CMS Motorsports is Making AMG Dreams come True

Summary

The Smoking Tire Podcast

Episode: "CMS Motorsports is Making AMG Dreams Come True"

Date: April 23, 2026
Hosts: Matt Farah & Zack Klapman
Guest: Shont Mishafijian (CMS Motorsports)

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Episode Overview

This episode is a wide-ranging exploration of the allure, history, and custom restoration of vintage Mercedes-AMGs, with a focus on pre-merger cars and modern reimaginings. Matt and Zack are joined by Shont Mishafijian of CMS Motorsports, one of the world’s premier builders and restorers of classic and custom AMG Mercedes. They discuss Shont’s personal history, the evolution of his shop, the challenges and triumphs of restoring and recreating iconic models, emerging trends in the market, and the details behind Matt’s own ambitious 500E Cabriolet project. The trio mixes technical insight with humor, storytelling, and personal anecdotes, making this episode a deep dive for anyone passionate about ‘80s/‘90s Mercedes and the revived AMG/modded car market.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Shont’s Background & Origin Story

[01:59 – 09:52]

• Shont’s fascination with pre-merger AMG began with a formative childhood encounter: seeing a white SEC AMG in Beverly Hills as a kid, being invited to sit in it, and the influence of ‘80s pop culture.
  • Shont: "This was late 80s, mid 80s… I'm whatever, eight, nine years old. I'm on cloud nine—core memory. Gray Recaros, fully trimmed… I remember thinking, yeah, this is what I want." [03:19]
• Family legacy in auto bodywork (origins in Syria, then Boston, then LA) — learning hands-on skills and old-school fabrication from uncles.
  • "Every body shop was a fabricator. They used to, you know, sit there and beat the metal, heat it. That's the way you fixed cars, because you just didn't have a parts department." [07:11]
• Early projects included building an ‘86 Mercedes 300E into a “hammer” clone, hunting down AMG parts in junkyards, and flipping through magazines for inspiration.
  • "I still own that car...I actually took my wife on the first date with that car.” [16:15]

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Shont’s Shop, CMS Motorsports: Restoration, Recreation, & Innovation

[02:37, 19:14 – 28:57]

• The growth of CMS—expanding from a small within-a-business operation to a downtown LA showroom, focused on the Mercedes tuner aesthetic: seats, wheels, full “pre-merger” AMG style.
• Demand surge for vintage AMG and period-correct recreations:
  • Radwood, social media, and rarity of originals drive up value.
  • Room in the market to create accurate, high-quality recreations for enthusiasts unable to buy originals.
• CMS recreates body kits and widebodies (steel, not just fiberglass), often improving on original AMG fit and finish:
  • "We do everything out of steel construction. It's welded to the car. The body kits, the spoilers, the cladding fits perfect." [23:49]
• Addressing parts scarcity:
  • Shont strategically bought up NOS parts as they became obsolete/cheap.
  • Makes molds from originals, and sometimes, his reproductions outclass the original in fit and quality.

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The “Red Car” — Matt’s Dream 500E Cabriolet Build

[25:01 – 53:18]

• The origin: after years of lusting after CMS’s red 500E wagon, Matt received a red 1-2-4 cabriolet and hatched a new build with Shont.
• The vision:
  • Combination of factory-correct 500E aesthetic and modern powertrain/comforts, as if “Mercedes built a 500CE cabriolet.”
• Detailed Technical Walkthrough:
  • Bodywork/Cladding: Digitally scanned/SW engineered to blend coupe/wagon/sedan elements for the perfect “factory” look, all in steel for rigidity and durability.
  • Powertrain:
    • 4-cam M119 V8 (original 500E engine) was eliminated from consideration due to size, costs, complexity:
      • "You need to basically cut away the firewall from a 400 or a 500E, which changes everything... it's a lot of work." [33:39]
    • Reveal: “Hammer” name came because builders literally hammered the firewall to fit the big motor!
      • Quote: "They literally hammered the firewall to make that fit." [34:18]
    • Instead, donor E55 AMG (2002) powertrain:
      • Lighter, more powerful, more serviceable, easier fit, and with modern 5-speed auto or possible manual options.
      • "Smog legal. Smooth as butter. And with an ECU tune, you can easily pull close to 400 horsepower…this thing is going to be a hot rod." [37:17]
  • Suspension, Brakes, Exhaust: Upgraded with E500-spec Bilstein/H&R, SL600 brakes, full SuperSprint exhaust—including modern comfort and reliability.
  • Wheels & Interior:
    • Period-correct HRE wheels—specially scanned/produced in 17” for fit and authenticity.
    • Custom “old-school” seat inserts, color-matched to the car but with thoughtful modern touches for comfort and practicality (CarPlay, crisp sound, etc).
  • The goal: a “relaxed LA cruiser” with daily-driver reliability, modern amenities, gobs of torque, and bespoke 500E style.

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The Market, Rarity, & Certification of Vintage AMG

[53:18 – 62:45]

• Market Overview:
  • Post-pandemic, interest and values in Mercedes-AMG restorations have surged; customs and “restomods” are now widely accepted.
  • Prices for widebody AMGs have gone north of $500k; documentation and authenticity are increasingly important.
  • The true number of “hammer” builds is murky: estimates range from 56 to 75-80 worldwide, often retrofitted, devalued, or re-headed due to reliability issues.
  • Certification:
    • Mercedes and MKB (in Germany) offer programs to document “real” cars (especially full builds, 6-liter and higher spec).
    • Example: Shont tells the story of buying a wrecked, seemingly junker SEL, which turned out to be a “highest spec SEL” ($138k in upgrades in 1986!) after tracing its build record.

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Custom Coachbuilding & Dream Builds at CMS

[66:44 – 76:05]

• CMS’s innovative coachbuilds:
  • Shooting brake builds—bespoke one-offs (with custom glass, handmade panels, and massive reinforcement).
    • Shont: “We wanted the same flow, but everything else is custom made. Those side moldings are all handmade. The drip rails are all handmade." [68:19]
  • Newer generation, black “speedtail” shooting brake on the way—more aggressive, 6.3 V8, manual, no back seat—meant to look evil!
  • Upcoming personal project: SEC body on 2022 E63 chassis, blending modern power and luxury with vintage style.
  • CMS is always pushing new custom directions as the popularity of “classic” widebody AMGs explodes.

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Mercedes Tuner Culture & Anecdotes

[62:45 – 96:48]

• The market for other tuners:
  • High demand for Konig, Lorinser, and other period Mercedes tuners.
  • Shont owns the original molds for a one-off Konig and gets constant requests, but refuses to sell kits (to preserve the car’s exclusivity).
• “Craziest” period features:
  • Tales of ‘80s/’90s high-roller buyers—custom purple woods, executive limo switch panels, smoke screens (via dumping baby oil into the cats), and tons of over-the-top stereo/TV gadgets.
  • “Configurator insanity”—how customers specced cocaine-dream interiors and electronics.

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Audience Q&A (Selected Highlights)

[76:05 – 101:38]

• Advice for modding early diesel Benzes:
  • Swapping to a newer, high-output diesel is the best bet; huge performance available with modern tuning (especially outside US).
• What gives you more gray hair: rare part hunting or explaining why classics should have big power?
  • Part hunting, hands down.
• W210 E55 AMG “mile muncher” build:
  • The best upgrade you can do is a manual swap. “...far better. It totally changed the whole driving experience.” [80:09]
• Upgrading electrical/fueling in classic builds:
  • CMS uses modern EFI to replace troublesome mechanical CIS systems wherever possible.
• On MB-Tex vs. leather:
  • MB-Tex is unbeaten for durability; many 30-plus-year-old cars look “brand new.”

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Notable Quotes

On the Origin of “Hammer”

Shont [34:18]:
"That's where the name originates. They literally hammered the firewall to make that fit."

On Building Re-creations

Shont [23:49]:
"They're actually more perfected than the original. I mean, everything is made out of steel construction…It's welded to the car…so if you look at it, it's kind of overly restored, but that's just the way I like doing it—to make it look perfect."

On Custom Shop Operations

Shont [53:34]:
"Right now, we have 18 cars in production…After the pandemic, it just started to blow up…People started to realize these were really special back in the day and they've been forgotten about."

On Car Build Philosophy

Matt [46:45]:
"I like old school hot rodding."
Shont: "It's gonna be a hot rod. 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."

On MB-Tex

Shont [83:03]: "It's fantastic material. I have my 300E '86, it's original MB-Tex and it looks brand new. It doesn't crack…It's incredible what they've created with that."

