouldn't stand out as being like different.

• 51:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:01Matt Farah?

  I, did I send you the picture of a, of a, oh, I sent it to Matt of our buddy, uh, Marcus Smith's, uh, 280SE?

• 51:10Speaker 01

  No.

• 51:10Matt Farah?

  With an E55 swap? I don't think I posted it on Instagram.

• 51:14Speaker 01

  Who did that for him?

• 51:15Matt Farah?

  A, a local dude, but it looked, uh, Matt did the powertrain.

• 51:18Speaker 01

  Oh, he did?

• 51:19Matt Farah?

  Quick did the powertrain.

• 51:20Speaker 01

  Was it a convertible car?

• 51:21Matt Farah?

  Huh?

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Is it convertible?

• 51:22Matt Farah?

  No, no, Matt didn't, I'm sorry. Matt did not do the powertrain. Um, someone did it in North Carolina, but it was a really beautifully done thing. I'll show you the picture later. It was a 280SE with an E55 and it had the E55 shifter in it.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:36Matt Farah?

  But it surrounded in a burr, the rest of it looked pretty factory and, and it didn't, it, it didn't stand out. It wasn't like, ah, it was, they, they blended it nicely.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it was good.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  As long as it's tastefully done, you know, that's, that's the important thing.

• 51:52Matt Farah?

  For my, for my car, you, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the shifter.

• 51:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's gonna be, and again, the, the shifter, the difference between the E55 shifter and yours, the E55 changing the gears is like a blip.

• 52:05Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 52:06Speaker 01

  The drive, see, yours has the, the drive, the

• 52:09Matt Farah?

  And then the snake.

• 52:10Speaker 01

  And then the snake.

• 52:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  This doesn't, so you.

• 52:13Matt Farah?

  Oh, it's drive and then left, right?

• 52:14Speaker 01

  Left, right.

• 52:15Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 52:16Speaker 01

  So I don't know if he's gonna do that, if he's gonna give you the left, right option, but if he.

• 52:20Matt Farah?

  Paddle shifters.

• 52:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:22Matt Farah?

  Call Twist Machine paddle shifters.

• 52:24Speaker 01

  The E55 does have paddle shifters too.

• 52:27Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 52:28Speaker 01

  So you can incorporate. You can literally put buns in back of the wheel and start downshifting. I mean, you can do that. Be kinda sweet. Money's fast. Money goes fast. Shit, that's probably expensive. He's just adding up the tally in Tennessee right now. While you're in there. It's gonna be fun, dude. I'm super, super stoked. It's gonna be crazy. It is. And what's the name of it? I just call it red, but what is the color? Is it? Um, it's actually, uh, signal red. Signal red. Is the color for the car. What are the, there's other reds that it is. There's Imperial red. Which is from what? Um, it's the same year, but it's more of like a ready red. Yours is more of like a burgon, not burgundy-ish, but a darker red. Yeah. Your, what's your wagon? Same color as yours. Okay, that's signal red. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah. Which is nice. Yeah.

• 53:12Speaker 01

  It's a beautiful shade of red, you know? I'm stoked. With the interior and the top, the wheels, it's, I mean, it's, it's gonna look gorgeous. Yeah, it's gonna be crazy. I'm super fucking stoked. Do you, I mean, cause you, you've, you were building these cars before they sort of became trendy. Yeah. Again, what, how, how has the trend, I mean, is it just like? Let me tell you like. As you can build them now? This, I mean, right now we have eighteen cars in production. Whoa. Uh, it's a combination of one twenty fours, one twenty sixes, I have a one twenty three, one sixteen, and after the pandemic, it's just, things just started to blow up, you know? It really put Mercedes on the map.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  Partially because, like, people really started to understand how legendary these cars are. They started to realize these were really special back in the day, and they've been forgotten about, cause everyone's after the Porsche and the BMWs and Mercedes was always kind of one step behind when it came to the eighties and nineties tuner game. Yeah. Now. Well, BMW was racing, you know, in the eighties and nineties, and so was Porsche, and AMG was like a separate thing that was cool, but also sort of like gauche. If it wasn't for AMG, then Mercedes wouldn't have a motorsport program. Sure. At all. It would just, you know, they, they, they still are riding on AMG.

• 54:36Speaker 01

  Um, but prior to the merger in ninety four, um, AMG was the one that was racing the DTM cars. They develop all the black series cars, you know, they, they put all that together. BMW, Porsche, even Audi had their in-house.

• 54:52Speaker 01

  Performance sector that was doing these. Uh, but after the pandemic, you know, things started shifting and even the prices of these cars started to increase slowly. Yeah, the first time a wide body cracked 500K, it was like, I'm sorry, what?

• 55:08Speaker 02

  I think the hammer was on Hagerty's list in 2020 or 2021. Cause I filmed it for them, for whatever the series was, like the investor bull market thing. But like, it was about six years ago and it was like, hey, we should start paying attention to these.

• 55:22Speaker 01

  How many actual hammers were built by AMG? It's undetermined. Really? Yeah, it's on, they say there was 50 six liter hammers built, but I don't think that's an accurate number. You think it's low or high? It's higher, it's higher. I mean, it could be, I know for, for a fact, they built a lot more engines. Um, because the heads were just leaky, they were, they weren't that dependable. Uh, people that were buying these six liter hammers were eventually pulling the heads off and putting a single over at camp. A head on it to make it more dependable. That's so funny. Every 3000 miles you had to adjust valves and so it, it was a race motor. Technically it was a race motor that they wanted to introduce for the street.

• 56:05Speaker 01

  So, uh, there weren't many people that knew about it here, you know? And it was becoming to a point where that's where the cars lost value, you know, where. Yeah, once they're, if they're just too annoying to maintain. Yeah, and too expensive, people don't know how to work on them and that's when they just start dipping in value, you know? Uh, but just kind of like researching them worldwide. I would say probably 75 to 80 of them that were built. True, actual six liter, some of them were non-wide body. There's a handful of them that came, you know, six liter with a regular SEC body.

• 56:45Speaker 01

  Or or the four door like I own a four door SCL that came with a six liter four cam in it.

• 56:52Matt Farah?

  And no wide body.

• 56:54Speaker 01

  No wide body.

• 56:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I guess a four door car.

• 56:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, which I I bought that car for, I mean, I I was gonna part that car out. It was the story on that car.

• 57:02Matt Farah?

  Is the is the, I mean, okay, we don't know exactly, is the documentation on the cars? Good like if you if you that's that six liter car, is it? Is it possible to document an AMG as as being authentic or not authentic?

• 57:17Speaker 01

  Yes, so they have a certification program now that they only have record of the special cars that they built.

• 57:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 57:24Speaker 01

  But there's a handful of like cars that came with body kits, wheels and seats. There's really no record behind it, but the six liter cars, most of them are documented. The really high spec cars are documented like the the eighty six that I bought. I bought this car literally from someone who was thrown on a field in San Diego. And I went there to buy a six liter engine from the guy. And I ended up buying the engine. It's a thirty thousand kilometer motor. And I see this car in the corner and it was just it's hit from the back, poor shape. So I said, what are you doing with that car? He said, well, I bought this car to part it out because I'm gonna put together another SCL that I have. And he goes, I just lost interest.

• 58:05Speaker 01

  So I said, do you wanna sell it? He goes, sure. So I went and I'm looking at this thing, AMG gauges, AMG steering wheel, AMG body kit, Penta wheels. But the car's just just torn apart like it's just poor, poor quality. Interior's all intact. It had a it has like a purple leather interior with purple wood, wood everywhere. So I ended up buying the car for like fifteen hundred bucks. And I was gonna part this car out. Okay, I didn't know what it was.

• 58:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 58:34Speaker 01

  So I brought the car to the shop, a buddy of mine came by and I showed him the car. He's like, what are you gonna do with that? I said, it's a parts car. He goes, don't tear this car apart. Don't do anything to it till I get back to you. Let me do some checking. So a week later, he comes by the shop with full documentation on this car. Apparently, this was the highest spec SCL.

• 59:00Matt Farah?

  Of course.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  Ever.

• 59:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:02Speaker 01

  It was bought by a Texas oil well tycoon. And he brought me the bill sheet on it, which I have. Hundred and thirty eight thousand dollars worth of AMG upgrades in nineteen eighty six.

• 59:14Matt Farah?

  Jesus.

• 59:15Speaker 01

  Six liter Gleason Thorson rear end Nakamichi sound system. The guy checked all the boxes.

• 59:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:22Speaker 01

  When he ran out of options, he didn't want Recaro seats because it wasn't good for his back. He put SEC seats in it, coupe seats which fold forward for no reason.

• 59:30Speaker 02

  How much in options?

• 59:32Speaker 01

  What's that?

• 59:32Speaker 02

  How much in options, did you say?

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Hundred and thirty eight thousand dollars in options.

