StanceWorks Video Transcript

Foreign [Applause] Recently someone said to me that some project cars are cool while other project cars are special for the last two years we’ve been hard at work on the Honda swap Ferrari and if you asked me how I’d classify this car I would say that it is a cool one it ticks

All of the interesting boxes it’s presented a lot of unique challenges and I don’t think that there’s anything else quite like it out there but if you ask if it’s inherently special well I don’t really think that it is the K24 swap Ferrari is just the logical answer to a

Somewhat complex problem and although it represents my own creative output which I believe makes it truly unique it’s still just a stepping stone one build in a line of many to come as I continue down my path on the other hand I’ve got a new project that I’ve been waiting to introduce a

Full year ago I purchased this car and unlike the Ferrari this one is special it also happens to be the most boring car I’ve bought in a long long time but give me just a few minutes because I want to explain exactly what it is that we’re doing here

I truly believe this is perhaps the most important build I’ve undertaken to date and if you find yourself invested in the projects that happen on this channel well then the next seven minutes are for you in 2010 I lived in Murfreesboro Tennessee and my entire life revolved around one particular car

Most people know this car as Rusty in one sense or another this car formed my career it Formed my passions it Formed my hobbies and most importantly it Formed almost every single friendship that I maintain today I tell people this often when the topic comes up but there’s only one

Circumstance in which I can actually prove it in April of that year I received this DM on the stanceworks forums it says my buddy and I drove by your place earlier tonight I’m sure we looked like total creepers but he had told me he saw Rusty at some house by the school

So we were curious not stalkers I swear just didn’t want to intrude and you look to have guys over this message was sent to me by Corey Hutchison I invited him and his buddy Rodney over to check out the car and then I insisted that if he hung around long enough I’d

Convert him from a Honda guy into a BMW guy From there it was only a few short months until he was moved in as my college roommate from that point Corey was present for nearly every major Milestone that followed without hesitation he gave his own Blood Sweat and Tears to help me build the car of my dreams to help see Rusty through

Into the car it eventually became and to be clear that wasn’t the only time he did that either but there is more to life than just cars because we were also groomsmen at Rodney’s wedding together we consumed what might be millions of calories worth of Waffle House and eventually I even

Convinced him to uproot his life leave his family behind and join me in California now there is a lot I’d love to tell you about Corey because he is without question one of the best Souls I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting but I’m A Car Guy this is a car Channel

And every story for me always comes back to cars specifically it comes back to the first night that I met Corey when I insisted eventually he’d find himself behind the wheel of a BMW perhaps one of my crowning achievements is the fact that it wasn’t just one BMW

Or two it was several of them there was the E28 that we pulled out of a field together that he appropriately named Hank the tank and there was the E21 that he named Darla because although he says he hated that car’s stinking guts I think inside he did truly love

That silly little car there was a jaunt with an E36 M3 and several others as well but the most important cars to this story are two identical e30s Corey had two white early model E30 Coupes and to be frank he beat the absolute [ __ ] out of both of them the first car to Corey was known as the scuffler but to the rest of us it was affectionately known as the tree 30. it earned this moniker because Corey was

Sliding the car around on the unpaved back roads of Tennessee when he slid off and rolled the car directly into a tree but this was a minor setback at most Corey tracked down a complete replacement front end and then welded a sedan c-pillar in place of the coop

C-pillar and had the car back in action in no time in fact the car went on to win several Regional scca rallycross events Corey absolutely refused to let this car die the 330 hold all of Corey’s belongings across the United States and back when he moved home it took him to the very

Top of Pike’s Peak it got rear-ended and straightened out it got bent in half after jumping off of Phil Hill at Buttonwillow but he didn’t care this car did everything but as said there was a second white E30 Coupe that we all know as the race car

On the surface it was shockingly similar to the tree 30 but a Second Glance would showcase the fact that the race car represented Corey’s attempt to improve upon everything that made the tree 30 so good from better suspension to better wheels and tires the 24 valve engine the

Roll bar the fixed back seats everything went into this car an attempt to make it better and more importantly to make it faster you see Corey and I were very competitive we were both racing flat out to beat the two minute Mark at buttonwillow’s 13 clockwise layout in

Our respective e30s at the time Corey was the better driver I had the better car but his race car could change that rapidly once he finished the build he was supposed to drive back out to California so that we could race head to head once