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Memorable Moments & Banter

• Matt and Shont trading stories about their first truly inspiring car encounters—a white SEC AMG and a Countach, respectively—cementing lifelong obsessions.
• The revelation about literal hammering giving the AMG “Hammer” its name—a perfect piece of unexpected car lore.
• Color and wheel choice debates for Matt’s 500E project—agonizing over subtleties like silver finishes that must "glow bright" against signal red paint.
• The group laughing about the “drug dealer chic” of AMG Mercedes (Miami Vice, outrageously specced 1980s builds).
• Discussion of modding Mercedes diesels, the pain of CIS injection, and the durability of MB-Tex seats vs. leather.
• Glimpses of the wild world of period tuner culture: smoke screens, comically heavy Konig kits, purple leather with purple wood, and limousine switch panels.

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• Shont’s Introduction & Family History: [01:45 – 09:52]
• First AMG Encounters & 1980s Car Culture: [03:19 – 06:43]
• Restoring & Recreating AMG, Shop Expansion: [02:37, 19:14 – 28:57]
• Matt’s 500E Cabriolet Build Explained: [25:01 – 53:18]
• The Hammer—Name Origin & Big Engine Fitting: [33:56 – 35:26]
• Market Trends, Documentation, Rarity: [53:18 – 62:45]
• Shooting Brakes & New Coachbuilds: [66:44 – 76:05]
• Q&A on Modding, Repairs, Market Advice: [76:05 – 101:38]
• Coachbuilding Anecdotes & Tuner Culture: [62:45 – 96:48]
• Wrap-up, Food & Barbecue Talk: [106:09 – End]

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Tone & Style Snapshot

The conversation is equal parts technical deep dive and humorous car enthusiast banter—fast-paced, loaded with inside references, but welcoming to newcomers. Shont brings grounded, old-world craftsmanship and hard-won wisdom, while Matt and Zack provide self-deprecating wit, passion, and modern context.

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In Summary

This episode of The Smoking Tire is an essential listen for fans of classic Mercedes, restomodding, and vintage tuner culture. Shont Mishafijian’s expertise brings a unique, hands-on perspective to building and reviving the wildest cars the '80s and '90s offered. With Matt’s dream project as a case study, the pod pulls back the curtain on the exciting—and sometimes insane—world of Mercedes custom builds, blending nostalgia with next-level performance and style.

Transcript

[Matt 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 ruin your vacation, and certainly don't plead guilty. Get off the record. Go to offtherecord.comtst to get 10% off all legal services through off the record. 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. In partnership with Dream Giveaways, we are giving away a $275,000 car with some slick choice mods. The proceeds benefit charity and you don't have to buy merch. It's a straightforward entry process. So hit the link in the show notes and get entered to win today. What's happening, Sean?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Not much, man. Thank you for having me.

[Matt Farah]

Vilcoman, 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

so you can specify your shoes. 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I've always been passionate about just AMG, the pre merger. I mean, back in the 80s, if you had anything pre merger AMG or tuner, it was like that you were the king of the road. So my first experience with an AMG car. So my mom, she designs custom wedding dresses. She's retired, but she used to, she was a private designer that used to get hired through all these like 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 so some

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 a parking lot in the back with like a gazebo, smoking area. 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 Pentas, brand new car. This was late 80s, mid 80s, 85, 86, you know, and I see them rolling up and they just parked and 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. 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 core memory. And I remember like gray Recaro's, fully trimmed, the whole nine. And that was, was like, wow. Yeah, this is what I like, this is what I want. And then, you know, the whole thing with Miami Vice and all the, you know, drug dealers driving all these so.

[Matt Farah]

And you dress like them guys now when you go to car shows too? Yeah, motherfucker. Dress like, you know, radwood and all that.

[Shont Mishafijian]

You.

[Matt Farah]

It looks good on you though.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It was a great time, man. It was a great time. And. And I started, you know, watching, you know, Miami Vice when it was, when it was, you know, the, the show. And I used to record it and rewind and play back all these parts with the. And then my parents Were wearing.

[Matt Farah]

He's wearing out the tape like. Like an old porn. But it's like Don Johnson getting out of a Testarossa.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So all these clips that had these, you know, 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 growing up to be a drug dealer or what's going on? You know? No.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

So that's where it started.

[Matt Farah]

That's hilarious. And a guy let me sit in a countach when I was like, seven. And it was like, you know, the next level. Yeah, There was a place in Atlanta. I lived in Atlanta at the time when I was a little kid. And there was an importer called, like a gray market dealer called Formula one imports. Okay. You might remember these motherfuckers because they were on the back cover of every DuPont registry.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

In the 80s and 90s, I remember own that real estate.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

You know, I still have all those magazines, of course. We just. Just. They're all the best.

[Matt 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, right? Well, once you have, like, what am I gonna do?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Where are you gonna store it?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's just. I don't want your garbage, but thank you. And I say you have your own garbage. My own garbage? I've had to build warehouses for my own garbage.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Believe me, I know, man. Right? It piles up quick.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Well, my uncles both were in the business from back home. I'm Armenian originally, born in Syria. So back in Syria, you know, with 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 fixed 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 dad's cousin owned an Oldsmobile dealer in Boston called Beregikian Osmobile and they worked there for a few years. And then My uncle bought 69, 442, brand new, and they drove it to Los Angeles. Cool. And that's where they opened up their first body shop in Hollywood called Stallion Auto Body.

[Matt Farah]

It's better than the name that Oldsmobile dealer.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah, it's got more and more of

[Matt Farah]

a ring to it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Did you go like work with them?

[Shont Mishafijian]

I was there in the summers. Yeah. I mean I have photos of me like.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Five, six years old, like pounding on metal. Like it's, you know, 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 back in the day, 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 it seems bad, very bad. And he used to be in the booth with smoking a Marlboro just in

[Matt Farah]

the fucking in pain. It's like.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's flake, so metal flake.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's kind of how I grew into it.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 57 Mercedes 180 pontoon. Yeah. Rack top. And ever since then there's been of 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 80s was exciting.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I mean it was just, you know, the car.

[Matt Farah]

When did you start building cars like you're building? More like you're building now.

[Shont Mishafijian]

My first car that I built this was right out of high school. I bought a 1986 300E Grandpa Gold on Palomino interior Bone stock. The guy worked for JPL at the time. My brother worked for Rust Neck, 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, colors, not too exciting. It's smoked silver. Do you want it? I said, fine. So I ended up buying that car.

[Matt Farah]

And Buddy had that exact car in high school. Yeah, it might have been a 3 20, but it was. It was a 124.

[Shont Mishafijian]

This was an 86. You know, just bare bones, you know, gray bumpers. Just real basic.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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, let me make this thing look like a hammer. Yeah, 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.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And then there was another company called Performance Autosport. So I bought European headlamps. I bought this AMG kit. I found monoblocks for it. So I made this thing exactly like a 6 liter clone. And that's what I drove. But it was grandpa gold. And everyone used to be like, why this color? That. That's all.

[Matt Farah]

You only wanted to paint the bumper. You want to paint the whole car. Actually, though, a hammer in that color, like today would be pretty rad.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I still own that car.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, you do?

[Shont Mishafijian]

I still own it.

[Matt Farah]

Did you put a V8 in it eventually?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Not yet, but eventually I am.

[Zach]

How old are you when you built it?

[Matt Farah]

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 root? 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, 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 to build this the right way. And 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, Mack 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. 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. I got four jobs, I 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, could be glp, one 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, bans 175 ingredients. 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 100 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 that's how you justthat'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 work and everything else that I love. So head over to FactorMeals.com Tire 50 off and use code Tire50OFF to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27, 2026. See website for more details. One more time. FactorMeals.com Tire 50 off. That's 5. 0. Tire 50 off and use code Tire50OFF to get 50% off and free daily greens per box. And now back to the show.

[Shont Mishafijian]

18.

[Matt Farah]

Wow. So that would have been like 1790.

[Shont Mishafijian]

This was 97.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

97.

[Matt Farah]

Cool.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. Late 96. Early 97 is when I bought the car.

[Matt Farah]

That's pretty rad. That's pretty good.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And I still own the car. And I actually took my wife on the first date with that car.

[Zach]

That's cool.

[Matt Farah]

You should do. You should do the 55 powertrain thing

[Shont Mishafijian]

that I'm doing that when Matt frees up a little bit sitting on my car. Yeah, no, we've done it before, but I took my wife on the first date with that car. 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.

