John Cena is a real, bonafide car enthusiast. How do we know? Because he recently shared a tale of woe that’s relatable to many. Years ago, he laid out big money for a beautiful V12 Lamborghini kit car, only to spend the next two decades suffering as he failed to get it on the road. A classic story, forever retold.
Kit cars hold so much promise. You can build a car that looks deliciously exotic for a fraction of the cost of a real Italian supercar. Maybe you could even get one with a big engine and some serious power! And yet, in reality, that’s so seldom the case. Just about every car enthusiast has happened over an ad for a “nearly complete kit car” that is little more than a battered fiberglass shell, a junkyard engine, and the ashes of someone’s hopes and dreams.
The story comes to us from YouTube channel Club Shay Shay. Asked for his worst purchase, Cena instantly landed on cars. “I have lost so much money on cars,” he says. But his worst of all? It was the kit car. “I didn’t wanna spring for a Lamborghini, so I bought a fake one,” says Cena. And that’s where the trouble began.
Two Decades Of Pain
“This was 2003,” Cena explains, as he recounts his purchase of a Lamborghini replica with a BMW V12. “I found a company that would do it, they put a V12 in it,” he says. “I’m like man, it’s the same thing, it looks pretty good, it looks great! I’ll buy it!”
Soon after, though, he ran into problems. “They tried to stiff me out of the car,” says Cena. He had to enlist some “friends” to track it down, before tangling with the issue of getting a title. “The car finally shows up after two years for me of waiting, it doesn’t go into gear,” he says. “The motor is held together with the timing of two Chevy V6s, so everything’s confused, nothing runs, the car is not roadworthy.”
Cena decided to stick with it, and sent the car to a garage for repairs. “This is 2005,” he says with a pursed smile. “I just got the keys to that car a week ago.” In the end, it took the best part of 20 years and ten workshops until Cena was able to get the car sorted and running. “I will tell you, it looks great,” Cena says to laughter in the studio. “I have about the cost of a real Roadster and a half into this kit car.” The takeaway? “If you take shortcuts, you’re gonna get what you pay for,” he muses.
Happily, Cena was able to later buy genuine Lamborghinis with a lot less stress.
Theories
This raised the question for us. Which kit car did John Cena actually buy? It’s difficult to say for certain, and he doesn’t give us many clues in the interview. I’ve had a look into the matter, and I reckon I’ve got a decent theory, albeit an unconfirmed one.
Helpfully, Cena posted a picture of a Lamborghini to Instagram this week which appears to be his kit car. It’s a deep blue replica of the Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster, which was originally built from 1995 to 1998. Cena’s replica wears Lamborghini badges, wheels that look about right, and is pictured with its removable roof in place. We also see the BMW V12 engine in the rear of the car. It’s not precisely clear which one, but it’s most likely an M70 or M73 engine as seen in the 750i/750iL and the 850i/850Ci.
That engine led me toward one company in particular—North American Exotic Replica Cars (NAERC). The company is long gone, but in the early 2000s, it was well-known for building replica Lamborghinis that are quite similar to the one Cena has. The company offered kits as well as turnkey replicas. Motor Trend covered a blue example from the company in 2005, noting it offered Chevy 350 engines under the rear deck, along with supercharged 3.8L Buicks, LS1s, LT1s, or even the V12 from the BMW 850i.
According toa 2007 article, the latter started as low as $59,500 for those based on stretched Fiero chassis with 2.8-liter engines. However, that figure could stretch well in excess of $100,000 for those with larger V8 or V12 options, and based on a full replica chassis built from the ground up. Notably, NAERC produced Diablo replicas in multiple body styles, as per the company’s archived website:
Our Lamborghini Diablo Replica body kits are the most exact and detailed Diablo kits in the industry. These are not just sculpted simulations of the original cars. We have developed our Diablo body kits for all the 1990 to 2001 model years in the 30th Anniversary SE, SV, VT, Roadster, and the 6.0 Coupe.
Quite specifically, NAERC was known for offering BMW V12s in their replica cars. A video posted to the company’s website features a kit car with no body that has been fitted with a “V12 BMW E32 5.0L” engine, paired with an “Audi 5N transaxle.” The wheels on the test car also look suspiciously similar to the ones on Cena’s car—like Lamborghini’s own wheels, but a touch too shiny for comfort.
A video of NAERC's BMW V12 powered Lamborghini Replica. pic.twitter.com/0c7Xdrn06J
— Lewin S. Day (@rainbowdefault) August 26, 2024
There is a small hitch. NAERC posted about completing a build with the V12 BMW in December 2005. Given that Cena only received his car in 2005, that timing’s a little suspect.
However, I think I can explain this, with the caveat that this is all theory and none of it is confirmed. Cena notes that his car arrived in 2005, had completely inappropriate timing equipment fitted from a Chevy engine, and that it wouldn’t go into gear. Could it be that NAERC had ongoing issues with the BMW V12 setup, and that’s why it was reluctant to deliver Cena’s car? And thus, when he did manage to take possession, it was incomplete and non-functional? That would just about make sense.
