Shaquille O’Neal is one of the richest athletes on planet Earth. With $400 million to his name, Shaq isn’t afraid of splurging on the finer things in life. One of the things he loves buying is cars, and recently, he bought himself a Rolls Royce Cullinan and gave it a modest and classy makeover. A huge change to some of the modifications he had done on his cars back in the 90s. Like, the Mercedes Benz he bought 30 years ago, which, as revealed in his book Shaq Uncut, he turned into a car with an aquarium.
Advertisement
Despite entering the league at the age of 20, Shaq had an almost childlike personality. Not to say he hasn’t retained some of that persona even today, but back then it was on a whole other level. Big Diesel loved fulfilling his desires and never missed an opportunity to spend big with his $3 million salary. And, that included buying some ridiculous cars.
Three decades before making modest modifications to his Rolls Royce, Shaquille O’Neal bought a Mercedes and made it an aquarium
Having recently purchased a Rolls Royce Cullinan, Shaquille O’Neal made some interesting modifications to the car. Going for a classy Burgundy color, Shaq showed off his taste with this particular customization. A taste The Big Aristotle didn’t have a few decades ago when he was buying cars left, right, and center.
Shaq loved his automobiles and often spent big bucks buying the best of the best. However, having a great car wasn’t enough. He had to make every single car he bought unique, just like him. And, the way he went about that was by making some insane modifications. One of which, was revealed in his book, and even caused the death of a few fish in the process.
30 years ago, O’Neal bought a burgundy Mercedes Benz 600. A fine car, but one that just didn’t suit his needs. So, as he did with most of his vehicles, he tore it apart. But, that’s not all. Not only did he put airbags in it like hydraulics, but he also added a fish tank in the back through the speakers. A whacky decision, and one that proved disastrous, as the goldfish he had his bodyguard put in died when he first used the car.
“The next car I tore apart was a Benz. It was a burgundy 600. I put air bags on it, like hydraulics, and I put a fish tank in the back through the speakers. They were clear speakers with the tank on the top. I usually had practice at 10:00 a.m., so my bodyguard, Jerome, would put some goldfish in there and I’d drive to practice, and by the time I got there all those fishies were dead.”
It certainly was a brash decision on the four-time NBA Champion’s part and one that he would never make again. But, that didn’t stop him from doing some other crazy things with his massive car collection.
Shaq once splurged $350,000 on a Ferrari modification which led to a $9 glitch
He may not have killed a fish with this one, but Shaquille O’Neal once bought a silver Ferrari and modified it for $350,000. A big man, at the age of 24, Shaq decided he needed to switch the engine of the Ferrari from the back to the front. After all, he needed the leg space, but it did not come without consequences.
While he was able to get the space he so desired, the motor was unable to fit in the front. As such, the Hall of Famer had to replace the motor with that of a lawn mower. Something that only allowed him to fill up $9 worth of gas every time he took it out for a spin. A hilarious situation that saw his teammates troll him for days to come. Safe to say, he never made that mistake again.