[Matt Farah]

I think it's clean. I think you could have an old car or.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Or a cheap car, as long as it's.

[Matt Farah]

As long as it's clean.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt 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 condition? Good enough condition.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And at the time, I mean, that's all I had.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

You know that. That was my car. And you know, fast forward, you know, now we're married, and I built her that wagon.

[Matt Farah]

Seven cars. Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

109 actually.

[Matt Farah]

Get the fuck out of here. 109 cars.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So I built her that wagon, that 124 wagon. And then now her daily driver is the 500E, the six liter car I came with. She doesn't want a new car.

[Matt Farah]

We originally kind of met because of that red wagon, which. Cause I had and I suppose I still have. Although I'm running out of money. I still have a standing offer to buy that car for Hannah. She loved it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That car is just Badass.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's awesome.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

She's just like, it's Zach. If you fight. It's a. It's a red. Essentially a 500E wagon.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. It might be on my Instagram. It's. It's on the road.

[Matt Farah]

It's somewhere way down there.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Okay.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's badass.

[Matt Farah]

Great.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Great car.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. So the, the trend of these cars kind of, I mean, you know, 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 sub lineup of the AMG light with the wheels but not the engine and blah blah, blah, you know, everyone, you know, then flocks to the sort of purity of the original vehicles. Even if. And they're so rare, the original ones, the true original, are so rare that there's plenty of room in the market to create accurate recreations using original and period parts and whatnot. And hand make stuff that splits the difference.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Absolutely. Even if you were to find, let's say an original body kit, it's 35 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.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, dude. So I own a Countach and a fucking. I had a 328. You're telling me. Yeah, I got those two cars were more full of more Mickey Mouse trash.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

That I've spent more money unfucking.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. You know, 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 what car was coming. I literally, after school I used to go, you know, twice a week and walk. Yeah. 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. Bondoed and drywall screwed. They used to put pieces of wood and you know, just destroyed.

[Matt Farah]

So is there in Today's World in 2026, is there any. Unless a car is a, you know, it's one of these cars you see at Gooding, that's $700,000 and it's, you know, it's, it's as, as delivered unfugged. 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, getting stuff that's going on my car.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So if you're building an original AMG car, something special, whether it's a 6 liter or a hammer, having original parts on that car does make the difference. However, if you see the condition, I mean I have an 84,500sec factory wide body car with 23,000 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.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 body panels isn't what it is now. There is no one that's recreating these as far as on a factory level. There's, you know, AMG 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, you know, certification process now that they do and 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 500e. 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 they had with 500e. The back glass is different on a 500e, it's thinner. The defrost lines are different. I have two brand new rear glasses and I just bought everything. This was probably about 10 years ago for pennies to the dollar because they didn't want them anymore.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And that's what I'm popping molds out of because they're just not available. So if you have a 500E 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, 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.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. The QC is just garbage.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's garbage.

[Matt 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, it needs to be replaced or whatever. That's a small percentage of the people we're talking about. And you do that stuff, you restore those original cars.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Absolutely.

[Matt Farah]

And that's a real thing. You also do stuff for people like me, right. Who go, I want a thing that is a fictional product that hasn't been done. That hasn't been done. Or I would like you to recreate a wide body sec hammer. But I don't have one, you know, and so it's, you know, a third or a half of the price to make one from scratch. In that case, is there any value to putting a preemie on real parts or. It's only if it's a whole part of the whole.

[Shont Mishafijian]

There is no value to go original in that case.

[Matt Farah]

And are there reproduction parts that you're like, it looks better.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 corners. The later SEC's. 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 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.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Attila Attil.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, Attila. How do I forget that awesome fucking name?

[Shont Mishafijian]

That guy's on a different level.

[Matt Farah]

I had the picture of it. 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, you know, the photos of it primered.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

And it's got a really. It's just got a beautiful curve to it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's gonna look unbelievable. I mean, once the car comes back from Tennessee, there's a lot of massaging we still have to do to the metal.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Wait. Okay, so let's. Let's. Let's talk about my car for a minute because I' excited.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

I 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

There you go.

[Matt Farah]

It just so happens, I mean, that I might not have pulled the trigger had I not gotten a free red 1, 2, 4.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's the perfect color.

[Matt Farah]

It is.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's the perfect color for what you're doing. I mean, bless you. You don't understand the. The red in a 124, like the wagon, it's just gorgeous.

[Matt Farah]

Any.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Any red Mercedes is just same on

[Matt Farah]

the 129s, on the SL.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Absolutely.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

You had a silver.

[Matt Farah]

I had a silver one, and it was beautiful.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So now we're doing a red. Yes. Okay. So I came to you with the concept, which is 500e cabriolet, and we didn't have to say much more than that. You were like, I know what to do here.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But we did. When we post things about it, you know, people are a lot of this, you should have done that. You should do this. You should do that. And oftentimes, 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. 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, but in a way that is reasonably cost effective given the challenges and returns the best possible result?

[Shont Mishafijian]

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. 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. Yeah. That has the flare. So just taking that design and what we did was we3d that. That's. That's what I did originally. I3d that, and I made a mold out of it as a separate piece without the dogle, without the dogleg. And then we. We created that same shape and a 3D model, and then we reconstructed it out of steel. That's what we did to your car. So, in essence, it does have the same flair, but it's one piece.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The side cladding, obviously the quarter cladding is one piece as opposed to 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 the body. The front fender cladding is the same.

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And then. And 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 whole point is to make it look like as if Mercedes created a 500 CE. That's what it would be. And that's the most challenging part, is to make it look factory. See, the wagon was a bit easier because it does have the sedan.

[Matt Farah]

Wagon is the same, right? Yeah, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Only the fuel door was a little challenging. Sedan has the fuel door on the top and the wagon has it on the side. But we figured that out and that's basically what it is. You know, it's just that back section of the coupe.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So that's what I pay attention to. To perfect. Because the rest of everything else is bolt on the fenders, the bumpers.

[Matt 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Get at it, Attila. The 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Having owned my SL 500, my 129 with the 113 that I had, I knew that for the kind of driving we were doing around, we weren't going on the autobahn on this car. I'm rolling around la. That's what I'm doing. Maybe I'm going on a road trip on the weekends. 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. Clapman function, high function. And it's my anniversary today on 420. So BlueChew Gold. It is changing the way millions of men are having sex in 2026. The new arousal boosting formula combines passion and performance into one tablet that dissolves under your tongue for super fast onset crazy. No more waiting for them pills to kick in. No more moments ruined by performance anxiety. Just the results you want when you want them. Most CD meds focus on blood flow alone, but bluechew Gold goes further by combining two ingredients for blood flow with two for mental arousal and connection. So you're not just physically ready, you're actually in the mood. This type of innovation is why bluechew Gold is the number one brand in erectile dysfunction. The process is super simple. It's all online. Get started [e-mail] and go for the gold. I mean, dude, you can. It's not about need, I think anymore, right? That's why they're saying function because it's like it used to be, like, oh, you have a problem and this can fix it. Now it's like you don't have a problem, but you can be Superman. I think that's where it's at. And I like that thought process. It's a reframe folks. And boy, do we have a special deal for you right now. Get two months of Bluechew Gold, you get the third for free with promo code TIRE. That's promo code tireluchew.com for more details and important safety information. We thank bluechew for sponsoring the podcast. Again, code tire. Get a third month free when you get two months of that blue chew gold, baby. Guys, taking a break from the action because support is coming in fast. Like Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford who's now got a podcast and you're always asking me what I'm listening to when not recording this show. And right now it's this, the new season of Drive with Jim Farley. In it, the Ford CEO talks to some of his favorite people about what they're driving and what drives them to succeed. Like Formula one driver Daniel Ricardo. Listen, there's a well worn trope about racing drivers not being interesting to listen to, but if there is one that is interesting to listen to, it is Daniel Ricardo. 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

And so explain why we went with the five and a half liter from the 2002 E5.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So the 500er, the 400e and the 500e was manufactured by Mercedes and they, they reconstructed the firewall for that engine to fit in there. Because essentially the 4 cam engine is a bigger engine.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

It seems like diminishing returns.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Get the fuck out of here.

[Shont Mishafijian]

No, they literally beat the firewall.

[Matt Farah]

That's where the name came from. Because they hit the firewall with hammers.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes, that's, that's where the name originates.