• 59:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 59:36Speaker 01

  And the car.

• 59:37Matt Farah?

  In eighty six is crazy. Mike Kuntas was a hundred and ten for the whole car.

• 59:42Speaker 02

  That's four hundred grand in options today.

• 59:44Speaker 01

  So that car, I sent all the documentation to Germany a few years ago. MKB is a company in Germany which is run by Melker, the M in AMG. He sold it, but he originated that company. After the merger, everyone split and Alfric opened up HWA. And then Melker went to MKB and they have a certification program through AMG Classic. So I got the certificate. I sent everything in the VIN number and photos and they had the car in their database.

• 1:00:18Matt Farah?

  Cool.

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  So they sent me the full certification on that car.

• 1:00:22Matt Farah?

  So is it worth restoring?

• 1:00:23Speaker 01

  I'm doing a full, I mean, full blown restoration on the car. It's, it's, it's an incredible car and I mean, I had no idea what it was. I knew what I had, but I didn't know what it was.

• 1:00:34Matt Farah?

  That's cool.

• 1:00:35Speaker 02

  You thought you had an interior.

• 1:00:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:00:37Speaker 02

  And then it turns out you have a whole car.

• 1:00:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I got, you know, that car, it's rough. It needs a lot of love, but now that I certified it, now it's time to really go.

• 1:00:48Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:00:49Speaker 01

  Balls out and just make it bitchin'.

• 1:00:50Speaker 02

  Well, and as we've seen with so many of the classes of Pebble, like you can restore it from being on fire. And if, if it's restored well and the VIN's there, then it's got a story.

• 1:00:59Matt Farah?

  If you have a VIN number and a, and a paper trail, you can build, you could build the car from dust almost.

• 1:01:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:06Matt Farah?

  That's so cool.

• 1:01:07Speaker 01

  So.

• 1:01:08Matt Farah?

  And, and I think.

• 1:01:11Matt Farah?

  You know, it's got, well, it's an SCL, so it's a sedan, right?

• 1:01:14Speaker 01

  It's a sedan.

• 1:01:15Matt Farah?

  Sedan, okay.

• 1:01:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a four-door sedan.

• 1:01:17Matt Farah?

  Long wheelbase.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  Long wheelbase, just badass.

• 1:01:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:22Speaker 01

  If you see the car, you know there's something special about it, but you just can't, like, I don't-

• 1:01:28Matt Farah?

  The wheels are Pentastar?

• 1:01:29Speaker 01

  They're Pentas, staggered Pentas, nines and eights, which were a rare, I mean, the car was fully, fully optioned with everything. Leather curtains, leather headliner.

• 1:01:39Matt Farah?

  Leather curtains?

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  Leather curtains.

• 1:01:41Matt Farah?

  That's aggressive.

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  Texas, you know, he's got cows.

• 1:01:43Matt Farah?

  That is some Texas shit, yeah, that's crazy.

• 1:01:46Speaker 01

  When I went, so a couple of years ago, we went to the 233 West meet, this was something they put together in Chicago, like a little AMG meet. 233 West was the address for Westmont Chicago AMG.

• 1:01:57Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:01:58Speaker 01

  So they're doing another one in a few years, but I actually took my 124 Coupe there. And it was like a gathering of all these AMGs, and Richard Buckspahn, which owned the Chicago, you know, AMG sector, was there, and I told him about the car, and he goes, "Oh yeah," he goes, "I know who that, you know, who that car was spec'd to." He goes, "We built that car in Germany." He goes, "Most of the six-liter cars," so the real AMG cars, they say, were built in Germany.

• 1:02:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and there were some built in the US as well.

• 1:02:27Speaker 01

  And there was some built in Chicago, and then, you know, Andy Cohen, which owned Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories, was an official AMG. But they mainly did body kits, wheels, suspension, Germany is where they did all the heavy-duty stuff. And that's when Hartmut actually came down from Germany to service all these cars, the six-liter cars.

• 1:02:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, is there any other, like, outside of either restoring or replicating original AMG models?

• 1:02:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:02:56Matt Farah?

  Is there demand for other stuff? Are people, do people want Lorenzer stuff? Do people want Schnitzer stuff? Is there really a demand for that kind of stuff today?

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  There is, I mean, people are wanting anything that has to do with Mercedes tuning. Like, I, I bought a Koenig, a one-of-one Koenig, a few years back, from an elderly couple out of Oregon, and the guy gave me, uh, when, he, so he knew Willy Koenig personally, so they designed a one-off body kit for him.

• 1:03:28Speaker 01

  And when he shipped the car down, he shipped the body molds with the car. So I have all the original molds to that car. And I can tell you, maybe four or five times a month, I get people wanting me to pop a body kit for a Koenig, which I won't do, obviously, because I'm not gonna devalue my car. A and B, Koenig is still an operating company, you know?

• 1:03:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, but could you use the molds to build a whole car for somebody, though?

• 1:03:54Speaker 01

  Everything.

• 1:03:54Matt Farah?

  You would, but you would do that. It's just you just won't sell the body kits.

• 1:03:57Speaker 01

  I, well, I won't do it because that body kit is specifically for my car. It's the one of one.

• 1:04:02Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:04:03Speaker 01

  But I have, like, people, people want a Koenig, people want the Lorenzer, it's, you know?

• 1:04:08Matt Farah?

  I don't know, one of one, I feel like, I feel like if you have the molds, you could operate like a stud farm. You know, like, you know, yours is still one of one.

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:04:17Matt Farah?

  But like, you know, you could issue, you know, a run of ten recreation body kits. Just saying, but yours would still be the one of one.

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:04:27Matt Farah?

  I mean. So you could extract max value.

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  It's, it's just a lot of fiberglass.

• 1:04:31Matt Farah?

  Uh, so much. Zach and I had a go in the Koenig Testerosa.

• 1:04:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:35Matt Farah?

  Which was supposedly a thousand horsepower, and I think it probably actually was, it was psychotic. The brakes were terrible, but it had like four hundred extra pounds of fiberglass on it.

• 1:04:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. How did it drive?

• 1:04:48Speaker 02

  Uh, it felt heavy because it was. But also, like, I mean, the steering was heavy, but it was very.

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  I'm sure that thing has a thousand pounds of fiberglass.

• 1:04:55Speaker 02

  Lifting the hatch was serious effort. We, I think we were filling it with gas or something?

• 1:05:00Matt Farah?

  We had to open the rear clam shell to put fuel in it.

• 1:05:02Speaker 02

  And there was no rod for it, so like, it was

• 1:05:04Matt Farah?

  So.

• 1:05:05Speaker 02

  tiring on the shoulders.

• 1:05:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, how would you do that if you're by yourself?

• 1:05:08Matt Farah?

  Oh, you, you, it's, it would not be possible. You'd, you'd be out of gas.

• 1:05:11Speaker 01

  You'd have to borrow a, no rod, no.

• 1:05:13Matt Farah?

  I mean, it probably came from the factory with a rod, but this one didn't have one.

• 1:05:17Speaker 02

  It was really shockingly heavy, though.

• 1:05:19Matt Farah?

  The power was insane. I mean, really insane. And when it, when you got on it, the amount of black smoke that came out of the exhaust, when you, when you, it was wa, it was a.

• 1:05:32Speaker 01

  Well, listen, Koenig really built some radical cars back then.

• 1:05:35Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:05:36Speaker 01

  They, they were very performance driven.

• 1:05:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and if you had this body kit made out of like carbon or something, like, it would probably be okay, but like, it was just so heavy. It was stock brakes, yikes.

• 1:05:47Speaker 01

  The amount of Bondo that they used on these cars is insane.

• 1:05:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:52Speaker 01

  Like, I have an older Koenig four-door car that. Is in restoration. I'm restoring slowly. I mean, there's areas that have literally an inch and a half of Bondo.

• 1:06:03Speaker 02

  Is that because the fiberglass was just wavy and shitty?

• 1:06:06Speaker 01

  They kept adding it just to smooth it out and in the joints, you know, where they wanted them rounded. It literally like the corner has an inch of Bondo and it just kind of feathers out to the body. But eventually this is gonna crack. I mean, there's a quarter inch of Bondo cracks everywhere. It's ridiculous.

• 1:06:24Speaker 02

  That's terrible.

• 1:06:24Matt Farah?

  Is there, aside from, you know, something like you just talked about a barn find restoration of an original car? And, you know, you score the car for no money and it turns out it's a thing worth saving. Outside of that, do you have like a dream build that you haven't gotten around to yet?

• 1:06:44Speaker 01

  You know, the, one of the cars that I wanted to build was the shooting brake.

• 1:06:48Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 1:06:48Speaker 01

  Which was the one we did for my brother. It was something that like just was never done before.

• 1:06:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:57Speaker 01

  And it was something that's kind of like, you know, what if Mercedes made a shooting brake?

• 1:07:02Matt Farah?