Interestingly, there’s one other hint as to the history of Cena’s car. As covered by The Drive, a 2022 video from VINWiki mentions the wrestler’s car off-hand. Sam Hard from Hard Up Garage talks about the “sister car” to John Cena’s replica Lamborghini, which passed through the hands of Richard Rawlings of Gas Monkey Garage at one point. Hard purchased the vehicle and set about restoring it on his own YouTube channel.
Hard’s build is a Fiero-based version, painted in a Dodge shade of metallic blue. It has a Chevy LS engine with a supercharger on top. Hard says the sister car he purchased was built by one Kelly Hays down in Texas around 2008 and 2009, and he says Hays was also behind Cena’s car. Interestingly, Hard says that Cena’s car was yellow, though admits he might be wrong on that point. In any case, it’s pretty anecdotal and we have no hard evidence that Hays was involved with Cena’s kit car at all.
Dig deep into the ancient Internet, and you’ll find a 2005 Hot Rod article on a replica “Orange Crush” Diablo built by Kelly Hays and his business Italian Designes. It’s not Cena’s car, but it indicates that Hays was in the replica business. The only thing is, if you flick through the archive of the Italian Designes website, there’s nothing about BMW V12s until 2006. In a post dated 23 January 2006, the company notes a “NAERC V-12 roadster build underway.” That fits the description of Cena’s car, but the dates are wrong.
In summary, we don’t have a lot of hard facts. I’d say it seems likely that Cena’s kit car may have been based on a NAERC kit, given they were the most prominent builder using BMW V12s, but it’s not confirmed. Other similar builds exist, of course, both in the US and beyond. But the fact that there’s a source saying Hays built it in Texas, and we have evidence that Hays had worked on a V12 NAERC build? There’s a strong link there.
In any case, I’m in the process of reaching out to sources for more information. There is, undeniably, more information about Cena’s car out there. After all, if ten shops worked on it, a lot of people have been in touch with this car at one point or another. Maybe we can learn more about Cena’s replica, or perhaps he’ll even share more himself now he finally has the keys. Until then, these are the best clues we’ve got as to where this kit car came from.
Image credits: VINWiki via YouTube screenshot, Italian Designes via Wayback Machine screenshot, Club Shay Shay via YouTube screenshot
The only reason I can see buying a kit car is you want the hands on experience of putting it together yourself. If you’re going to pay someone else to do it (and given Sena’s income) you probably should just buy the real thing.
I dunno I think about a gt40 kit or Lancia Stratos kit pretty often. I want something I can drive hard, and the price of the originals are insanely out of my budget. 2000 GT kit car is tempting but even the kit is prohibitively priced.
Specific topic aside, it’s pieces like this that remind me of why I love this website.
This was written by an actual car-loving adult, not a bot or some kid fresh out of Medill that can’t disengage a parking brake.
This was an interesting read that brought back a lot of memories for me. NAERC made some amazing parts, and a few great Diablo replicas. I have a couple original Lambos and and Ferraris and helped friends source a few parts they needed from NAERC to replace factory Lambo parts. In 2007, I was in the invitational building at the Carlisle Replica and kit car nationals with my BMW V12 powered 250 GTO replica. I got talking with the owner of NAERC when I saw his chassis on display in the manufacturer area. It had the BMW engine and an Audi trans installed, but was strictly a roller, with no body, interior or wiring. It looked good though. We went to dinner and he was trying to sell me the entire company. He didn’t want a partner, and said he was just tired of all the headaches involved in running the company.
I went home and thought about it, but a few months after the show, Audi lawyers had shut down most North American Lambo replica manufacturers. He may have know it was coming and tried to sell the business to me to avoid the legal issues coming.
If Cena was a little off on the year, I kind of wonder if that rolling chassis was his.
Incidentally, I was inspired to use that engine after a friend put one in an Ultima GT. He did a dry sump conversion, and he used the 2 BMW computers to make it run as 2 straight 6 engines. As far as we know, I was the first to get that V12 to run on an aftermarket ECU, with a lot of help from Electromotive’s engineers. It would have been so much cheaper and easier to use an LS, but as mine is a replica of a 60’s Ferrari that came with a dry sump, 60 degree, SOHC V12, I insisted it was best for what I wanted the finished car to be. It’s a decent engine, but insanely expensive to get more power out of it. I have around $80k just in the engine, but nowhere near the power of an over-built LS.. but they don’t sound like a 12 🙂
If anyone has pics of the chassis under Cena’s replica, I could tell them if it came from NAERC..I took a lot of pics of it at Carlisle and have been around a lot of Lambos, both original, and replicas
Damn, man. I would think he was ballin enough to buy the real thing by 2005. I don’t know the pay scale of WWE, he was on a big momentum swing upwards there by that year, I think he was THE face of WWE. That’s got to be worth real Lamborghini money right? He seems like a cool car guy in any case.
I mean he kind of deserves what he got. You have to have no clue about cars whatsoever, while simultaneously having more money than brains, to go for this kind of “replica”.
It seems that the man himself agrees with you 🙂
Indeed, and kudos to him for that 🙂
I guess we all have our own stories about stupid car decisions, maybe not this order of magnitude, but still I can relate.