[Matt Farah]

That's like an Instagram clip right there. We learned something. Did you know that? No.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Very few people that are like real AMG guys know that. That's what they did to fit the 6 liter in there. They literally hammered the firewall to make that fit.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

If you hear some of the stories. You know, I got a chance to meet Hartmut. Jesus, Rentek. He's different 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 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 80s. This is 86, 87.

[Matt Farah]

But yeah, Zach and I have spent time with Heartmud in Florida. Guy doesn't fuck around. No, no, he's all right.

[Shont Mishafijian]

He doesn't. And he's actually in the process of building like a set of secs.

[Matt Farah]

Oh yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Sledgehammer.

[Matt Farah]

Yes.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Which is pretty wicked.

[Matt Farah]

Yes. You have to knock the firewall back even further to fit the fucking piece.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Well, he's really, he's really recreating those sec's, which I'm so happy that actually someone is reimagining this thing.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's gonna be bananas.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. So anyway, the 500e engine is neither practical to install nor in fact, I think is it practical for my use case.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Actually it's not because the parts are becoming obsolete. It's becoming harder 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 4 cam Mercedes, it's becoming very few and you know, far in between to find someone that knows those engines. And that's when 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.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And it's a smaller package.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So it fits beautifully. More power and torque. And because we got a donor car that's a 2002, we get a five speed gearbox, we get a better diff, we get the entire powertrain from the E55.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Smog legal. Smooth as butter. And with, you know, ecu tune 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 is going to be a hot rod.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

How am I gonna just keep the power up here effectively you know what I mean? 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. You don't need a dual overhead cam power profile for that type of driving.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

That when you do quick car, we have one. Sorry, am I in the way when you this shout out to Matt Quick quick Classics in Tennessee. He's doing our powertrain swap.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And we should be getting the truck. The truck going there like very, very shortly. Now that we. 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

No, no, it's drivable.

[Matt Farah]

Okay, cool. But so he's done. He's kind of 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 spicy. Really nice. And so we're not doing a manual swap. I don't.

[Shont Mishafijian]

There's no need.

[Matt Farah]

It just doesn't fit the character of the car. It's not.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Especially in la you don't need it.

[Matt Farah]

It's a cruiser. We're giving it an extra automatic gear, which is the right move. And so he's gonna make the whole. Put the whole E55 underneath my car. He says, including H Vac. He's also gonna do the suspension. He's gonna do the Bilstein damper with the H and R spring, which is what the E500 had.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

They did. Dude, that's some pretty.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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.

[Matt 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. Everything all right, buddy?

[Zach]

Yeah, Mike.

[Shont Mishafijian]

No, sorry.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Zach]

I'm allergic to them.

[Matt Farah]

We did not talk about stash pockets. The HRE 540 wheel, please. So HRE has had to restart production of the 17 inch version of this wheel.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Oh, so they are gonna go 17.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Amazing.

[Matt Farah]

If they were doing them in an

[Shont Mishafijian]

18, it's gonna be too big for the car, man.

[Matt Farah]

No, no, 17 is the correct move. So 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, a forged barrel, which is actually a two piece, stronger and lighter. And we're gonna do the. I haven't chosen the finish yet, but you were right. We need to go with like the brightest silver with like the liquidiest clear coat on it to make it like

[Shont Mishafijian]

with that red, almost like a platinum silver.

[Matt Farah]

It needs to glow bright.

[Zach]

Not polished clear.

[Matt Farah]

Yes, like something like that.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Without a blink.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

124 there?

[Matt Farah]

The black one?

[Shont Mishafijian]

The black second row.

[Matt Farah]

Second. Yeah. That, that's a 124. Yes.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That looks badass. That's actually a 500E.

[Matt Farah]

That is.

[Shont Mishafijian]

With a Lorenzo front bumper on it. That's rare.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, I think that looks correct, don't you?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Gorgeous. That's the best looking wheel on the car. Like the monoblock. Whether it's the arrow one or the oz three piece, you know, you have to keep the car within its, within its era.

[Matt Farah]

Sure.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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.

[Matt Farah]

Zach, third from the right in the bottom, the top row, there's a whole car photo. I mean, that's on a coupe too.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's on a coupe, man. That's right.

[Matt Farah]

By the way, that looks fabulous.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That looks great. That's.

[Matt Farah]

That's our look right there, doesn't it? Yeah, if, I mean, if I can get it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

But that's an 18 inch. You know that.

[Matt Farah]

You think so?

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's an 18. Shit. You see the distance between the floor and the rocker? 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.

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 is going to be squatted down a little more. You want it to look.

[Matt Farah]

The car you brought outside is the car. I want it to sit like.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And that's exactly how you want it to sit.

[Matt Farah]

But that is the right style of wheel.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes, that's exactly the right wheel. Absolutely.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, and speaking of style, you see what I have. It arrived today.

[Shont Mishafijian]

No way. That is beautiful, man.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

That is awesome.

[Matt Farah]

So this is our fabric for the seat inserts and the doors.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And I think it's gonna look nuts.

[Matt Farah]

This looks. Will look great leather.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Absolutely.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah, right. I think it looks great. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And it's like. It's aggressive but not, like, psychedelic.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you're.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So we want to do the 500e style seat. It's an actual Recaro seat. So they. My guy can take the factory seat and rebolster it to where it looks like the 500 to give it a little bit more support.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

You sat in my car. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. So we need that.

[Shont Mishafijian]

If you want to 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 a different design.

[Matt Farah]

The one like yours is perfect.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So the one like mine is the 500. And what I did with mine is this. It's not as springy as the original 500. It has a little firmness to it.

[Matt Farah]

That's what we need.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And you want that support? Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

It's Grip.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Grip.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

You don't slide around.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

But yeah, more. More support on the bottom. Firmer bottom.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So it doesn't. You need that support every old Mercedes on earth. The front left of the seat is like completely collapsed and it fucking destroys my spine.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

But it's still. It's so old now.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's all fucked. It fatigues.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And then. All right, what else? So we've got the 500 suspension. Who did you say is doing the. Who did Matt say is doing the exhaust for this car?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Like Super Sprint?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

He's out of the uk.

[Matt Farah]

He said all H Vac will work like factory, which I was great. And my top is in okay shape. It is, yeah.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The hydraulics probably would need to be rebuilt because those have a tendency to leak, which my guy can do. Okay. I would do that because you're gonna put the top up and down. It has, like, things that you need. Yeah, 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 would, wouldn't. I wouldn't put a brand new top on it because you're not going to drive that car with a top up. You're going to constantly put it down.

[Matt Farah]

The top doesn't leak, it doesn't have tears. It's indeed. It was replaced maybe like four or five years ago.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It needs a good cleanup.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

We can clean it up. And that's it.

[Matt Farah]

I'm so excited about this car. I think it's going to be so cool, brother.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

I like old school hot rodding.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's gonna be a hot rod.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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.

[Matt Farah]

It's just the mileage, like whatever you

[Shont Mishafijian]

lay in this thing.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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. Yeah. 550 some horsepower.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Close to 400 horsepower.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

In a little car. Little ass, white body.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach]

Trans.

[Matt Farah]

Which, you know, some people have asked, do we have to reinforce the structure of the car for this?

[Shont Mishafijian]

You know, listen, if you're gonna track it, I get it. If you're gonna, you know, if you're gonna drive it on the street, 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 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, cruising around, and your wifey's gonna drive it around, dude, you're not gonn. As long as your brakes are good. You have good brakes.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

And it's plenty.

[Matt Farah]

That'll be fine.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

So, yeah, it's a pretty straightforward. But he did say. We talked about maybe doing dry ice underneath. Maybe we talked about. 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's expensive. I mean, and he's giving me friends and family, which I greatly appreciate. And he's like the guy for this,

[Shont Mishafijian]

from what I know. I mean, listen, he's getting it done.

[Matt Farah]

But I was like, you know, 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 bush bushings and the seals. Sure. And the this and the this. And you're like, fuck.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And just.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I could see you have to

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

No, no.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

No. I had to send a deposit for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And he does pretty good work.

[Matt Farah]

Work.

[Shont Mishafijian]

You know, you get the Super Sprint and then 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 brother, which works for Mercedes, doesn't want to really get into it. He's kind of figuring it out for his own. But it's quite a bit of work, man. To do it the right way, it seems.

[Matt Farah]

Well, there's also, like, the merging of two cars. Wiring harnesses in order to, like, make.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yep.

[Matt Farah]

The.

[Zach]

From two eras.

