A Slammed BMW Compact From Belarus

I AM THE SPEEDHUNTER

By: Yuri Zabavchik

25th January 2017 185 Comments

Hello, my name is Yuri. I’m an automotive photographer from a small town not far from Minsk in Belarus, which itself is a small Eastern European country between Russia and Poland.

I have only been shooting for about three years, and always try to find cars that have an interesting look for me. It can be old American classics like the Plymouth Fury, a stanced VW Jetta II, or a brand new Octavia vRS. We have many interesting cars in Belarus but many owners do not like publicity, so there are still many dream cars to photograph.

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Belarus has a population close to that of Tokyo, and its quite small size means that if you are really into car culture, you will know about every big project from all over the country. You may even know the owners personally if you are lucky enough and attend all the major events. These events are usually held by two big automotive clubs in our country; ‘Autoamerica’ as you might guess by its name is all about American cars, while ‘BellyRubbers’ are a group of people united by the love of stance. My story today is about Belarusian stance.

To give you a little bit of background on the stance scene here, I first want to talk about Andrew ‘Drull’, the founder of the BellyRubbers club. In 2015, Andrew took part in Raceism 2K15 event where his red Scion FR-S placed in the Top 8. He’s earned a number of awards at Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian events, but it was the success at Raceism that made us feel proud. It showed us that a car from a country with an average monthly salary of about $350 can compete with high-budget projects from all over Europe.

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But the build I want to share with you today is owned by another Andrew, who also has an interest in stance. Like most other guys, Andrew has been into cars since his youth, and having readily accessible internet he got into stance culture very fast. He dreamed about building up a clean looking VW Golf, but luckily that never happened. By ‘luckily’ I don’t mean that owning a Golf is a bad thing, but there are already just so many customized examples out there.

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After not being able to find a suitable Golf, he began to consider other cars like the BMW E36. But then one day his buddy called up and said, “Hey, I’ve found nice E46 coupe for you”. Well, it turned out that it wasn’t a coupe, it was 3 Series Compact, the ugly duckling amongst all E46 BMW models.

I’ve always found the 3 Series Compact to be awkward and I do wonder what it is that draws people to these cars in the first place. I guess it’s something to do with the model being reliable enough and having inexpensive parts.

Andrew took a glance at the silver Compact and decided to buy it. When he got home, he Googled the words ‘E46 Compact stanced’ and found that the number of results were surprisingly small. Andrew quickly realised that this body style is not a very popular base for lowering, but that didn’t put him off. Instead, he took it as a challenge.

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The project started in 2015 and for that season Andrew chose wheels that were too wide. In fact, the rear wheels didn’t physically fit at all. For 2016 he was much more prepared when choosing the right wheels, and as it sits today the car looks clean as opposed to being overly radical.

The spec includes TA-Technix coilovers with -3.5 degrees of camber in the front and -5 degrees at the rear, while the aforementioned wheels are 18×10.5-inch 7Twenty Style49s fitted with 215/35R18 tyres. M-style bumpers and side skirts have also been added.

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Andrew wanted to build first stanced E46 compact in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), and he achieved that goal. There are many more goals ahead though, and his plans for 2017 include more camber, wider wheels and some exterior changes. I’m sure that when those things happen, the BMW will become even more unique and will receive the attention it deserves.

The number of car festivals in post-Soviet countries is constantly growing, as is the quality of cars participating. I hope I can show you many more interesting cars from CIS in the future!

Yuri Zabavchik
Instagram: isteone

Comments

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185 comments

2:06 amJanuary 25, 2017 alex_efk24

looks nice

2:10 amJanuary 25, 2017 sune

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2:55 amJanuary 25, 2017 ford capri

smooth, i like it...
nice wheels too

3:09 amJanuary 25, 2017 StasKravtsoff

The bulba tuning - whatewer made in Belorussia will look like potato

3:55 amJanuary 25, 2017 enthusiast

Too little tyres for those fat rims

3:56 amJanuary 25, 2017 DjaranJones

I agree, the e46 compact is just plain awkward and butt ugly to see but in the world of stance it's cool to see something different other than The typical S chassis, 86-BRZ etc

3:59 amJanuary 25, 2017 Leonel Oliveira

honestly... i don't see anything special...besides the big wheels...