  It's, it was so cool. I love that car.

• 1:07:05Speaker 01

  And people either like it or hate it. You know, it's, you get mixed reviews on the car.

• 1:07:10Matt Farah?

  I feel like if someone hates it, they probably just don't understand what you've done with the interior. If it had a fucking tan interior or something, they probably wouldn't even think. But I love this interior. I think it rules.

• 1:07:20Speaker 01

  It was a color that my brother chose. I mean, it was a collaboration we did on this build. He did all the mechanical. He did most of the assembly. I did, you know, we, we did the coachwork. That's real glass. It's not Plexi.

• 1:07:35Matt Farah?

  And it's not tinted blue?

• 1:07:36Speaker 01

  It's not tinted blue. It's totally clear, but it does look, everyone thinks it's, you know, blue tinted glass, which it isn't.

• 1:07:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:43Speaker 01

  And the car is just breathtaking. Every time I still look at it, it just kind of, just, it's unreal.

• 1:07:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah. It is the dopest shit ever.

• 1:07:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:52Matt Farah?

  So did you, uh, did you take a roof off of like a 124 wagon or is that fully handmade?

• 1:08:01Speaker 01

  So the roof is off of a four door car.

• 1:08:04Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:08:05Speaker 01

  Just because of the flatness and the continuation, but everything else is hand fabricated. The pillars, the door, the reinforcements, everything is handmade. Just the skin of the center portion of the roof is the one we used off of a sedan.

• 1:08:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  And that's because we wanted the same, the same flow.

• 1:08:25Speaker 01

  But everything else is custom made, man. Those side moldings are all handmade. The drip rails are all handmade.

• 1:08:33Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 1:08:33Speaker 01

  And these are all intricate aluminum pieces that we had to weld and shave and bend. The, you know, all of the roof from the inside, getting it reinforced. So when the car's twisting, you're not cracking glass. We literally built like a cage within the roof to give it reinforcement. That thing is stiff. The rear hatch is completely custom fabricated. The hinges and the struts are off of a 124, so if you break your hinge, you can buy another one off of a 124 wagon.

• 1:09:06Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:09:06Speaker 01

  But everyone thinks it's a donor roof, which it isn't. You know, everything was handmade.

• 1:09:11Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 1:09:12Speaker 01

  I'm making the second version of it, which is called a Speedtail, which has a bit more of a slope to it. And that one's gonna get a 6.3 in it. It's a 156 with the manual six-speed.

• 1:09:24Matt Farah?

  Oh, cool.

• 1:09:24Speaker 01

  It's gonna be meant more for performance.

• 1:09:27Matt Farah?

  What's a 156?

• 1:09:29Speaker 01

  It's a six.

• 1:09:30Matt Farah?

  That's a 6.3 from like a 20.

• 1:09:32Speaker 01

  S63, ML63. It's the naturally aspirated 500 horsepower. It's what comes in the black series.

• 1:09:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:09:38Speaker 01

  And they do have a black series tune, which with the cams and everything, which will make it pretty beefy. And that's gonna get no backseat, leather wrapped cage. It's gonna be pretty wild, you know, once it's done. And then, you know, when we built the car,

• 1:09:56Speaker 01

  we were like, you know what, let's just kind of get creative with it and see where it goes. And this is what we ended up with, you know?

• 1:10:03Matt Farah?

  I love how this car looks, and I know you don't wanna show it publicly, but you did show me the rendering of the second car.

• 1:10:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:10Matt Farah?

  The roof line is badass.

• 1:10:11Speaker 01

  It's badass. Yeah, it's gonna look wicked once it's done.

• 1:10:14Matt Farah?

  It's not in a different universe from this one, but it's just.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  It has a bit more of a slope, bit more aggressive, and that one's gonna be all black, which is gonna be kind of like the sinister version of this, you know?

• 1:10:28Matt Farah?

  That's tough, though. If you're trying to build a car. Black hides body lines.

• 1:10:34Speaker 01

  You know, something about a black wide body just looks.

• 1:10:38Speaker 02

  It does look tough.

• 1:10:39Speaker 01

  It looks unbelievable.

• 1:10:40Speaker 02

  You need to be in the right light to see it, but it does.

• 1:10:42Speaker 01

  The other black one that we drove to Monterey, which we did the wide body on, you know, everyone kind of gravitates to the black. Like, you see the black one, it just looks, it looks vicious.

• 1:10:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:10:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:54Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:10:55Speaker 01

  You know, it's got a much more vicious look to it. And that's kind of what I want with this one. I want it to be kind of like if, you know, if Dr. Evil had a shooting brake SCC, that's what it would be, you know?

• 1:11:07Speaker 02

  Mercedes is kind of the bad guy of the luxury brands, right? Part of it is like, they're driven by bad guys in movies, but also like, they're fast, they look good in black. I think they've probably used that color for a lot of the flagship cars. Black series, like, it's just associated with that. Ferrari's got red and.

• 1:11:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's a real, like, Russian gangster car.

• 1:11:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:11:28Matt Farah?

  It's an earned reputation, I'd say.

• 1:11:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:11:32Speaker 02

  But, yeah, the shooting brakes looked magnificent.

• 1:11:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's very, it's a breathtaking car.

• 1:11:38Speaker 02

  It is.

• 1:11:38Speaker 01

  I mean, it's just, it turned out right.

• 1:11:40Matt Farah?

  But like, a good Mercedes shouldn't be, like, friendly looking. It should be pretty mean.

• 1:11:46Speaker 01

  See, this is, like, my brother's car is very, it's a joyful car, like, it just looks happy, like, the interior color, the whole, the whole thing, which is great, you know, and that's where people really are astonished about the color of the interior. Like, my brother blew it out of the park choosing that color. It's a custom shade of leather that we, he had tinted, and that's the color he wanted.

• 1:12:09Matt Farah?

  It's like a cerulean blue, a sky blue?

• 1:12:13Speaker 01

  It's, there's really no name for it. He chose that color and he had it dyed in that color. I mean, we, he looked at like, maybe fifteen, twenty different shades, and that's the one he put his finger on. And in the beginning, I had second thoughts, but. He had a vision and I might go with it and he was right on the money.

• 1:12:32Matt Farah?

  I think if

• 1:12:33Speaker 01

  Unbelievable.

• 1:12:33Matt Farah?

  Cause there's a lot of it. It's like every surface in the car.

• 1:12:37Speaker 01

  Everything is wrapped.

• 1:12:38Matt Farah?

  If it wasn't every surface, I think it might not work so well. Like if it had a black console or a black dash or something like that.

• 1:12:46Speaker 01

  Yes, you're absolutely right.

• 1:12:47Matt Farah?

  It has to be not just the color, but like an egregious amount of it.

• 1:12:53Speaker 02

  It's full boogie, but like you said, I remember we had dinner at that Italian place in Monterey Car Week and we walked out and the car was across the street just by happenstance. Park profile, under one lamp, like so dramatic. And it looked like the windows were blue tinted because every single surface, I know you said it's like, is covered in this, I don't know, BVI Tahitian ocean blue.

• 1:13:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:14Speaker 02

  And from floor to ceiling. And but the contrast of that with the all white car and having the huge window, I don't know, man, it's like a sneaker or something. It's just so striking.

• 1:13:24Speaker 01

  So that, that color, even the exterior color is a pure white.

• 1:13:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah, there's no pearl or anything.

• 1:13:32Speaker 01

  There's nothing in there. And the panel roof really makes a big difference. When the sun hits it, it like glows inside.

• 1:13:38Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 1:13:38Speaker 01

  Which, which looks awesome.

• 1:13:39Matt Farah?

  I get, I get that, absolutely. But when you have a color that is so ubiquitous in your interior that it appears the windows are tinted that color. That's a pretty powerful use of color.

• 1:13:54Speaker 01

  It is, true. And you know, it works. He, he knocked it out of the park with choosing that color. And I mean, it, and what the, it's got the blue matching wood grain, you know, everywhere, which makes it nice. And going back to what you said where it's all one, it makes it look a lot more complete and desirable.

• 1:14:12Speaker 02

  Do you think, you've built a lot of cars and we've seen you at Radwood for years with all kinds of cool stuff. Do you think this car?

• 1:14:20Speaker 01

  Put you on the map more than others, or is it just a step? It does. I mean, this is just a showstopper, wherever you take it. It just, people gravitate to it. I mean, when we first took it to Monterey last year, it, it, my, my phone was blowing up, like, people worldwide were noticing this car, because it's just never been done before, you know? It, and it's still till today, like, we were at a Mercedes event this Sunday, and it just, it creates a crowd. Sure. There's no other body like it, there's no shape like it, and then, without the interior, it would probably have that effect. That is like a beacon for everybody. It is, it is. We're, we're building, now, I'm kind of changing it up. Um, I'm redesigning the wide body now, like, I want to make my own design,

• 1:15:05Speaker 01

  uh, that mimics the, the AMG, but something a bit different, something a bit more CMS, like a custom build. I'm in the process of building an SEC for myself, which is a body swap. It's gonna be based on, uh, E63S. Oh, cool. 2022, we already have the donor, and I want it to be more performance-driven with the newer interior, just something, something different, you know what I mean? For people, because the, the wide-body SEC, it's, it's becoming too diluted in a way now, you know what I mean? Well, you know, you start to see more of them, and... There's more of them around, and people want a change, you know? People want something different. Um, I'm also in the process of building the Jag.