[Matt Farah]

Really, like. Yeah. Made to make the gauge cluster work. The key.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The gauge cluster all.

[Matt Farah]

He said we're going to use the key from the E55.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

I don't mind if the shifter is different. It's close enough that it wouldn't stand out as being, like, different. Did I send you the picture of. Of. Oh, I sent it to Matt of our buddy Marcus Smith's 280se with an E55 swap. I don't think I posted it on Instagram.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Who did that for him?

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Oh, he did.

[Matt Farah]

Matt Quick did the powertrain.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Was it a convertible car?

[Matt Farah]

Huh?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Is it convertible?

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

But it surrounded in a burl. The rest of it looked pretty factory and. And it didn't. Didn't stand out. It wasn't like. Ah, it was. They blended it nicely. Yeah, it was good.

[Shont Mishafijian]

As long as it's tastefully done. You know, that's. That's the important thing for my car.

[Matt Farah]

You would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the shifter.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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. Oh, the drive. See, yours has the. The drive. The snake and then the snake. And then the snake.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

This doesn't. So you.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, it's driving, then left, right, left, right. Oh.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Paddle shifters.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The E55 does have paddle shifters too.

[Matt Farah]

Oh.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So you can incorporate that. You can literally put buttons in back of the wheel and start downshifting. I mean, you can do that.

[Matt Farah]

Be kind of sweet. Money's fast. Money goes fast. That's probably expensive. He's just adding up the tally exactly right now. Yeah. While you're in there.

[Shont Mishafijian]

But it's gonna be fun, dude. I'm super, super stoked.

[Matt Farah]

It's gonna be crazy.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It is.

[Matt Farah]

And what's the name of. It's. I just call it red. But what is the color? Is it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's actually signal red.

[Matt Farah]

Signal red is the color for the car. There's other reds that.

[Shont Mishafijian]

There's imperial red, which is from what? It's the same year, but it's more of like a ready red. Yours is more of like a burgundy. Not burgundy. Ish. But a darker red.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. What's your wagon?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Same color as yours.

[Matt Farah]

That's signal red. Signal red. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Which is nice.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 gonna look gorgeous.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It's gonna be crazy. I'm super fucking stoked. Do you. I mean, because you. You've. You were building these cars before they sort of became trendy.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Again. What. How. How has the trend. I mean, is it just like. Let me tell you can build them now.

[Shont Mishafijian]

This. I mean, right now we have 18 cars in production.

[Zach]

Whoa.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's a combination of 124s, 126s. I have a 123, 116 and after the pandemic it's just, things just started to blow up. You know it really put Mercedes on the map 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 because everyone's after the Porsche and the BMWs and Mercedes was always kind of one step behind when it came to the 80s and 90s tuner game.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, now BMW was racing, you know, 80s and 90s and so was Porsche. And yeah, AMG was like a separate thing that was cool but also sort of like gauche.

[Shont Mishafijian]

If it wasn't for AMG then Mercedes wouldn't have a motorsport program. Sure at all. It would just, you know, they still are riding on AMG but prior to the merger in 94AMG 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 performance sector that was doing these. But after the pandemic things started shifting and even the prices of these cars started to increase slowly.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, the first time a widebody cracked 500k it was like. I'm sorry, what?

[Zach]

I guess the hammer was on Hagerty's list in 2020 or 2021 because 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.

[Matt Farah]

How many actual hammers were built by amg?

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's undetermined.

[Matt Farah]

Really.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah, it's on. They say there was 56 liter hammers built, but I don't think that's an accurate number.

[Matt Farah]

I think it's low or high.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's higher, it's higher. I mean it could be. I know for, for a fact they built a lot more engines because the heads were just leaky. They were, they weren't that dependable. People that were buying these 6 liter hammers were eventually pulling the heads off and putting a single overhead cam head on it to make it more dependable.

[Matt Farah]

That's so funny.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Every 3,000 miles yet to adjust valves and so it was a race motor, technically it was a race motor that they wanted to introduce for the street. So 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.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, once they're, if they're Just too

[Shont Mishafijian]

annoying to maintain and too expensive. People don't know how to work on them. And that's when they just start dipping in value, you know. But just kind of like researching them worldwide. I would say probably 75 to 80 of them that were built true, actual 6 liter. Some of them were non wide body. There's a handful of them that came, you know, six liter with the regular sec body or the four door. Like I own a four door SEL that came with a six liter four

[Matt Farah]

cam in it and no wide body.

[Shont Mishafijian]

No wide body.

[Matt Farah]

It's a four door, I guess a four door car.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Which I bought that car for. I mean I was gonna part that car out. It was, the story on that car is awesome.

[Matt Farah]

I mean. Okay, we don't know exactly is the documentation on the cars good? Like if you. That's that 6 liter car. Is it possible to document. Document an AMG as being authentic or not authentic?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes. So they have a certification program now that they only have record of the special cars that they built. Yeah, 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 86 that I buy, I bought this car literally from someone. It was thrown on a field in San Diego and I went there to buy a 6 liter engine from the guy and I ended up buying the engine. It's a 30,000 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 going to put together another SCL that I have. And he goes, I just lost interest. So I said do you want to 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, purple wood. Wood everywhere. So I ended up buying the car for like 1500 bucks. And I was gonna park this car out. Okay. I didn't know what it was. Yeah. 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 SEL course ever. It was bought by a Texas oil well tycoon. And he brought me the build sheet on it, which I have. $138,000 worth of AMG upgrades in 1986. 6 liter Gleason Thorson rear end, Nakamichi sound system. The guy checked all the boxes 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.

[Zach]

How much?

[Matt Farah]

So funny.

[Shont Mishafijian]

What's that?

[Zach]

How much in options did you say?

[Shont Mishafijian]

$138,000 in options?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And the car in 86 is crazy.

[Matt Farah]

My Countach was 110 for the whole car.

[Zach]

That's 400 grand in options today.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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&AMG. He sold it, but he originated that company. After the merger, everyone split and Alfred 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.

[Matt Farah]

Cool.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So they sent me the full certification on that car.

[Matt Farah]

So is it worth restoring?

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

That's cool.

[Zach]

You thought you had an interior.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah,

[Shont Mishafijian]

yeah. So I got, you know, that car, it's rough. It needs a lot of love.

[Matt Farah]

Love.

[Shont Mishafijian]

But now that I certified it, now it's time to really go balls out and just make it bitching.

[Zach]

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 there then it's got a story.

[Matt Farah]

You have a VIN number and a. And a paper trail. You can build. You could build the car from dust almost. Yeah. That's so cool.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So.

[Matt Farah]

And. And I think, you know, it's got. Well, it's an sel. So it's a sedan, right?

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's a sedan.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah, it's a four door Sedan, Long wheelbase. Long wheelbase. Just badass.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

The wheels are pentastar.

[Shont Mishafijian]

They're. They're pentas. Staggered pentas, nines and eights, which were a railroad. I mean, the car was fully, fully optioned with every. Everything. Leather curtains, leather headliner, leather curtains, leather. That's aggressive.

[Zach]

Texas, you know, he's got cows.

[Matt Farah]

That is in Texas. Yeah. That's crazy.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 Bucksbaum, 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 6 liter cars. So the real AMG cars they say were built in Germany.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. And there were some built in the

[Shont Mishafijian]

US and there was some built in Chicago. And. And then 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 Heartmood actually came down from Germany to service all these cars. The six liter cars. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt 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?

[Shont Mishafijian]

There is. I mean, people are wanting anything that has to do with Mercedes tuning. Like I bought a Konig, one of one Konig a few years back from an elderly couple out of Oregon. And the guy gave me when he. So he knew Willy Koenig personally. So they designed a one off body kit for him. 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 Konig, which I won't do, obviously, because I'm not going to devalue my car a And B. Konig is still an operating company. Company, you know.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Everything.

[Matt Farah]

But you would do that.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's just.

[Matt Farah]

You just won't sell the body kit.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Well, I won't do it because that body kit is specifically for my car. It's the one of one. But I have like, people. People want a Konig. People want the Lorenzer. It's, you know, I don't know, one of one.

[Matt Farah]

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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

But like, you know, you could issue, you know, a run of 10 recreation body kits. I'm just saying, with yours would still be the one of one.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, so you could extract max value.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

So much. Zach and I had a go in the Konig Testarossa.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt 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 400 extra pounds fiberglass on it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. How did it drive?

[Zach]

I felt heavy because it was.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Zach]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

I'm sure that thing stiffly. Thousand pounds of fiberglass.