Again to see once and for all who really was the fastest driver with a fair car between us but as important as these cars were to Corey there were also other important things in his life very important things in honesty when he moved from California back to Tennessee I struggled to

Comprehend what could be worthwhile but in time it did become clear that although the cars and the projects were important there were other milestones in Cory’s life he was seeking to achieve he was always a Family Guy at heart and having a family of his own was the

Obvious conclusion his path would take him down but if you haven’t connected the dots at this point I’m never gonna know what it’s like to beat Corey fair and square to that two minute mark and what’s worse is that Corey will never know what it’s like to reach the Milestones he sought

In September of 2021 Corey succumbed to an autoimmune disease called mda5 he fought for a year as his body turned against him until eventually he lost his ability to breathe What’s Left Behind of course is a huge group of people that loved him dearly and just as important are those two white e30s

So I began the search Nationwide I was on the hunt for a white early model E30 Coupe to call my own because I want something that every time I look at it and every time I get behind the wheel I’m reminded of my best friend in March of last year I found the

Perfect car an 85 325 Etta so I called some of my closest friends had them book tickets and together we flew to Santa Rosa California and drove it home now a full year later I’m finally ready to show it off so let’s take a look This is the car that I’m gonna call the Corey 30. for obvious reasons I assume on paper it doesn’t have a lot going for it it’s got an automatic transmission it may be one of the worst BMWs ever made it’s got an anemic 121 horsepower 2.7 liter inline six under the hood that

Only revs to 5000 RPM it’s got questionable paintwork along with purple faded seats on the interior it’s got yellow brake calipers and for some reason someone decided to paint the headlight Rings red not to mention this thing’s got 270 000 miles on it or 435 000 kilometers for everyone else

Let me be clear though I absolutely love it it’s perfect because I never would have bought this car in any situation prior the questionable tape lines on the fender alone would have had me walking the other direction but Corey on the other hand never would have let this car

Escape his grip and that’s exactly what this project is truly about I’m not trying to build a replica of either of his cars I’m trying to build a car that reminds me of him and I want to approach it with the same relaxed mindset that I

Know Corey would have I don’t want to sweat the small stuff the dings the dents the imperfections the little things that would have driven me crazy in any build prior instead this one’s all about those imperfections starting with perhaps the most meaningful one now I’m not what you would call a

Superstitious or spiritual guy but when I saw this particular detail on the E30 I knew in that moment that I was going to buy it and take it home remember a few moments ago when I said Corey rolled his car into a tree and then welded a sedan c-pillar onto his

Coop to be clear it doesn’t fit here’s the repair so you can see what I’m talking about it’s not a good repair but again Corey didn’t care it was about getting the car back on the road obviously this c-pillar on his car is a battle scar

On my E30 there happens to be a Mark or a blemish if you will on the exact same c-pillar in the exact same spot now again I’m not superstitious but I know that if Corey had seen this Mark on this car he would have said I have to have it

It’s a perfect sign if you will so again I had no excuses but to buy this car and build it just like Corey would have but before we actually dive into this E30 we’ve got to start with a different one that’s because I bought two e30s and

This one as you can probably tell is a total basket case no one’s asking me but I’d say this one’s not worth saving although others would probably feel differently instead I’m really just looking to cannibalize this thing for parts first on the list is that funny Contraption sitting on the floorboard

That is a manual pedal box and then there’s what lurks under the transmission tunnel which is a manual transmission now really that’s all I was after when I bought this car but then we found out there was more under the hood although this car began as the same 325e

That mine did it is part way through an engine swap now this engine is only a 2.5 liter but in BMW terms that’s more desirable because this 2.5 liter outputs considerably more horsepower than our 2.7 it has what’s known as the 885 cylinder head and it’s a direct bolt-in swap into

Our car not to mention the fact that this is the exact same engine Corey swapped into the tree 30. now I don’t really want the car itself so I told my buddy Byron if he was willing to lend a hand in ripping it apart he could just have it

Right next door is his shop liked bow which specializes in classic European cars and we did the disassembly there mostly so that this husk of an E30 would be in his way once we’re done not mine thankfully because this car was part way through an engine swap nothing was

Really connected so the transmission itself was able to just drop right out now the donor car does include pretty much everything that we need to manual swap the white car but we will have to track down an appropriate drive shaft and ideally we’ll find a limited slip differential to pair with it