To be fair, it could have spontaneously combusted had he sprung for the real thing.
…
I think the funniest thing is if he had passed on the V12 option it likely would have been totally fine, reliable, and pretty fast, and once LS engines became cheap, ultimately faster and more fuel efficient and more reliable than that boat anchor V12. That engine suucccckkkssss
True, but so did the Canto Lambo V12. I mean it was somewhat powerful, but perhaps made of glass. At any rate, a wrassler looking to flex a bit would likely only ever rev the thing around town, it would at least some more exotic than a 5.3 LS, even if it would probably get whooped on in a race.
When I was 13, around 1981 or 82, my father bought a Cobra Kit Car from his co-worker. We aimed to finish it in time for me to drive when I turned 16. This was before the internet, so I remember scouring junkyards for parts and working countless hours with little progress. When I was around 16 we sold it to it’s next owner and bought a Camaro with the money. The fellow who bought it from us sold it to someone else, and so on. I would love to know if it was ever completed.
I wonder if something like that is easier to sell complete or incomplete. I’d think you get more hits from people who plan on finishing it.
Sounds like it just kept teaching different people the same lesson. I had a gal like that once.
I think the fun in a kit car is building it yourself. Buying a Caterham 7 kit and making it your own sounds pretty rad.
But buying a completed Diablo replica for that kind of money is bananas.
Much better headline!
You’ll need an electron microscope with quantum-level resolution to see the violin I’m playing for John freakin’ Cena.
What’s your major malfunction? You think nobody else has made a bad car related decision here?
If only it were that simple.
He was asked about what was his dumbest purchase and he told clearly and openly the mistakes he made. You on the other hand are here being salty and acting like it’s yet another millionaire complaining how unfair life is.
I think it is that simple. You’re jealous AF and it’s clouding your judgement.
Where exactly do you draw the income level after which we are not allowed to talk about our lives and our cars anymore?
Wow, you’re so far off base you can’t even smell the hot dogs. Like many celebrities, Cena has a PR team that scrubs stuff.
At some point you need to start arguing your opinions instead of just going for the ad hominems.
If you want to talk about being “off base”, saying that “I know he wanted to whine but his PR team saved him” is a pretty far fetched.
Look, I’m not here to dig up the guy’s past. Plenty of other people have done that.
I want to care. I really do.
But I don’t…YMMV
Like was said about Tesla back when (and maybe now), building cars is hard. I always wanted to do a kit car, am now, but it’s taken much of my life to happen to acquire the knowledge and equipment to do a proper job of it (NO Fiero, no-no-no). His mistake was in thinking even the most likely-seeming shop would actually have the capability.
I just dont understand kit cars, especially ones that start at $59k in 2007 dollars. There are alot of real cars that wont be embarrassing to explain at cars and coffee at that price, and no one ever wants to buy your used kit car when you are done with it. Its like fake M badges on a 325i the people who know think your dumb and the people you are fooling dont really know cars anyway.
There’s at least a few kits that get a pass (personally, Cobras, Sevens, VW-based vintage Porsches) – at least if it’s good enough to replicate the real experience of something that you couldn’t afford or wouldn’t be willing to drive with any regularity for fear of what might happen to it.
I would give a pass to the Cobra and Porsche replicas and the like, they seem a little better then pasting ugly fiberglass on a Fiero, and are vintage cars that cant be bought for real without serious money. When you are trying to make a Diablo/Ferrari whatever when Diablos are still around its just makes less sense to me, granted Diablos arent cheap either but not on same the level as a genuine Cobra.
That being said, I would take a Coyote replica car with a FWD LS motor out back. I still watch Hardcastle and McCormick if it come on the oldies channel and i have the time.
I think Cobras make sense. And a few others that are unobanium. Factory 5 Cobras are basically superior to the real thing anyway.
Yeah I’ve never understood it either. When I was a teenager, there was a guy in town with a F355 replica made out of a Fiero or something. It was a pretty good replica, but everyone knew it was a replica. You’d see it, and for 2 seconds you thought you saw something cool, until you realized it was “that one”.
So what is the point? A good fake is not cheap and earns you zero points with enthusiasts. I guess you could fool some people and a fake Ferrari or Lambo is good for some attention from the general public?
Unlike the “M” 325i that will just attract other BMW fans who know your “M” car is BS.
He sometimes shows up at Rides by the River in Tampa. At least that’s what they say. I can never see him.
I see what you did there.
Kind of hard to blame the kit car vendor on this one. How are they supposed to deliver to a customer that they can’t even see?
It’s funny that I get this reference even though I haven’t watched a minute of wrestling since the 80’s. Those memories have all turned to shit anyway since I know how badly Hulk Hogan sucks now. I’ve filed them away next to The Cosby Show in my bank of childhood memories that were ruined by adulthood.
Too bad he didn’t pay for it with replica currency.
bitcoin?
Kitcoin, maybe.
Clearly it’s shitcoin.
“Here’s a stack of Benjamins for the car. Some people say that having Ben Stiller on them instead of Ben Franklin makes it obvious these are replicas, but most people don’t look that closely.”