[Zach]

Lifting the hatch was serious effort. I think we were filling out with

[Matt Farah]

gas or something to open the rear clamshell to put fuel in it.

[Zach]

And there was no rod for it. So like it was so tiring on the shoulders.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. How would you do that by yourself? Yourself?

[Matt Farah]

Oh, you. You could. It would not be possible. You'd be out of gas.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That was no rod. No.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

It was really shockingly heavy, though.

[Matt 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 what? It was a.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Well, listen, Koenig really built something. Some radical cars back then.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

They were very performance driven.

[Matt 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The stock breaks.

[Matt Farah]

Yikes.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The amount of Bondo that they used on these cars is insane. Like, I have an older Konig four door car that is in restoration. I'm restoring slowly. I mean, there's areas that have literally an inch and a half.

[Zach]

Is that because the fiberglass was Just wavy and shitty.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 going to crack.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I mean there's. That's a quarter inch of Bondo cracks everywhere. It's ridiculous.

[Zach]

That's terrible.

[Matt Farah]

Is there aside from, you know, know something like you just talked about a barn find, restoration of a, 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 or.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Right.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt 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 tan interior or something, they probably would, wouldn't even think. Yeah, I love this interior. I think it rules.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 coach work. That's real glass. It's not plexi, so.

[Matt Farah]

And it's not tinted blue.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's not clear blue. It's totally clear. But it does look. Everyone thinks it's, you know, blue tinted glass, which it isn't. Yeah. And, and the car is just breathtaking. Every time I still look at it, it just kind of just. It's unreal.

[Matt Farah]

It is the dopest shit ever.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

So the roof is off of a four door car.

[Matt Farah]

Okay.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Just because of the flatness and the continuation. But everything else is sand 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.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And that's because we wanted the same, the same flow. But everything else is custom made, man. Those side moldings are all handmade. The drip rails are all Handmade. And these are all intricate aluminum pieces that we had to weld and shave and bend 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 a hinge, you can buy another one off of a 124 wagon. But everyone thinks it's a. It's a donor roof, which it isn't. You know, everything was handmade.

[Zach]

Wow.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I'm making the second version of it which is called the speed tail, which has a bit more of a slope to it. And that one's going to get a 6.3 in it. It's a 156 with the manual 6 speed.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, cool.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's going to be meant more for performance.

[Matt Farah]

A 156, that's the 6.3 from like

[Shont Mishafijian]

a 20S 63 ML63. It's the naturally aspirated 500 horsepower. It's what comes in the Black series 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 back seat leather wrapped cage. It's gonna be pretty wild, you know, once it's done. And then, you know, when we built the car, we were like, you know what, let's just kind of of get, get creative with it and see where it goes. And this is what we ended up with. You know, I love how this car

[Matt Farah]

looks and I know you don't want to show it publicly, but you did show me the rendering of the second car. And yeah, the roof line is badass.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's badass.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's gonna look wicked once it's done.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

It has a bit more of a slope, bit more aggressive. That one's gonna be all black with. Is gonna be kind of like the sinister version of this. You know, that's tough though, if you're

[Matt Farah]

trying to build a car. Black hides body lines.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Zach]

It does look tough.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It looks unbelievable.

[Zach]

You need to be in the right light to see it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

But it does look 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.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 break sec, that's what it would be.

[Zach]

You know, 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 of lot. A lot of the flagship cars. The black series, like it's just associated with that. Ferrari's got red and yeah, it's like

[Matt Farah]

a real like Russian gangster car. Yeah, it's an earned reputation, I'd say.

[Zach]

Yeah. But yeah, the shooting brakes looked magnificent.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Zach]

It is.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I mean, it's just, it turned out right, but like good.

[Matt Farah]

A good Mercedes shouldn't be like friendly looking, it should be pretty mean.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 he had tinted and that's the color he wanted.

[Matt Farah]

It's like a cerulean blue, sky blue.

[Shont Mishafijian]

There's really no name for it. He chose that color and he had it dyed in that color. I mean, he looked at like maybe 15, 20 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'm like, go with it. And he was right on the money. It looks unbelievable.

[Matt Farah]

Cause there's a lot of it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's like every surface, everything is wrapped.

[Matt 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes, you're absolutely right.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

It's full book, full boogey commitment. 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.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Zach]

And from floor to ceiling. 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

There's no pearl or anything.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Sure.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Which. Which looks awesome.

[Matt Farah]

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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It is true. And you know, it works. He knocked it out of the park with choosing that color. And I mean, and 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.

[Zach]

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 puts you on the map more than others, or is it just a stop?

[Shont Mishafijian]

It does, yeah. I mean, this is just the showstopper. Wherever you take it, it just. Just people gravitate to it. I mean, when we first took it to Monterey last year, my phone was blowing up. Like, people worldwide were noticing this car because it's just never been done before, you know, and it still till today. Like we were at a Mercedes event this Sunday and it just, it creates a crowd.

[Matt Farah]

Sure.

[Zach]

There's no other body like it, there's no shape like it. And then even without the interior, it would probably have that effect. That is like a beacon for everybody.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It is, it is. We're. We're building now. I'm kind of changing it up. I'm redesigning the wide body now. Like, I want to make my own design that mimics 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 going to be based on E63.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, cool.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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?

[Matt Farah]

Because it's, you know, you start to see more of them and there's more

[Shont Mishafijian]

of them around and people want a change, you know, people want something different. I'm also in the process of building a jet. I have an xjs and we're putting a custom wide body on it that we've already created. And we're putting. I bought a XKS that's been wrecked. So we're putting that whole drivetrain in there with the six speed and making it just a badass Jaguar.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, cool. We saw really one of those Lister Jags at Radwood in Charlotte that was pretty fun. Let's go to the people. We got a few questions from our patrons over [e-mail] TheSpotentirePodcast 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 the Smotentirepodcast is where you do it and we thank the lot of you. Our patrons have odd usernames, so get on board. Focaccia Country Day School says I'm trying to Recommend 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?

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Like an S class.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's the 123 is like the 300D, 240D. Oh, all right. So turbo diesel, I'm assuming it's a sedan.

[Matt Farah]

All right, gotcha.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

The Bluetech. Was that the first year of the Bluetech?

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 6, 700 horsepower out of those engines.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Which is incredible.

[Matt Farah]

That's crazy.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, just a newer, a newer diesel.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes. Yeah. Beef up brakes and suspension on that 390.

[Matt Farah]

Bulletininthehead says what gives you more gray hairs? Finding a missing piece of a 40 year old Konig fiberglass? Or trying to explain to a purist why a classic Mercedes needs 600 horsepower.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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, but the purest guys with Mercedes, the guys that are the purists are mainly the people that are driving the gullwings and the 300 SLS. 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 purest, but it's just finding the parts for these things is the toughest part.

[Matt Farah]

Sure. Llcardier says if you were to acquire a decent 210 E55, that's like what we. Right, right, right. And wanted to make it the ultimate mile munching hot rod, what could be done and at what budget?

[Shont Mishafijian]

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.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I mean it's just a slush pile. If you're going to cruise it around, it's fine. Yeah, 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.

[Matt 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, 100%. I drove a CLK430 with a manual swap that was like lovely.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The black one?

[Matt Farah]

No, the fourth. Oh, the color of it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. Maybe that's my cousin David. You did it. Yeah, yeah, you did, you did a review on that.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So he manual swapped that himself.

[Matt Farah]

Himself. Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And it was far better. Yeah. And he still owns it. Crossfire gearbox.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And it totally changed the whole driving experience.

[Matt Farah]

It was nice.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

And then we drove a SL55 that had a manual swap. That a guy.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's right. I saw that, that, Yeah, I saw that episode too also.

[Matt Farah]

Good.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Very good car.

[Zach]

Yeah, it's what they need. The transmission is so terrible.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. Actually I like, I like Duffel Shuffle Retirement club says what Is Mercedes up to with the door to door screen in the C class? Use of screen. I've seen an interior so far. No, I didn't. What, what news came out today?

[Zach]

I'll find it real quick.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

It's the 2012, 2027 CEV.

[Matt Farah]

Okay. The C class.

[Zach]

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

[Matt Farah]

I can think of One, there's so many. One is that front grille. Two is that is egregious screen.

[Zach]

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

[Matt Farah]

Oh my gosh.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's crazy.

[Matt Farah]

Wow.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

but this is literally screen from one end of the dash to the other, only bookended by two vents. Like have you seen Lincoln?