• 1:15:49Speaker 01

  Uh, I have an XJS, and we're putting a custom wide-body on it that we've already created, and we're putting, uh, I bought a XKS that's been wrecked, so we're putting that whole drivetrain in there with the 6-speed, and making it just a badass Jaguar. Oh, cool. We saw a really, one of those Lister Jags at, uh, Radwood, uh, in, uh, Charlotte, that was pretty fun.

• 1:16:12Matt Farah?

  Uh, let's go to the people. We got a few questions from our patrons over at patreon.com/thesmokeentirepodcast. If you want to ask questions of the show, listen to the live stream, get the show early, get extra show, get access to exclusive collabs and things like that and more, patreon.com/thesmokeentirepodcast is where you do it and we thank the lot of you. Uh, our patrons have odd usernames, so get on board. Focaccia Country Day School says, "I'm trying to rescue a S123 Turbo from a neighbor. What are your favorite ideas to mod or build this type of car?" What is an S123 Turbo?

• 1:16:55Speaker 01

  It's probably a sedan. The S stands for a sedan.

• 1:16:59Matt Farah?

  Like an S-Class?

• 1:17:00Speaker 01

  It's the 123 is like the 300D, 240D.

• 1:17:04Matt Farah?

  Oh, alright. So turbo diesel?

• 1:17:06Speaker 01

  I'm assuming it's a sedan.

• 1:17:07Matt Farah?

  Alright, gotcha.

• 1:17:09Speaker 01

  You know, with diesels and performance, I don't know much about them, but I do know in Europe, they have like tons of upgrades to get these diesels going. I mean, the newer style diesels, like the most desirable one, I believe, is the model that's out of the 210. The 210, which is like the E55 body.

• 1:17:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah. The Blue Tech? Was that the first year of the Blue Tech?

• 1:17:32Speaker 01

  No, there's, I don't know the engine code for it, but that particular diesel is the most desirable one that people build from, from what I know. Again, I'm not much of a diesel guy, but I mean, they're pulling 600, 700 horsepower out of those engines, which is incredible.

• 1:17:48Matt Farah?

  That's crazy.

• 1:17:49Speaker 01

  But as far as upgrading, I would probably, you know, swap it with like a newer style diesel and turbo it, you know, and that would be the best.

• 1:17:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, just a newer diesel.

• 1:18:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, but definitely beef up brakes and suspension on that.

• 1:18:06Matt Farah?

  Uh, 390BulletInTheHead says, "What gives you more gray hairs? Finding a missing piece of a 40-year-old Koenig fiberglass or trying to explain to a purist why a classic Mercedes needs 600 horsepower?"

• 1:18:20Speaker 01

  I mean, gray hairs, just, you know, dealing with Mercedes parts and finding parts and locating parts is probably the toughest part of getting gray hair, but you know,

• 1:18:33Speaker 01

  The purist guys, you know, with Mercedes, the guys that are the purists are mainly the the people that are driving the Gull wings and the 300 SLs.

• 1:18:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:18:43Speaker 01

  Anyone that has a Mercedes from the 70s and 80s, because being a tuner was accepted back then for Mercedes, it's not really the purist, but it's just finding the parts for these things is the toughest part.

• 1:18:56Matt Farah?

  Sure. Uh, L. L. Cartier says, uh, if you were to acquire a decent, uh, 210 E55, that's like what we bought, right?

• 1:19:06Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 1:19:07Matt Farah?

  And wanted to make it the ultimate mile munching hot rod, what could be done and at what budget?

• 1:19:11Speaker 01

  I would manual swap that car. I mean, I, I've always wondered why Mercedes didn't manufacture something to compete with the M5, because that automatic transmission is horrible.

• 1:19:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:24Speaker 01

  I mean, it's just a slush bug. If you're gonna cruise it around, it's fine.

• 1:19:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:28Speaker 01

  But they were, they were an AMG meant for the wife. You know, they were something, as a grocery getter, the shifting is smooth, so something four-door, naturally aspirated V8 manual would be the most desirable, and that's what really wakes that car up.

• 1:19:43Matt Farah?

  Every early 2000s Mercedes that I've driven that came with an automatic, that I drove that had a manual swap, was much better.

• 1:19:51Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 1:19:52Matt Farah?

  I drove a CLK 430 with a manual swap. It was like lovely.

• 1:19:56Speaker 01

  The black one?

• 1:19:57Matt Farah?

  No, the fourth, oh, the color of it?

• 1:19:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:00Matt Farah?

  Maybe.

• 1:20:01Speaker 01

  That's my cousin, David.

• 1:20:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, you did, you did a review on that car.

• 1:20:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:20:07Speaker 01

  So he manual swapped that himself.

• 1:20:08Matt Farah?

  He did it himself, yeah, but it made the car better.

• 1:20:10Speaker 01

  Out of a price, yeah.

• 1:20:12Matt Farah?

  It was a crossfire gearbox.

• 1:20:13Speaker 01

  Crossfire gearbox.

• 1:20:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:15Speaker 01

  And it totally changed the whole driving experience.

• 1:20:17Matt Farah?

  It was nice.

• 1:20:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:20:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and then we drove a SL55 that had a manual swap that a guy in Vegas did.

• 1:20:22Speaker 01

  That's right, I saw that, yeah. I saw that episode too.

• 1:20:24Matt Farah?

  Also good.

• 1:20:25Speaker 01

  Very good car.

• 1:20:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:27Speaker 02

  It's what they need, the transmission is so terrible.

• 1:20:28Matt Farah?

  Uh...

• 1:20:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:20:33Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:20:37Matt Farah?

  Actually, I like, I like double shuffle retirement clubs is what is Mercedes up to with the door to door screen in the C-Class?

• 1:20:43Speaker 02

  Do you see the new design that came out today?

• 1:20:45Matt Farah?

  The most aggressive use of screen I've seen in interior so far. No, I didn't. What, what news came out today?

• 1:20:49Speaker 02

  I'll find you real quick.

• 1:20:51Matt Farah?

  Is it good news or bad news? Bad news. Zach is shaking his head. It is bad news?

• 1:20:58Speaker 02

  Twenty, it's the 2027 CEV.

• 1:21:02Matt Farah?

  Okay, the C-Class.

• 1:21:05Speaker 02

  I mean, there's a, there's a couple of problems with it.

• 1:21:07Matt Farah?

  I can think of one.

• 1:21:09Speaker 02

  There are so many.

• 1:21:10Matt Farah?

  One is that front grille. Two is, that is egregious screen.

• 1:21:15Speaker 02

  It goes beyond the frame of this photo, Matt. The screen literally goes, there you go.

• 1:21:20Matt Farah?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 1:21:21Speaker 01

  That's crazy.

• 1:21:21Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 1:21:22Speaker 01

  I mean, at this point, it's just, you're not driving a car anymore.

• 1:21:25Matt Farah?

  That's crazy. This is the C-Class. So you're telling me it's cheaper to make screen than just dashboard?

• 1:21:35Speaker 02

  But this, this is literally screen from one end of the dash to the other, only bookended by two vents. Like, I'm shocked.

• 1:21:43Matt Farah?

  Lincoln has a curved, dude, pull up the Lincoln Navigator.

• 1:21:48Speaker 01

  This just doesn't make it seem like you're driving a car anymore.

• 1:21:51Matt Farah?

  No.

• 1:21:51Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? It takes away from the driving experience.

• 1:21:54Speaker 02

  And then the exterior, like, here we go.

• 1:21:55Speaker 01

  The grille is just horrible.

• 1:21:56Matt Farah?

  The grille, I see what they were trying to do, but it doesn't work.

• 1:22:00Speaker 02

  Does it seem like, you know?

• 1:22:01Matt Farah?

  In order to have it work, you have to have the vertical bar in the middle and then like a hood ornament on top. They're combining two styles into one.

• 1:22:10Speaker 02

  It's like Silver Sau plus the newer stuff and it just.

• 1:22:15Matt Farah?

  Go back up to the taillights, though, because those looked kind of decent.

• 1:22:18Speaker 01

  I mean, this is what BMW did.

• 1:22:19Matt Farah?

  Other than the Mitsubishi stars in the middle.

• 1:22:23Speaker 01

  And this is what BMW did too with the grill with, you know, it's just not, it's not working.

