How John Cena Spent More Money on a Fake Lamborghini Than the Real One

John Cena is a true car enthusiast. How do we know this? Because he recently shared a sad story that many can relate to. Years ago, he spent a fortune on a beautiful V12 Lamborghini, but spent the next two decades suffering because he couldn’t get it to go on the road. It’s a classic story, one that will be told forever.

Modified cars hold a lot of promise. You can build a deliciously exotic car for a fraction of the cost of a real Italian supercar. Maybe you can even get one with a big engine and a lot of power! In reality, however, that rarely happens. Every car enthusiast has come across an ad for a “near-complete modified car” that is nothing more than a rickety fiberglass body, a junkyard engine, and the ashes of someone’s hopes and dreams.

The story comes to us from the YouTube channel. Tea tea club. When asked what his worst purchase was, Senna immediately replied, “I lost a lot of money buying cars.” But his worst purchase was the car he bought. “I didn’t want a Lamborghini, so I bought a knockoff,” Senna says. And that’s when the trouble began.

Two decades of pain

“This was in 2003,” Senna explains, recounting the story of his purchase of a replica Lamborghini with a BMW V12 engine. “I found a company that did it, and they put a V12 in it. I said to myself, ‘It’s the same thing, it looks so good, it’s awesome! I’ll buy it!’”

But soon after, Senna ran into problems. “They tried to throw me out of the car,” he says. He had to enlist the help of some “friends” to track it down, before getting into a title fight. “Finally, the car showed up after two years, and it wouldn’t move,” he says. “The engine was stuck on the timing of two Chevrolet V6s, so everything was messed up, nothing worked, and the car wasn’t roadworthy.”

Senna decided to stick with it, and sent the car to a repair shop. “This is a 2005,” he says with a broad smile. “I only got the keys to that car a week ago.” In the end, it took nearly twenty years. ten “John Cena has been working in the garage until he got the car up and running,” Cena says to laughter in the studio. “I’ll tell you, it looks great. I spent the price of a real roadster and half the price of this modified car.” What did he take away from that? “If you take shortcuts, you get what you pay for.”

Fortunately, Senna was later able to purchase genuine Lamborghinis with much less stress.

Theories

This begged the question for us. What car did John Cena actually buy? It’s hard to say for sure, and he didn’t give us much evidence in the interview. I did some digging, and I think I’ve come up with a good, if unconfirmed, theory.

It’s worth noting that John Cena posted a picture of a Lamborghini on Instagram this week, and it appears to be his modified car. It’s a dark blue replica of the Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster, which was originally built from 1995 to 1998. The John Cena version wears Lamborghini logos and wheels that look like… on On the right, it’s pictured with its removable roof in place. We can also see BMW’s V12 engine at the rear of the car. It’s not clear exactly which one, but it’s likely the M70 or M73 engine as found in the 750i/750iL and 850i/850Ci.

This drive led me to one particular company, North American Exotic Replica Cars (NAERC). The company is long gone, but in the early 2000s, it was known for making replica Lamborghinis that looked a lot like John Cena’s. The company offered kits as well as ready-made versions. Motor Trend The New York Times covered a blue example from the company in 2005, noting that it offered Chevrolet 350 engines under the rear deck, alongside supercharged 3.8L Buicks, LS1s, LT1s, or even a V12 from a BMW 850i.

according toArticle 2007The latter started at a low $59,500 for those based on the stretched Fiero chassis with 2.8-liter engines. However, that figure could exceed $100,000 for those with larger V8 or V12 options, and based on a full replica body built from the ground up. Notably, NAERC has produced Diablo replicas in multiple body styles, according to Archived company website:

Our Lamborghini Diablo Replica Body Kits are the most accurate and detailed Diablo kits in the industry. They are not just sculpted replicas of the original cars. We have developed our Diablo body kits for all model years from 1990 to 2001 30th Anniversary SE, SV, VT, Roadster and 6.0 Coupe.

Specifically, NAERC was known for offering BMW V12 engines in its replica cars. video The images posted on the company’s website show a barebones car powered by a BMW E32 5.0L V12 engine, mated to an Audi 5N transmission. The wheels on the concept car also look eerily similar to those on the Senna – like Lamborghini’s own wheels, but they’re so shiny they’re uncomfortable to ride on.

Video of NAERC’s BMW V12 Lamborghini replica. pic.twitter.com/0c7Xdrn06J

—Lewin S. Dai (@rainbowdefault) August 26, 2024

There’s a small problem. NAERC reported the completion of a build using a BMW V12 engine in December 2005. Since John Cena didn’t receive his car until 2005, that timing is a bit suspicious.

However, I think I can explain it, with the caveat that this is all just a theory and nothing is certain. Senna notes that his car arrived in 2005, was fitted with a completely incorrect timing gear from a Chevrolet engine, and it just didn’t work. Could NAERC have had ongoing issues with the BMW V12 setup, which is why it was reluctant to hand over Senna’s car? So, when an act Did you manage to take over the place, and it was unfinished and ineffective? That makes sense to some extent.

Interestingly, there is another reference to the history of the Senna. As shown in Leadership, Video 2022 From VINWiki The wrestler’s car is mentioned at the beginning. Sam Hard of Hard Up Garage talks about the “sister car” to John Cena’s Lamborghini replica, which passed through Richard Rawlings of Gas Monkey Garage at one point. Hard bought the car and proceeded to restore it in His own channel on YouTube.

Hard’s build is a Fiero-based version, painted in Dodge Blue Metallic. It’s powered by a Chevrolet LS engine with a supercharger on top. Hard says the sister car he bought was built by Kelly Hayes in Texas around 2008 or 2009, and he says Hayes was also behind the Senna. Interestingly, Hard says the Senna was yellow, though he admits he could be wrong on that point. In any case, it’s a largely unconfirmed story and we have no hard evidence that Hayes was involved in the modified Senna at all.

Dig deep into the old internet, and you’ll find A 2005 Hot Rod condition On a replica of the “Orange Crush” Diablo built by Kelly Hayes and his company Italian Designes. It’s not a Senna, but it does suggest that Hayes was in the replica business. The only thing is, if you browse the archives of the Italian Designes website, you won’t find anything about BMW V12s. Until 2006. In a post dated January 23, 2006, the company noted that “NAERC V-12 Roadster is in development.” This fits the description of John Cena’s car, but the dates are wrong.

In short, we don’t have many hard facts. I think it’s likely that the modified Senna was built on the NAERC kit, since they were the most famous BMW V12 engine manufacturer, but that’s not certain. There are of course other similar cars, whether they were NAERC or BMW. In the United States and behindBut the fact that there’s a source that says Hayes built it in Texas, and we have evidence that Hayes worked on building the NAERC V12 engine? There’s a strong link here.

Anyway, I’m reaching out to sources for more information. There’s no doubt more to the Senna. After all, if 10 shops built it, a lot of people have come into contact with this car at one point or another. Maybe we can learn more about the Senna version, or maybe he’ll share more now that he finally has the keys. Until then, these are the best clues we have about where this modified car came from.

Image credits: VINWiki via screenshot from YouTube, Italian Designes via screenshot from Wayback Machine, Club Shay Shay via screenshot from YouTube