Try visiting Portugal, i will be glad to join you, and you'll see some great cars... at least some cars that deserves front cover better than this one

4:38 amJanuary 25, 2017 elertsmartins

I don't like compact BMW but my God... I would buy this in a heartbeat

5:20 amJanuary 25, 2017 koniukh

#ДрульПатруль

5:24 amJanuary 25, 2017 GenaAndrosik

Бульбашкряберсы захватят мир! То чувство, когда видишь этот проект в своем городе, а потом заходишь на спидхантерс и он на главной)

6:11 amJanuary 25, 2017 ca1iban know1es

Basically I like the car, but why did the owner make the front end look like a Rover 75?

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6:59 amJanuary 25, 2017 GillbertChandrabose

ca1iban know1es
Thats stock on e46 compacts

7:23 amJanuary 25, 2017 RomanBortnik

Ганаруся Беларуссю!

8:05 amJanuary 25, 2017 ChrisSempek

I'm not entirely sure that the quirky "euro-ness" of this car has the weight to constitute a full SH feature. Like other readers, I don't see much going on besides a drop and wheels.

Props to the owner for doing his thing for the Stance Scene in Eastern Europe. Maybe this article was just to shed light on that part of the world?

8:06 amJanuary 25, 2017 ca1iban know1es

GillbertChandrabose ca1iban know1es That's embarassing. I've got an E39
Never seen an E46 compact before. Hopefully I never see one in person

8:31 amJanuary 25, 2017 vroomtothetomb

Leonel Oliveira This feature is called 'Iamthespeedhunter'. This means YOU can bring us cool cars from your part of the world.

The regular contributors like Dino, Paddy, Mike, Blake etc. don't have the resources to hunt speed anywhere in the world anytime and every time.

If you can write and you have a friend who takes great pictures please show us.
Or maybe you can write AND shoot. I would love to see and be inspired by the scene in Portugal.

8:33 amJanuary 25, 2017 vroomtothetomb

ChrisSempek This feature is called 'Iamthespeedhunter'. This means YOU can bring us cool cars from your part of the world.

The regular contributors like Dino, Paddy, Mike, Blake etc. don't have the resources to hunt speed anywhere in the world anytime and every time.

8:36 amJanuary 25, 2017 vroomtothetomb

I like the compacts and love this car!!
This platform gets too much h8 :(. Put some RESPEK on something different :D!!!!!!!

8:59 amJanuary 25, 2017 Parhom

Thank you. If anyone has questions, happy to answer instagram.com/andrey_parkhomenka

10:01 amJanuary 25, 2017 DustinM

Yuri: Amazing shots sir! You very clearly know what you are doing. Keep it up!

And nice beamer!

10:01 amJanuary 25, 2017 turbom

I think it looks cool.
Always good to be different,more from the CIS please...

10:07 amJanuary 25, 2017 CyborgGT

DustinM Beamers (or beemers) are bikes. Cars are bimmers.

10:19 amJanuary 25, 2017 pllpski

Belarus isn't small country.

1:00 pmJanuary 25, 2017 Curlytop

awesome! i had one of these as my first car and loved it!

2:32 pmJanuary 25, 2017 CyborgGT

pllpski It's a hair smaller than bordering Russia...

4:09 pmJanuary 25, 2017 370 Hemi

First time I have seen a Compact version. I think it looks pretty cool and the stance suits the car just right. The tires are stretched beyond my liking but, overall I like the car.

-Alex

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4:20 amJanuary 26, 2017 RomanBortnik

CyborgGT pllpski Belarus area:
Belgium + Switzerland + Greece = Belarus

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The car is FUBAR but the photography is good.

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And some action shots

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Awesome pictures, Yuri!

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