• 1:22:28Matt Farah?

  Mercedes showed a concept that had this shape of a grill, but had the divider in the middle.

• 1:22:34Speaker 01

  But it looked more like the, the original, you know, chrome Mercedes grill. This is just, you know.

• 1:22:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's weird. That's not great.

• 1:22:43Speaker 01

  And what's with all the Mercedes signs on these new ones? They're everywhere.

• 1:22:47Matt Farah?

  They must know.

• 1:22:48Speaker 01

  Like the, like the, the Maybach SL, it's all over the hood, the interior, the convertible top.

• 1:22:54Matt Farah?

  It's like the Louis pattern.

• 1:22:55Speaker 01

  It's overkill, man.

• 1:22:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they're trying to have their own like pattern. Yeah. Uh, Tim A. says, uh, what's your opinion on MB Tex and its reputation for being indestructible?

• 1:23:04Speaker 01

  It's fantastic material. I mean, it's durable as hell. It doesn't crack. Um, it just doesn't color, you know, it doesn't fade. It's, I have my 300E, 86 is original MB Tex and it looks like it's brand new. Mind you, I take care of it.

• 1:23:19Matt Farah?

  Low to medium mile ones and it just looks great.

• 1:23:22Speaker 01

  It's incredible what they've created with that MB Tex. I mean, the, the Mercedes leather is leather, but eventually leather cracks. You know, especially on the convertible cars, but the MB Tex stuff is just unreal. I mean, my 300E, it literally looks like it's brand new.

• 1:23:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I like MB Tex. It's good. Uh, we already got to Darian's question earlier. Can you notice these nuts? Uh, why do automakers not prioritize driver seating position when designing a cabin uh, for non-specialized cars? Uh, I, I would disagree with the sentiment. I think they, for the most part, do prioritize driver seating position.

• 1:24:02Speaker 01

  I mean, now they do. I mean.

• 1:24:04Matt Farah?

  Sure. The Ferrari 512 Boxer did not.

• 1:24:08Speaker 01

  348, my 348, my, my feet, you know, my hips are enough to drive it.

• 1:24:12Matt Farah?

  Now they do.

• 1:24:14Speaker 01

  They do.

• 1:24:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I, I'd like to hear why this commenter thinks that. Because the vast majority of cars I sit in have a pretty decent seating.

• 1:24:25Speaker 01

  But I think that used to be, I think they used to put packaging first. So then like, they go, oh, the person's legs will aim a little over here or the.

• 1:24:32Speaker 02

  Seat will be off center because we have to fit engine trans in these hard points.

• 1:24:36Speaker 01

  I mean, the Italians were were like famous for that.

• 1:24:40Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:24:41Speaker 01

  Eighties and nineties Italian cars, they didn't give a shit about your seating position, whether you could see out the back window or it's just.

• 1:24:47Matt Farah?

  Same with the Germans when they were forced to build right-hand drive cars.

• 1:24:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:24:51Matt Farah?

  They built them shits out of spite.

• 1:24:53Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:24:55Matt Farah?

  They didn't fucking make it, but like, I, I mean, I mean, look, if you, I drove like, my friend had like an eighty-eight Corolla or something in high school that he like inherited from his grandma. And I thought, I was okay, like, Hannah, you know, we've got the, um, the, the Delica, the Mitsubishi Delica ninety-one.

• 1:25:15Speaker 01

  Very comfortable.

• 1:25:16Matt Farah?

  I mean, it's only, it only goes up and down and back and forward, but it's, but the seats aren't that bad.

• 1:25:20Speaker 01

  No, they're not.

• 1:25:21Matt Farah?

  I'm not, I'd like to hear what the, the basis is of that comment, because I think most cars actually do a reasonably good job.

• 1:25:28Speaker 01

  They do.

• 1:25:29Matt Farah?

  Merkin ball run. Out of curiosity, and maybe you don't know this, Sean, what, what could I expect to be the cost of a manual swap for an SLK fifty-five?

• 1:25:39Speaker 01

  That would be a Matt Quick question.

• 1:25:41Matt Farah?

  That is a Matt Quick question. You don't really do the power.

• 1:25:43Speaker 01

  I don't deal with the mechanical, I mean, you know, and again, um.

• 1:25:47Matt Farah?

  What, I think the fucking guy from Vegas.

• 1:25:50Speaker 02

  He was about twenty-something. I think it was twenty-five to thirty for the swap, wasn't it?

• 1:25:56Matt Farah?

  No, he said he was into the entire car for forty-two grand.

• 1:26:00Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, he bought the car for like twenty-five.

• 1:26:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I think it was maybe twenty, but he also did a major service while he was in there.

• 1:26:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, it sounds about right.

• 1:26:09Matt Farah?

  It was around twenty.

• 1:26:10Speaker 01

  Prices of parts have gone up because everyone's like, kind of woken up to what's going on. So I can tell you like now, to try to find the manual gearbox for a Mercedes or out of a Crossfire. People know like what they have, you know, before you could buy the whole Chrysler Crossfire for fifteen hundred bucks.

• 1:26:27Matt Farah?

  Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:26:28Speaker 01

  Just pull everything out of it, pedals and all, but, um, that would be a Matt Quick question for sure.

• 1:26:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Chuba Red Bar Cheddar. Have you ever considered producing a watch without limiting the number made? Or at least producing more so that they reach the public? You know, we do these and we make limited numbers of them. Well, so we can't really because we are limited by the number of the amount of I shouldn't say we can't, we could. We haven't so far because this watch that we've made uses the Le Joux Perret Swiss Movement. They will only sell us 250 of them a year. That is the maximum that they will sell us, period.

• 1:27:18Matt Farah?

  Now, is that face color matched to your Porsche? Yes. That's beautiful. And in fact, this is the prototype of the one that we're releasing next. In fact, it is painted with my Porsche paint. That's how we got it right, with the gilt dial and everything. So our gilt hands and indices. Isn't that cool? So, uh, so these are going to be 1,200 bucks. Wow, that's not bad at all. Yeah, we're doing 100 of them. So we're limited by, we will have sold every movement that they will have. And that's the combination that's coming in? This is the sixth color we've done. We've done, we did the mint green, the orange, the dark blue, the British racing green, the Tahitian black pearl, and now this one. Very nice. Yeah, yeah. That is gorgeous, man.

• 1:28:01Matt Farah?

  And then we have an all-new watch we're coming out with later in the year. That one will, that other watch, we are less limited by movements and so we're going to make more of them regardless. So that's why they were so limited. We literally couldn't make more. So if you were a patron, I hope you, I hope you got one. If not, I hope you join and get one now. Okay. I don't know if, uh, this is, okay, Pearl Love Bone of the Mad Green Dog, maybe slightly different from the question you answered earlier. Okay, sidebar. They are good to reschedule to load tomorrow before noon. Can you get that other car down here?

• 1:28:45Matt Farah?

  Okay. Thanks, Habibi, you're the man. Is he a Habibi? No. He's the whitest dude ever, I just bug him out.

• 1:28:58Matt Farah?

  He doesn't like when I talk like that. Yeah.

• 1:29:02Matt Farah?

  Okay, what unique project would you like, would you most like to have a well-funded customer bring to him? Meaning, what is your cost no object build?

• 1:29:12Speaker 01

  That I've done so far, or that I would want to do?

• 1:29:15Matt Farah?

  That you would want someone to bring to you.

• 1:29:16Speaker 01

  Geez, I mean, that's kind of a hard question because there's so much you can do. I mean, I would love to build like a V12, stroked V12 powered, just badass.

• 1:29:30Matt Farah?

  Build your own Zonda motor kind of thing?

• 1:29:32Speaker 01

  Basically, you know, in a six-speed and a custom, basically what Hartman was doing to the sledgehammer would be like my dream build. You know what I mean?

• 1:29:40Matt Farah?

  There was a, there was a fairly decently substantiated rumor that every time an SL60 or an SL73 came up for auction, it was fucking Horatio buying them back to strip them from motors.

• 1:29:52Speaker 01

  Really? That's interesting.

• 1:29:54Matt Farah?

  They were paying a lot of money for them too, because you turn one into a Zonda.

• 1:29:57Speaker 01

  Sure. What did he do with the parts?

• 1:30:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. He got a car. Yeah, we gotta find out.

• 1:30:05Speaker 01

  Out of like Russia somewhere. I mean, listen, I wouldn't doubt it because it's probably cheaper for him to do that than to develop the motor from scratch.

• 1:30:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:30:16Speaker 01

  The M120, I think, is what it's based off of the V12. You can't find them anymore. You know, so it is a fantastic motor, by the way. It's just everything else around it, the wiring harness and every, and the support is horrible.

• 1:30:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:29Speaker 01

  The engine itself is a badass engine. I just actually got on someone's Instagram, I don't remember the name, but he's actually like turbocharging these things. Twin turbocharging them, putting them with the manual, and he did an SL600. Dude, it's wicked.