[Matt Farah]

Lincoln has a curved. Dude, pull up the Lincoln Navigator or

[Shont Mishafijian]

does it go into the door? Doesn't make it seem like you're driving a car anymore. You know what I mean? It takes away from the driving and

[Zach]

then the exterior, like your grill is just horrible.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

Does it seem like, you know, in

[Matt Farah]

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 here into one

[Zach]

and it's like silver sow plus the newer.

[Matt Farah]

Right. And it just go to go back up to the tail lights though, because those looked kind of decent.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I mean this is what BMW, other

[Matt Farah]

than the Mitsubishi stars in the middle.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

And what's with all the Mercedes signs on these everywhere? They must know like the, like the, the. The Maybach sl. It's all over the hood, the interior, the convertible.

[Matt Farah]

It's like the Louis.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's overkill, man.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. They're trying to have their own like pattern. Yeah. Tim A says, what's your opinion on MB Tech and its reputation for being

[Shont Mishafijian]

indestructible it's fantastic material. Yeah. Mean, it's durable as hell. It doesn't crack, it just doesn't color, you know, it doesn't fade. It's. I have my 300e86 is original MB text and it looks like it's brand new. Yeah, you take care.

[Matt Farah]

You can grow to medium mile ones and it just looks great.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's incredible what they've created with that MB text. I mean the, the Mercedes leather is leather, but eventually leather cracks, you know, especially on the convertible car. But the MB tech stuff is just unreal. I mean, my 300e, it literally looks like it's brand new.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I like MBTech. It's good. We already got to Darian's question earlier. Can you notice these nuts? Why do automakers not prioritize driver seating position when designing a cabin for non specialized cars? I would disagree with the sentiment.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I think the.

[Matt Farah]

They for the most part do prioritize driver's seating position.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I mean, now they do.

[Matt Farah]

I mean, sure, Ferrari 512 boxer did not.

[Shont Mishafijian]

348. My 348. My feet, my hips hurt after I drive it.

[Matt Farah]

Now. They do.

[Shont Mishafijian]

They do.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

They do, but I think it 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 seat will be off center because we have to fit engine trans in these hard points.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I mean the Italians were like famous for that. Oh yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

80s and 90s Italian cars, they didn't give a about your seating position, whether you could see out the back window

[Matt Farah]

or it's just same with the Germans when they were forced to build right hand drive cars. Yeah, they built them shits out of spite. They didn't fucking make that. But like, I, I mean, I mean, look, if you. I drove like my friend had like an 88 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, the, the Delica, The Mitsubishi Delica 91.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Very comfortable.

[Matt 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

No, they're not.

[Matt 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. Merkin ball Run out of curiosity and maybe you don't know the. Sean, what. What could I expect could be the cost of a manual swap for an SLK55.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That would be a mat quick question.

[Matt Farah]

That is a mat quick question. You don't really do the power.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

I think the fucking guy from the

[Zach]

SL we drove, he was about 20 something. I think it was 25 to 30 for the swap, wasn't it?

[Matt Farah]

No, he said he was into the entire car for 42 grand.

[Zach]

Oh, yeah. He bought the car for like 25.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, I think it was maybe 20. But he also did a major service while he was in there.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah, I think it sounds about right.

[Matt Farah]

It was around 20.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 1500 bucks. Right. Just pull everything out of it, pedals and all. But that would be a mad quick question for sure. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Chubba redbarchetta. 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 mo. Or I shouldn't say we can't. We could. We haven't so far. Because this watch that we've made uses the Lejoux Perrette Swiss movement. They will only sell us 250 of them a year.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Wow.

[Matt Farah]

That is the maximum that they will sell us, period.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Now, is that face color mesh to your Porsche? Yes.

[Matt Farah]

That's beautiful. And in fact, this is. This is the prototype of the one that we're releasing next. In fact, it is painted with my Porsche.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's it.

[Matt Farah]

That's how we got it. Right. With the gilt dial and everything. Sorry, guilt hands. And with the red. That's it. Isn't that cool? So. So these are gonna be 1200 bucks.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's not bad.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, we're doing a hundred of them. So we're limited by. We will have sold every movement that. That they will have.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And that's the combination. It's coming in.

[Matt Farah]

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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Very nice.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, that is gorgeous. 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 got one. If not, you join and get one now. Okay. I don't know if 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. Beautiful. Can you get that other car down here?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Absolutely. Okay.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, thanks habibi. You're the main man.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Is he a habibi?

[Matt Farah]

No, he's the whitest dude ever. I just bug him out. He doesn't like when I talk like that. Yeah. 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

[Shont Mishafijian]

build that I've done so far or

[Matt Farah]

that you want someone to bring to you?

[Shont Mishafijian]

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.

[Matt Farah]

Build your own Zonda motor kind of

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Really? That's interesting.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

You know, what did he do with the parts? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I don't know.

[Zach]

Got a call.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I don't like Russia. So. 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. 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. The engine itself is a badass engine. I just actually got on someone's Instagram, I put. 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.

[Matt Farah]

I bet it's nasty. That's a good time.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It sounds amazing.

[Zach]

So fast.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. So at the time when these were new, my buddy bought one in 96, 95 or 96. It was a purple special colored SL 600 which he took to Cec and he had it supercharged and he drove this car and then he ended up selling it and now he wants to buy it back. So 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 and you found it. So we went on ebay and we bought the month. 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.

[Matt Farah]

Anyone out there's got a purple SL600.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Purple SL600 with a Lorenzo Supercharged. Yeah, from Cec back then. I mean, it was kitted, Lorenzo body kit, the RSK wheels, supercharged. It was pretty wicked as hell.

[Matt Farah]

I did the bull run with Klaus Ettensberger a few times. He is not a normal.

[Shont Mishafijian]

He's a riot.

[Matt Farah]

Not a normal person. Not a normal person. Klaus is crazy.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

times, but I've never in my entire life. I respect him a little bit. No, I do respect him and I respect him as a businessman and as a fucking crazy German. He did one of the most dangerous things I've ever seen anybody do. He did bull run in 2009, I think with us. And he drove a C63 with some other lunatic German friend of his. And he had a smoke screen in it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Like he put a legit.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, he installed a smokescreen. I've never seen anything like that used in real life.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's pretty crazy.

[Matt Farah]

And he hit the smoke screen on the highway and. And it was just insta fog. Like insta fog across how many lanes? The whole highway. Wow.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Why would you do that?

[Matt Farah]

Because bull run was stupid. It's like it was long distance endurance street racing effectively.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It was deeply irresponsible, dangerous dude.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

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

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Was it like those DJ foggers he had, maybe?

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Jesus.

[Matt Farah]

Are you serious? Yeah.

[Zach]

Oh, my God.

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's not.

[Matt Farah]

That was crazy.

[Zach]

Puff Daddy injection.

[Matt Farah]

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. I mean, one of the most unbelievable

[Shont Mishafijian]

ones I've ever seen.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, it's super dangerous.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I'm pretty sure, like, everything about this

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

So was it an actual race for time or was it just.

[Matt Farah]

It's not. Yeah, 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, right?

[Zach]

So there's no consequences. There were no. There were no smartphones, really. So no one's really not getting a lot of evidence filmed about you.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right?

[Matt Farah]

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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The cop doesn't know.

[Matt Farah]

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 they just. 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 have 50G in the glove box. If they got. They expected to get arrested. It was nuts.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I can imagine the. The clientele these people had.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

In the 80s and 90s, his client

[Matt Farah]

must have exclusively, exclusively coked out psychos.

[Shont Mishafijian]

For sure.

[Matt Farah]

For sure, for sure. People don't hear no ever.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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 sec for stuff. 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. Gull wings, which I own a couple of, and convertible conversions and all that. Dude, these people were like on a different level. Yeah, like they were on some.

[Matt Farah]

Dude, you know the drugs and the configurator.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

What? Purple wood interior.

[Zach]

Dude.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Dude. And you look at some of these builds and you think you had to be a different individual to 47 way seats even.

[Matt Farah]

Think about this. It's like switch panels that go up, up, up and then onto the ceiling and like behind you,

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

You know what? All this does it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

So I have a limo, like a little executive stretch. 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 and it's like, you don't know what the hell they do. They're just there. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's a carat Duchelet model 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.

[Matt Farah]

You're like, yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

What do you do with all this? You know what I mean?

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

So they. I, I can imagine. And I'm. I'm sure it builds the Porsche like

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Gambala was doing some crazy on some real. And I think they're still like creating some.