Just like the transmission pole pulling the engine was probably the easiest it could possibly be we didn’t have to worry about disconnecting anything from the wiring to the cooling system to AC it was ready to come right out now the m20b25 isn’t what I’d call a Powerhouse it produces about 170

Horsepower frankly I’m not even sure this will be the final engine for our build but it’ll make the car a lot more enjoyable to drive in the interim now I thought in the spirit of Corey what I should do is just slam the engine into the car and send it on down the

Road but given that I don’t know anything about it I want to be responsible so the liked about guys ordered up every single service item we could possibly throw at this thing from all of the gaskets including the head gasket to the timing belt the water pump

A new clutch flywheel you name it because I want to drive this thing with the same lack of mechanical sympathy as Corey would it needs to be up to the task but our upcoming plans include some cosmetic improvements as well I bought a set of OEM Euro grills and new kidneys

To refresh the front end of the car and we’ll pair that with a set of proper headlights to pair with the engine I tracked down this cool aftermarket downswing gauge cluster the tachometer revs to the appropriate redline for our new engine and it includes some cool tidbits like the

Service lights having been upgraded to perform as shift lights underneath the car I want it to handle so I’ve got h r working on a custom set of coilovers just like they built for our E30 M3 but it’ll be a while till these are done so in the interim we’re

Going to run a set of hnr race Springs and if we’re gonna drop it of course we need a set of wheels I’ve said before that Wheels make or break any build and for this one I needed something special so thankfully my buddy Nick Foster came through and provided these absolutely

Incredible four lug magnesium Alpena splits they use BBS Motorsport Hardware so we’ll be able to size them perfectly to the car and I’d like to refinish them in silver centers with a black lug pocket a perfect tribute to their original finish now for those of you that aren’t BMW

Fanatics I’ll be clear in stating that these are probably the single coolest and rarest four lug Wheels I could possibly bolt onto this car they are the BMW Holy Grail and I couldn’t think of anything more fitting next in line of stockpiled Parts I’ve got a set of Euro bumpers complete with

Mounts and all of the trim if you’re not familiar with how drastically these transform the look of the car just compare my rear bumper to khalil’s Euro rear bumper mounted to his E30 this is the way the E30 was originally designed and it’s how the rest of the

World got it but crash safety regulations here in the United States meant that we got the ugly quote-unquote diving boards the same goes for the front of the car as well if we compare it to khalil’s you can see just how awful the front end of a US spec E30 is by comparison

Khalil is going to be working on his E30 at the same time I’ll be working on mine because our eventual goal is to drive these up the west coast to the E30 picnic later this summer if we look down the parking lot towards his shop liked bow and ignore the bright

Red M1 in the parking lot we’ll see Byron’s e32 it’s another great example of how amazing Euro bumpers can look but what’s special about his car is what’s under the hood he’s most of the way through a 350 horsepower na built K24 swap it’s been in progress for a long time

But he wants to finish this up by the end of summer as well he’s going to be joining us on our trip North so let me know if you guys want project updates on his car as we also chip away at mine because come the end of summer

We’re going to be ripping these cars up the coast foreign so that’s my E30 intro video if you made it this far into the episode now you understand what I’m here to do and why I’m excited about it this project means a lot to me and man I’m so thrilled to

Finally be diving into it I’ve been holding off on this thing for a full year now some of you guys are wondering where are Cory’s e30s there were two of them they didn’t just vanish where are they at in this whole story well we’re going to touch upon that in the next

Episode there’s a lot of Storytelling yet to do and with any luck one of them the race car is going to make its way out here to California me and Corey’s brothers are going to get it fixed up and with any luck they will have their first on-track experience behind the

Wheel of that car and then I’m gonna go out and I’m gonna see if I can break that two minute run in that race car the way Corey would have wanted it so there’s a lot of stuff happening not only with my car but with those e30s as

Well I’m excited to work with Corey’s family and try to keep those cars running driving and keep them from rotting away because that’s what’s important to me those cars represent my best friend so I hope you guys enjoy it I hope you guys enjoyed this episode

This one was it was an emotional one but I’m excited about it I’m so pumped hope you guys are too enough rambling I’ll catch you guys next week next episode I don’t even know what I’m doing yet probably the E36 so I’ll see you then