• 1:30:45Matt Farah?

  I bet it's nasty.

• 1:30:46Speaker 01

  It's nasty.

• 1:30:46Matt Farah?

  That's a good time.

• 1:30:48Speaker 01

  It sounds amazing.

• 1:30:49Matt Farah?

  It's so fast. Yeah, it's gotta be nuts.

• 1:30:52Speaker 01

  So, at the time when these were new, my buddy bought one in 96, 95 or 96. It was a purple, special colored SL600, which he took to CEC, and he had it supercharged.

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  And he drove this car and then he ended up selling it and now he wants to buy it back. So he he has no trace of the VIN number. He has no trace of anything on the car. So I told him, listen, what month did you sell it? And he kind of remembered the month and year and he remembers putting it in the DuPont registry.

• 1:31:31Matt Farah?

  And you found it?

• 1:31:32Speaker 01

  So we went on eBay and we we found we bought the month to see because sometimes they put the VIN numbers in there. And it wasn't there, but he's still trying to look for that car.

• 1:31:41Matt Farah?

  Anyone out there's got a purple SL600?

• 1:31:43Speaker 01

  Purple SL600 with a Lorenzer supercharged, yeah.

• 1:31:46Matt Farah?

  From CEC.

• 1:31:48Speaker 01

  Back then, I mean, it was kitted Lorenzer body kit, the RSK wheels, supercharged. It was pretty wicked SL.

• 1:31:54Matt Farah?

  Bull run with Klaus Ettenberger a few times. He is not a normal not a normal person. Not a normal person. Klaus is crazy.

• 1:32:03Speaker 01

  Is he? I I mean, I've met him a few times, but.

• 1:32:05Matt Farah?

  I've never in my entire life, he he. I respect him a little bit. No, I do respect him and I respect him as a businessman and and as a fucking crazy German. He did. He did one of the most dangerous things I've ever seen anybody do. He he he had a he did Bull Run in 2009, I think, with us. And he drove a C63 with some other lunatic fucking German friend of his. And he had a smokescreen in it. Like he put a legit. Yeah, he installed a smokescreen. I've never seen anything like that used in real life.

• 1:32:42Speaker 01

  Crazy, dude.

• 1:32:43Matt Farah?

  And he hit the smokescreen on the highway and it was just insta fog. Like insta fog. I couldn't.

• 1:32:52Speaker 01

  Across how many lanes?

• 1:32:55Matt Farah?

  The whole highway.

• 1:32:56Speaker 01

  Wow. Why would you do that?

• 1:32:57Matt Farah?

  Like, because we was because Bull Run was stupid. It's like it was long distance endurance, street racing, effectively. It was deeply irresponsible.

• 1:33:05Speaker 01

  Dangerous, dude.

• 1:33:06Matt Farah?

  Well, because these guys would outdo each other in the crazy land. It was like him and fucking Richard Rawlings and these these.

• 1:33:16Speaker 01

  Did he ever use it while running from police or was he did he make it as like this is a fun gimmick to have?

• 1:33:21Matt Farah?

  Personally witnessed him use it the one time and I was like, oh, I am I am out of my.

• 1:33:26Speaker 01

  Was it like those DJ foggers? He had maybe.

• 1:33:28Matt Farah?

  No, it was apparently it was a very simple system that just dumped baby oil into the catalytic converters.

• 1:33:37Speaker 01

  Jesus. Are you serious?

• 1:33:42Matt Farah?

  Oh my god.

• 1:33:43Speaker 01

  That's nuts dude.

• 1:33:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it was crazy.

• 1:33:45Speaker 01

  That's Puff Daddy injection.

• 1:33:46Matt Farah?

  That's Puff Daddy injection. Yeah, and he fucking hit the smoke and I was just like, I just, I couldn't believe it. It was one, it was one of the most, one of the most unbelievable things I've ever seen on a public road. Yeah, it's super dangerous.

• 1:33:56Speaker 01

  Two, I'm pretty sure like.

• 1:33:57Matt Farah?

  Everything about this was dangerous by the way. This is like, this was the most dangerous thing of.

• 1:34:03Speaker 01

  So was it an actual race for time or was it just a run?

• 1:34:06Matt Farah?

  It's not, it's not. But like, tell these fucking psychos that. All these guys were, all these guys, including me at that age, were out of their minds. But some of these guys were out of their minds and also like insanely rich.

• 1:34:21Speaker 01

  Right. So there's no consequences. There were no, there were no smartphones really, so no one's really, you're not gonna get a lot of evidence filmed about you.

• 1:34:27Matt Farah?

  Right. And Klaus, there was this unbelievable video. He did get pulled over once and him and his buddy who were German. You know, Klaus has lived in Beverly Hills for who the fuck knows how long. But he's, you know, they just start screaming at each other in German. It's on video. And the cop just like, I just, I just, I don't, I don't even. The cop doesn't know. Just doesn't even know what to do here. You know, they give him a license, but it's a German license and he doesn't know what the fuck. And they just, and, and they're screaming at each other for like five minutes at the top of the, and the cop just gives up and walks away. So like they would, you know, they'd do shit like that and they'd get fucking 50 Gs in the glove box if they got, they expected to get arrested. It was nuts.

• 1:35:06Speaker 01

  I can imagine the clientele these people had.

• 1:35:10Matt Farah?

  Oh yeah.

• 1:35:10Speaker 01

  Back in the eighties and nineties dude.

• 1:35:12Matt Farah?

  His client must have been exclusively, exclusively coke out psychos.

• 1:35:18Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 1:35:18Matt Farah?

  For sure. People who don't here know, ever.

• 1:35:21Speaker 01

  So I, I got a chance to meet Chris Hahn, the owner of SGS. When I went to Retro Automobile, he was there because there was a going SCC for some. And I spent a few days with him and he was telling me the stories of his clientele man. And he was selling like 200,000 plus cars back then, goings, which I own a couple of and convertible conversions and all that. Dude, these people were like on a different level. Like, they were on some shit.

• 1:35:46Matt Farah?

  Dude, the drugs and the configurators. What an everything.

• 1:35:53Speaker 01

  And you look at some of these builds and you think you had to be a different individual to.

• 1:35:58Matt Farah?

  Forty-seven way seats.

• 1:36:01Speaker 01

  To even think about this shit.

• 1:36:02Matt Farah?

  You have switch panels that go up, up, up, and then onto the ceiling and like behind you.

• 1:36:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, they had.

• 1:36:08Matt Farah?

  What are all these switches?

• 1:36:09Speaker 01

  Like a tape player up here and one here and equalizers everywhere and, you know, Clarion decks on the dash.

• 1:36:17Matt Farah?

  I don't even know what all this shit does.

• 1:36:18Speaker 01

  It didn't. So I have a, I have a limo, like a little executive stretch.

• 1:36:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:23Speaker 01

  Uh, and this thing is like, it's got the whole Pioneer deck in the back. It's got the TV. And it's got all these gadgets. Yeah. And it's like, you don't know what the hell they do. They're just there. They just add stuff. Yeah.

• 1:36:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:38Speaker 01

  It's a, it's, it's a carat du chalet model.

• 1:36:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:41Speaker 01

  And it's badass. The thing's badass. But like you sit in it and you look and you're like, you're sitting at a Circuit City.

• 1:36:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you're like, what do I do with this shit?

• 1:36:50Speaker 01

  What are you doing with all this shit? You know what I mean?

• 1:36:51Matt Farah?

  I need to fine tune my EQ right now, of course.

• 1:36:55Speaker 01

  So they, I, I can imagine. And I'm, I'm sure it builds a character.

• 1:37:00Matt Farah?

  The Porsche, like BB and Gambala and all that stuff with Porsches. It was, it was not exclusive to Mercedes, but they were.

• 1:37:08Speaker 01

  Gambala was doing some crazy shit.

• 1:37:10Matt Farah?

  Oh, Gambala was on some real.

• 1:37:11Speaker 01

  And I think that they're still like creating some.

• 1:37:13Matt Farah?

  They are. They have like new stuff sometimes. And there's, uh, what's his name? The son.

• 1:37:18Speaker 01

  Uh, yes.

• 1:37:20Matt Farah?

  Mark, Mark Philippe Gambala or something like that. Who's got that off-road, uh, that's called the Marzian.

• 1:37:25Speaker 01

  Was it Uday? The dad's name was? Uday, I think that's right.

• 1:37:27Matt Farah?

  Uy, uy, yeah, yeah, uy. Um, the, uh, um, anyway. So, yeah, Gambala GT-R Evo R bi-turbo. Yeah.

• 1:37:38Speaker 01

  Apparently they're introducing this, this new Gambala car in Monterey this year.

• 1:37:41Matt Farah?

  Sure. All right.

• 1:37:43Speaker 01

  We'll see what it's all about.

