Shaquille O’Neal is a former NBA superstar and an unstoppable juggernaut on the field. Other than basketball, he is famous for his great and wacky sense of humor, and a rather outlandish taste. One other thing fans worldwide know him for is his love of cars. His collection is huge, and so is he. Therefore, many of his vehicles are custom models explicitly made for him. Read on to learn about some of the modifications he had to make.
1. Vaydor’s small engine
Recently, Shaq received a custom-built sports car called the Vaydor. Supercraft Custom Crafted Cars made the beauty for him, and Vaydors are always prepared to order, and entirely around the specifications of customers. Since Shaq is well over seven feet tall, he needs a custom sports car different than most. With this one, the most surprising thing about the vehicle is the engine choice of the former athlete. Out of many engine options available, Shaq a naturally aspirated V6, with only 280 horsepower. Perhaps he did not think it through, as he seemed to forget that his 350-pound body needs to be inside as well.
2. Stretched Slingshot Polaris
The Slingshot Polaris are those famous, attention-grabbing half-car and half-motorcycle vehicles many celebrities seem to enjoy. They are great for wheel burnouts and going sideways. However, when you decide to stretch the frame and fit two more rear seats on it, without any engine modifications, it becomes much harder to achieve that. The peculiar vehicle runs on a naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine with 173 horsepower, excellent for an 1800 lbs. car. It goes from zero to 60 in 5.2 seconds, but Shaq’s probably needs more, especially with two more people. Except for the length and extra seats, Shaq also put an 18-speaker surround sound system in it that comes with dual subwoofers and a sound bar overhead. He knows how to enjoy life.
3. Jeep Wrangler
One of the latest cars Shaq got is this Jeep Wrangler, built for him by the famous West Coast Customs. The big guy has always wanted to own a Wrangler, but he could never fit into one comfortably. Therefore, the WCC went out of their way, welded two doors together, and gave the seating area in the back an upgrade. The Jeep has some serious heavy-duty off-road modifications on it. However, Shaq has never taken a vehicle off-road before. WCC also fitted the Wrangler with a Pro Comp Rubicon lift kit, a Pro Comp suspension, and Fox Racing aluminum body shocks. Shaq also asked for a Rigid Industry light bar, a Smittybilt winch, and a huge bash bar, since normal is small for him. Hence, this vehicle is the perfect off-roader, but Shaq will probably never test that.
4. Stretched Lamborghini Gallardo
The Lamborghini brand takes the aerodynamics of their model very seriously. A massive part of designing each of their cars is examining every detail of the bodywork, with the goal to maximize the car’s aerodynamic efficiency. This way, they squeeze out the most significant acceleration possible and allow higher cornering speeds of rate driver. Therefore, when you want to modify the exterior of a Lambo, you will ruin the aerodynamics. This is exactly what Shaq did to his Gallardo when he decided that the roof, doors, and windows all had to be extended. Shaq could not fit inside the regular model of the supercar, so he added a total of 12 inches to the total length of the Gallardo.
5. Chameleon Ford Mustang
The Dub Magazine got the task to make a Ford Mustang specifically for Shaq, who has always loved Mustangs but like with the Lambo, he just could not fit inside one. He told the designers to do whatever they wanted, bought a black Mustang, and asked them to make it white. Shortly after that, he wished for it to be burgundy. At the time, Burgundy was not a factory color for the Mustang model, but Ruby Red would make more sense to start the customization process. So there you have it, when it comes to creating custom cars for Shaquille O’Neal, you should always be on the standby for the unexpected.
