Why it took John Cena 21 years to drive a fake Lamborghini he ordered

John Cena once spent a small fortune on a fake Lamborghini and had to wait more than two decades to take it on its first drive. 

Ouch. 

The WWE legend bought himself a V12 Lamborghini kit car to save some cash on the real deal. 

However, Cena admitted that the kit car turned out to be the ‘worst purchase’ he ever made. Double ouch. 

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John Cena bought the fake Lamborghini to save some money

Like many celebrities, John Cena is fond of fancy cars – but in 2003, he decided to try and save himself some cash by getting a ‘fake’ Lambo. 

“I didn’t want to spring for a Lamborghini, so I bought a fake one,” he told Club Shay Shay. 

“I found a company that would do it, they put a V12 in it. I’m, like, ‘man, it’s the same thing, it looks pretty good, it looks great! I’ll buy it!’”

But it was here the nightmare began for Cena. 

Initially, Cena said, the company tried to stiff him out of the car and it was two years before it ‘finally showed up’.

Even then, the kit car – which was designed to look like the iconic Lamborghini Diablo – didn’t go. 

“The motor is held together with the timing of two Chevy V6s, so everything’s confused, nothing runs, the car is not roadworthy,” he said.

It was more than 20 years before he got to drive it

Cena wasn’t about to give up on his janky fake Lambo just yet, though. 

After receiving it in 2005, two years after he bought it, he sent it off to have some repairs done in the hopes of getting it on the road. 

However, that proved to be more of a challenge than it sounds. 

In the end, he would need to take the fake Lamborghini Diablo to 10 auto shops over 21 years before he could finally get behind the wheel. 

Not only did he spend a lot of time getting the car roadworthy, he also spent a lot of cash.

“I will tell you, it looks great,” Cena said.

“I have about the cost of a real Roadster and a half into this kit car.”

And was it all worth the wait? 

Probably not, given that the eagle-eyed team at The Autopian spotted the very same kit car up for sale in October this year. 

An expensive lesson learnt, we’d say.