• 1:37:45Matt Farah?

  Good times. Um, cold air intake on my soccer mom SUV says people often complain about the complexity of repairs on Merx. Uh, when doing builds, do you take steps to simplify or improve some of the common frustrations?

• 1:37:59Speaker 01

  Definitely. I mean, uh, wiring being one of them. Uh, the wiring harness, obviously on the mid, mid nineties, early two thousand cars were like biodegradable wires. Um, they do, they did sell an upgraded kit and if they don't sell it, we run through the wires and get all that strained out. Um, the cars were built pretty solid. I mean, suspension wise, braking wise, they're pretty solid. Um, the drive cranes in them are bulletproof. It's just the support, you know, with especially the eighties and nineties with the Bosch fuel injection systems and the CIS units are becoming, you know, archaic. Um, if there's any way

• 1:38:40Speaker 01

  to EFI, I know they, they do have kits which EFI those, which they go, you know, instead of the mechanical, it's electronic fuel injection. That would be the biggest improvement where you can actually adjust and, you know, take all the bugs out of it. But other than that, I mean, it's just mainly the fuel system and the wiring.

• 1:38:57Matt Farah?

  If you upgrade a, uh, to an EFI on like an old.

• 1:39:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:39:03Matt Farah?

  On a six liter motor or something, can you get a lot of extra power or is it just smoother?

• 1:39:08Speaker 01

  Power, reliability, smoothness, um.

• 1:39:11Matt Farah?

  More efficient.

• 1:39:12Speaker 01

  Support, efficiency in every way. Yeah.

• 1:39:14Matt Farah?

  Is that a pricey thing to swap?

• 1:39:16Speaker 01

  They, they have kits that they sell in Europe I've seen for like twenty five hundred bucks. I've never really pulled the trigger on one. Um, but I'm tempted just to see what it does, you know, and I don't know why they went mechanical, you know, why they went with that CSI.

• 1:39:31Matt Farah?

  Everybody was doing that shit at the time.

• 1:39:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:33Matt Farah?

  Everybody.

• 1:39:34Speaker 01

  I mean, the Japanese were doing, you know, EFI and these guys were going the opposite direction.

• 1:39:38Matt Farah?

  Every eighties European car I've had has had, the Lambo, the Ferrari, the Porsche.

• 1:39:44Speaker 01

  Same. It's the same system.

• 1:39:45Matt Farah?

  It's all the same shit.

• 1:39:46Speaker 01

  It's the same. You don't drive it for a while, the shit gets gummy.

• 1:39:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:50Speaker 01

  And the fuel too, doesn't help the situation, man. The fuel nowadays is just horrible compared to back in the day, you know?

• 1:39:56Matt Farah?

  Gotta run that non ethanol.

• 1:39:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:39:58Matt Farah?

  That good shit. Yeah. ZR1XGoneGiveItToya says, "People in California who run Montana tags due to not being able to smog their old car, why don't they just register it in a county that only smogs a title transfer?"

• 1:40:14Matt Farah?

  Alright, sorry, I should have read this before reading it out loud. I'll finish, though. "We register our old truck at my parents' place in Eureka and don't have to smog it unless we sell it." We don't all have parents who live in Eureka. Yeah. I mean, I-

• 1:40:29Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, there's two, and you're right, there's two answers. One is, we don't all have parents that are in a county, or like, I've heard this before. If you don't live in a county or have a place in the county, you can't do that. The other reason some people don't do it is because registering Montana saves the taxes. Whereas I think registering in Eureka, you probably still have to pay the California salesman.

• 1:40:46Matt Farah?

  Well, I think the question is targeted at people who would register their cars in California if California provided them a path.

• 1:40:53Speaker 02

  Ah, gotcha, yeah.

• 1:40:54Matt Farah?

  But what you're also suggesting is buying a property in a different county specifically for this purpose, which is a far more inconvenient and headache-inducing solution than-

• 1:41:07Speaker 02

  By far.

• 1:41:07Matt Farah?

  Than, than the Montana tag, which I'm not officially endorsing, but... I mean, how about this? How about this? You write me a lease, and I'll rent your parents' house for a dollar a month.

• 1:41:20Speaker 02

  There you go.

• 1:41:22Matt Farah?

  And I'm on the lease, baby, let's go.

• 1:41:26Matt Farah?

  That's like the bill, like, all the Montana tags, like, all of them are from, like, one office building.

• 1:41:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, we could run the office building in Eureka.

• 1:41:35Speaker 01

  This is like that whole hospice scam going on, it's like-

• 1:41:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:38Speaker 01

  You know, I mean, eventually, there's gonna be another loophole. People are gonna find another loophole.

• 1:41:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:44Speaker 01

  I mean-

• 1:41:44Matt Farah?

  No, I genuinely think that if you, if you have a car that cannot pass smog, and it's, it's a collector-grade vehicle, or it's a, it's a, it's an old work vehicle or whatever, there should be some kind of a path.

• 1:41:59Speaker 01

  There should.

• 1:41:59Matt Farah?

  It might be money, it might be something, but like-

• 1:42:03Speaker 01

  Or some sort of, like, some sort of program where it gives you the opportunity to at least make it smog-legal, or some, something that's gonna, because some of these guys, you know, that, that have these cars, they have no choice, man. This is kind of the car they own.

• 1:42:16Matt Farah?

  Well, that's, that's, that's a problem is that it's, it's, it's, uh- It's a hardship if you, if your car that you need is not able to pass smog.

• 1:42:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:42:27Matt Farah?

  And also, it's, represents an escaped value for the state.

• 1:42:31Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:42:31Matt Farah?

  If someone with a collector vehicle like my Countach, which has never been able to pass smog. If I can't register it in California, but I would, and you could have my tax money.

• 1:42:41Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:42:42Matt Farah?

  Well, what do you want me to do?

• 1:42:43Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:42:44Matt Farah?

  I'll give you the money!

• 1:42:46Speaker 01

  And that's what I'm saying. There's people that, that will be able to do that.

• 1:42:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:42:50Speaker 01

  And they would, and they will. And there's people that can't do that, which want some sort of an, like, some sort of a package or a program where they can at least drive this car like.

• 1:42:59Matt Farah?

  Take the money that you give me, you give me the pass for under 2,000 miles a year.

• 1:43:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:43:04Matt Farah?

  And then take my money and have a, a, a program.

• 1:43:08Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:43:09Matt Farah?

  That retrofits old cars.

• 1:43:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:43:11Matt Farah?

  With better emissions equipment.

• 1:43:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:43:13Matt Farah?

  When I run for fucking mayor of LA, that's what we're gonna do.

• 1:43:16Speaker 01

  Let's do it.

• 1:43:17Matt Farah?

  Until then, we roll around in red Benzos.

• 1:43:20Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:43:21Matt Farah?

  I can't wait to actually, once, when I had my silver 129, I, I would drive around and, and play Picture Me Rollin' uh, by Tupac, and I'm excited to get to do it again.

• 1:43:29Speaker 01

  What are we doing with the sound system on that car?

• 1:43:31Matt Farah?

  Um, I will leave it up to you. What is important to me is that, uh, it has a car play screen, so if my wife needs the GPS and shit, that it will mirror the phone. But like, I don't wa, I don't want a whole trunk full of speakers.

• 1:43:45Speaker 01

  No, just something nice and crisp. Crisp and clean. We can eliminate the ashtray and put like a, a, a screen in there where you have like the backup camera.

• 1:43:53Matt Farah?

  Wait, no ashtray. Where am I gonna ash these blunts? No.

• 1:43:59Matt Farah?

  We, I wouldn't be opposed to a bazooka tube.

• 1:44:02Speaker 01

  Behind the seat.

• 1:44:03Matt Farah?

  I would, I would fu, I would fuck with a bazooka tube.

• 1:44:06Speaker 01

  Remember those, they, they came with straps.

• 1:44:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:09Speaker 01

  So they don't slosh around in the back. I remember that. Yeah. Dude, those things bumped pretty good. They did.

• 1:44:14Matt Farah?

  And you know the cup, the company's still around. We can get them.

• 1:44:16Speaker 01

  Are they still around?

• 1:44:17Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, they're, they're around. I'm not, I'm not even fucking around.

• 1:44:21Speaker 01

  I remember, they bumped really well.

• 1:44:23Matt Farah?

  And, uh, we should maybe get one, but someone had asked us on a previous show, like, if we were to do, uh, like a Resto mod Fox body, what would it, what would it include?

• 1:44:32Speaker 01

  A bazooka tube.

• 1:44:33Matt Farah?

  And I said it would have to be, you know, it would have to have less rattles and a coyote motor and this and that. But it would also have to have a strapped down fucking bazooka. And you have like the leather tie downs, you know, real, real nice, like John Ward would make up.

• 1:44:47Speaker 01

  You know those old school ones were just. I mean, they were just a simple tube with with a speaker and they sound phenomenal.