[Matt Farah]

They are. They have like new stuff and there's. What's his name, the Sun. Mark. Mark Philippe Gimbal or something like that. Who's got that off road?

[Shont Mishafijian]

That's right.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, yeah, the. Anyway, so, yeah, Gambala GTR Evo R by Turbo. Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Sure.

[Shont Mishafijian]

All right.

[Matt Farah]

Good times. Good times. Cold air intake on my soccer mom SUV says people often complain about the complexity of repairs on Mercs when doing builds. Do you take steps to simplify or improve some of the common frustrations?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Definitely. I mean, wiring being one of them. The wiring harness, Obviously on the mid mid 90s to early 2000s cars were like biodegradable wires. They did sell an upgraded kit, and if they don't sell it, we run through the wires and get all that strained out. The cars Were built pretty solid. I mean suspension wise, braking wise, they're pretty solid. The drive cranes in them are bulletproof. It's just the support, you know, with especially the 80s and 90s with the Bosch fuel injection systems and the CIS units are becoming archaic. If there's any way to EFI. I know 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.

[Matt Farah]

If you upgrade a A to an EFI on like an old. Right on a 6 liter motor or something, can you get a lot of extra power or a lot more smoother

[Shont Mishafijian]

and power reliability, smoothness, support, efficiency in every way. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Is that a pricey thing to swap?

[Shont Mishafijian]

They, they have kits that they sell in Europe I've seen for like 2,500 bucks. I've never really pulled the trigger on one, but I'm tempted just to. To see what it does, you know. And I don't know why they went mechanical, you know why they went with that CSI at the time. Yeah, everybody, I mean the Japanese were doing, you know, EFI. These guys were going the opposite direction.

[Matt Farah]

Every 80s European car I've had has had the Lambo, the Ferrari, the Porsche.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Same system, it's all the same. It's the same. You don't drive it for a while, the gets gummy. And the fuel too. It doesn't help the situation, man. The fuel nowadays is just horrible compared to back in the day, you know.

[Matt Farah]

Gotta run that non ethanol. Yeah, that good shit. Yeah. ZR1X gon give it to you. 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. All right. Sorry, I should have read this before reading it out loud out. 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.

[Zach]

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 tax, whereas I think registering in Eureka, you probably still have to pay the California sales tax.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

Gotcha.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, 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 the Montana tax 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

There you go.

[Matt Farah]

And I'm on the lease, baby. Let's go. That's like the build, like all the Montana tags, all of them are from like one office building.

[Zach]

Yeah, we could run the office building in Eureka.

[Shont Mishafijian]

This is like that whole hospice scam going on. It's like.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

There should.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, well, that's, that's. That's a problem is that it's, it's. It's. It's. It's a hardship if you. If your car that you need is not able to pass smog. And also it's represents an escaped value for the state if someone with a collector vehicle, like Mike 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Right.

[Matt Farah]

Well, what do you want me to do exactly? I'll give you the money.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Take the money that you give me. The. You give Me the pass for under 2000 miles a year and then take my money and have a program that retrofits old cars with better emissions equipment. When I run for mayor of la, that's what we're gonna do.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Let's do it.

[Matt Farah]

Until then, we roll around in red benzos, right? I can't wait to. Actually, once when I had my silver 129, I would drive around and play Picture Me rolling by Tupac. And I'm excited to get to do it again.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Crisp and clean. We can eliminate the ashtray and put like a. A screen in there where you have like the backup camera.

[Matt Farah]

Wait, no ashtray? Where am I gonna ash these blunts? No, we. I wouldn't be opposed to a bazooka tube behind the. I would, I would, I would. With a bazooka tube.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Remember those? They. They came with straps so they don't slosh around in the back.

[Zach]

I remember strap. Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Dude, those things bumped pretty good. They did.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Are they still around?

[Zach]

Look it up.

[Matt Farah]

Last year.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Oh, they're. They're around. I'm not. I'm not even.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I remember bumped really well.

[Matt Farah]

And we should maybe get one. But someone had asked us on a previous show, like if we were to do like a restomod fox body, what would it. What would it include? 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 strap down.

[Zach]

You know, it's funny, I'm realizing you

[Matt Farah]

have like the leather tie down, you know, real nice like John Ward would make.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Zach]

Yeah, they were great.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

As one does.

[Shont Mishafijian]

And that thing used to resonate off the glass.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Larry had it in the hatchback of his five zero and it turned your whole. It was like a whole hatch into a thing.

[Zach]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

Then you'd have to put the sponge behind the license plate, otherwise it would rattle.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Soft spot for fox Bodies. I have five of them. I love wow. Fox bodies, man.

[Matt Farah]

It's America's one, two, four, bang for

[Shont Mishafijian]

the buck is just. You've seen my Dominator. The white one, the wide body. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

That one's got like the IMSA body kit on it or whatever.

[Shont Mishafijian]

The super wild.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Definitely.

[Matt Farah]

Thanks, Shant.

[Shont Mishafijian]

You're welcome.

[Matt Farah]

I appreciate you coming.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Thanks for having me.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Mishafijian, boy.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. It's a good thing you don't have an Oldsmobile dealership. You'd be in deep.

[Zach]

Need a big building.

[Matt Farah]

That's a good one. That is a good one. Yeah, yeah. It sounds like a delicious entree that

[Shont Mishafijian]

I'm going to order with a side of rice.

[Matt Farah]

Get me some llama June like right now, bro.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Oh, yeah. We gotta go have some good Armenian food. I got 100 dinner, man.

[Zach]

100 so down.

[Matt Farah]

I. I grew up eating llamajun or

[Shont Mishafijian]

you guys every to my place for a barbecue. Then, then sure. We rock and roll.

[Matt Farah]

Can you do skewers? You make the skewers?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Absolutely.

[Matt Farah]

With the swords?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

That shit's hard.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's very hard. And it's just the way you line it up and you got to use the metal. 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.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

It depends how you're actually like you're mixing the ground beef. So the butcher I go to knows the correct fat content and it's how you kind of put it on there. It's.

[Matt Farah]

You know, Ali said he's going to teach me.

[Zach]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Farah]

My other. My other. Other. My Persian friend is going to teach me.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Oh yeah. See Persian barbecues too.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Shont Mishafijian]

Which spot did you go to?

[Matt Farah]

Rafi.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Rafi's.

[Matt Farah]

Rafi's?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. Oh, dude, you went to like the, you know, the McDonald's? No, it's a very good spot.

[Matt Farah]

Also with Tun La Majo in Burbank. The llama June spot.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yes.

[Matt Farah]

That has the special oven. That place is that. That's the best.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I'll take you to. You know, you got to go to the little local spots. Rafi's is like the. It's big superstar. You go to those little mom. Oh, they're. It's phenomenal. 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.

[Matt Farah]

There's also the spot in Gardena by our other store that's like next level Borg Star. If you. With Borgestar.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I don't know much about. Is it.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Garden is a secret Persian. Armenian. What?

[Matt Farah]

It's Persian Persian, but Garden is a super secret. There's a lot going on down there.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Really?

[Matt Farah]

Yeah. Because nobody wants to go down there.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

It's going to be. It's.

[Shont Mishafijian]

It's.

[Matt Farah]

It's great.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

We're working on it.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Working on it. Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

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

[Zach]

They're very resistant.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah. But there's not much going on. Why wouldn't they want it, like, direct traffic to the city and it's obviously quality people that are going there. It's like.

[Matt Farah]

I think they're. I think they're nervous because the. There's like, takeovers down there at night. And you say anything with.

[Shont Mishafijian]

I understand.

[Matt Farah]

Anything. They're really on edge.

[Zach]

We'd like to bring a bunch of cool cars to an industrial area at nighttime.

[Matt Farah]

Yeah, 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 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.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

All right?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

All right.

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Do you have a white suit in my size?

[Shont Mishafijian]

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

[Matt Farah]

Oh, he does.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yeah.

[Matt Farah]

I'll figure that out.

[Shont Mishafijian]

We'll go there one of the weekends when he's doing it just to kind of the car community in Tennessee is really growing, too. It is.

[Matt Farah]

No, Tennessee is 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 his shit. 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, but 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?

[Shont Mishafijian]

Yep. Is that.

[Matt Farah]

That's where they find. Have Sean build you something. He's pretty good at it. I can't fucking wait. 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. The racing wrap up for you. And that's all I got. Goodbye.

[Shont Mishafijian]

Thank you, guys.