• 1:44:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they were great.

• 1:44:55Speaker 01

  Especially in back of a... So my buddy had one in back of an IROC in that crevices.

• 1:45:00Matt Farah?

  As you, as one does.

• 1:45:02Speaker 01

  And that thing used to resonate off the glass.

• 1:45:03Matt Farah?

  Boom, boom, boom. Yeah, Larry had it in the hatchback of his five, of his 5.0. And it turned your whole

• 1:45:09Speaker 01

  It was like a whole

• 1:45:10Matt Farah?

  hatch into a thing, yeah. Then you'd have to put the sponge behind the license plate, otherwise it would

• 1:45:15Speaker 01

  I have like a soft spot for Fox bodies. I have five of them. I love them.

• 1:45:19Matt Farah?

  Do you really?

• 1:45:19Speaker 01

  I love Fox bodies, man.

• 1:45:21Matt Farah?

  It's America's 124.

• 1:45:23Speaker 01

  Thank for the buck is just, you've seen my Dominator, the white one, the wide one.

• 1:45:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one's got like the IMSA body kit on it or whatever the fuck.

• 1:45:31Speaker 01

  It's super wild, super wild.

• 1:45:32Matt Farah?

  You got, we, we could do a whole other show on all the non Mercedes shit. You have 109 cars. But we'll come back to it, uh, when my Mercedes is done.

• 1:45:40Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 1:45:41Matt Farah?

  Thanks, Sean.

• 1:45:42Speaker 01

  You're welcome, man. Thank you guys for having me. This is great.

• 1:45:44Matt Farah?

  Uh, CMS underscore motorsports on Instagram. How the fuck do you pronounce your last name? I've never had to speak it out loud.

• 1:45:52Speaker 01

  Meschefagian.

• 1:45:53Matt Farah?

  Boy, Meschefagian.

• 1:45:55Speaker 01

  Thirteen letters.

• 1:45:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's a good thing you don't have an Oldsmobile dealership. You'd be a deep shit.

• 1:46:00Matt Farah?

  You need a big building. Meschefagian, that's a good one. That is a good one. Yeah, yeah. It, it, it sounds like a delicious entree that I'm gonna order.

• 1:46:07Speaker 01

  It does, with a side of rice.

• 1:46:09Matt Farah?

  Get me some Llama June like right now, bro.

• 1:46:12Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, we gotta go have some good Armenian food. I gotta take you guys to dinner, man.

• 1:46:15Matt Farah?

  A hundred percent. So down? I, I grew up eating Llama June.

• 1:46:18Speaker 01

  Or you guys come to my place for a barbecue, then, then, then we rock and roll.

• 1:46:22Matt Farah?

  Can you do skewers?

• 1:46:23Speaker 01

  Oh, hell yeah.

• 1:46:24Matt Farah?

  Can you make the skewers?

• 1:46:24Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 1:46:25Matt Farah?

  With the swords?

• 1:46:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:46:26Matt Farah?

  That shit's hard.

• 1:46:27Speaker 01

  It's very hard and it's just the way you line it up and you gotta use the metal skewers and they have to be the right thickness. So when you're putting it on the fire, that, you know, that metal heats up and it cooks the inside of the meat too.

• 1:46:39Matt Farah?

  When I've tried to do it, the, the meat like kinda disintegrates and falls off the skewer.

• 1:46:44Speaker 01

  It depends how you're actually, like, you're mixing the ground beef. So the butcher I go to knows the correct fat content versus the ratio. And it's how you kinda put it on there. It's, you know.

• 1:46:54Matt Farah?

  Ali said he's gonna teach me.

• 1:46:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:46:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah, my other, my other, my Persian friend is gonna teach me.

• 1:46:59Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. See, Persian barbecues too, like, they know how to do it.

• 1:47:02Matt Farah?

  That's who took me to the spot in Glendale.

• 1:47:03Speaker 01

  Which spot did you go to?

• 1:47:05Matt Farah?

  Rafi.

• 1:47:05Speaker 01

  Rafi's?

• 1:47:06Matt Farah?

  Rafi's, yeah.

• 1:47:07Speaker 01

  Oh, dude, you went to like the, you know? The McDonald's.

• 1:47:10Matt Farah?

  That's a good spot.

• 1:47:11Speaker 01

  No, it's a very good spot.

• 1:47:12Matt Farah?

  I also fuck with Tun La Maggio in Burbank. The Lama June spot.

• 1:47:16Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:47:17Matt Farah?

  That has the special oven. That place is, that's the banger.

• 1:47:20Speaker 01

  I'll take you to, you know, you gotta go to the little local spots. Rafi's is like the.

• 1:47:24Speaker 02

  It's big.

• 1:47:24Speaker 01

  The superstar. You go to those little mom and, oh, they're, it's phenomenal.

• 1:47:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:28Speaker 01

  But you go to the little mom and pop spots where, you know, they have the special cut of meat for you set up over there.

• 1:47:35Matt Farah?

  There's also the spot in Gardena by our other store that's like next level. Borgstar, if you fuck with Borgstar.

• 1:47:41Speaker 01

  I don't know much about.

• 1:47:42Matt Farah?

  That place is the shit.

• 1:47:42Speaker 01

  Is it?

• 1:47:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, Gardena's a secret.

• 1:47:44Speaker 01

  Is it Persian, Armenian, what?

• 1:47:45Matt Farah?

  It's Persian.

• 1:47:46Speaker 01

  Persian.

• 1:47:46Matt Farah?

  But Gardena's a fucking super secret. There's a lot going on down there.

• 1:47:50Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:47:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, cuz nobody wants to go down there.

• 1:47:51Speaker 01

  I haven't been to your other spot. I wanna go check it out.

• 1:47:54Matt Farah?

  It's, it's, it's great.

• 1:47:55Speaker 01

  Are you guys gonna do the events there? Are you guys?

• 1:47:57Matt Farah?

  We're working on it.

• 1:47:58Speaker 01

  Working on it, yeah.

• 1:47:59Matt Farah?

  The city isn't happy about it. The city doesn't like you doing anything.

• 1:48:02Speaker 02

  They're very resistant.

• 1:48:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, but there's not much going on. Why wouldn't they want it?

• 1:48:06Matt Farah?

  I don't know.

• 1:48:07Speaker 01

  Like, direct traffic to the city and it's obviously quality people that are going there. It's like.

• 1:48:12Matt Farah?

  I think they're, I think they're nervous cuz of the fucking, just like takeovers down there at night. And you stay anything with.

• 1:48:18Speaker 01

  I understand.

• 1:48:18Matt Farah?

  Anything with cars, they're really on edge.

• 1:48:20Speaker 02

  We'd like to bring a bunch of cars to an industrial area. At nighttime, yeah.

• 1:48:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they're really on edge about it. All right, well, I can't wait. We got the, we've sorted this. The truck is coming to take both cars tomorrow morning to send them down to, uh, Quick Classics in Nashville. I was talking to Matt, I may, when he, once he's got like things sort of like maximally apart or start. I'm gonna find the right time to go down there and see what's what.

• 1:48:46Speaker 01

  You know what? Let me know when you're gonna go.

• 1:48:47Matt Farah?

  You wanna go?

• 1:48:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:48:49Matt Farah?

  All right.

• 1:48:49Speaker 01

  We'll make, we'll make a weekend out of it. Actually, there.

• 1:48:52Matt Farah?

  Do you have a white suit in my size?

• 1:48:54Speaker 01

  Yes. We'll walk in there with a briefcase with a couple of white suits. But there, I think he does his cars and coffees there.

• 1:49:01Matt Farah?

  Oh, he does?

• 1:49:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:49:02Matt Farah?

  All right, we'll figure that out.

• 1:49:03Speaker 01

  We'll go there one of the weekends when he's doing it. Just depending, the car community in Tennessee is really grown too.

• 1:49:08Matt Farah?

  It is, no, Tennessee's great. Knoxville's great, Nashville's great. He's, and we got, my boy Cameron Weiss is down there, although he's in Switzerland right now, training watchmakers. How to make your shit, yeah. He's like, he's like, I can't find any watchmakers, so I'm just gonna go to Switzerland and train my own. Okay, sounds good.

• 1:49:25Speaker 01

  Do it, very cool.

• 1:49:26Matt Farah?

  But, uh, we'll have to figure that one out. And then he said like, I think he said two months, and then the car comes back to you for paint and interior. You finish it all out. Just like that. All right, CMS Motorsports on Instagram is basically where you find what you need to know, right? Yep. That's where they find you. That's it, yeah. Have Sean build you something. He's pretty good at it. I'd love to do it. I can't fucking wait. Uh, thanks to our patrons for asking such good questions today. We appreciate you all. And Zach and I are going racing, so when you hear from us next, you will have the racing wrap-up for you. And, uh, that's all I got. Goodbye. Thank you, guys.