With fame comes fortune, and that leads to expensive car collections. Some celebrities have rather questionable taste in cars, like Will.i.am, but others have impeccable taste like the following ones on the list.
Although these 8 celebrities we’re going to talk about today also have uber-expensive flashy vehicles like Lamborghinis and Ferraris, they have some stand-out additions to their collections built in Japan. There is a huge cult following behind JDM sports cars because they’re purely built with the driver in mind, and that’s also why they usually aren’t as luxurious, and flamboyant as the aforementioned supercar brands. Take for instance Cardi B, who can’t even drive but stows away a hefty exotic car collection to rap about in her songs.
These celebrities do however take their rides out of storage and use them for what they were built to do: drive and enjoy.
9 Rowan Atkinson (2002 Honda NSX)
The Actor Rowan Atkinson loves cars almost as much as a businessman loves hairspray. That’s right, Mr. Bean himself is a car fanatic, well he owned a McLaren F1 at a point in time, but after crashing it twice, he decided to sell it for a miraculous profit. With regards to Japanese cars, Rowan doesn’t have a lot to choose from in his collection, but he does have one of the most influential Japanese supercars from the late ’90s and early 2000s, the Honda NSX.
Often mistaken for a Ferrari, the NSX was Honda’s first supercar, but despite it being their first attempt at one, it was vastly successful since it sported a 3.2-liter V6 that produced up to 290 hp, and could reach 60 mph from a standstill in less than 5 seconds.
8th Jay Leno (1970 Mazda Cosmo 110S)
Via YouTube @ Jay Leno’s Garage
Ah, the king of all car collectors, Jay Leno. It used to come as a shock to most people that Jay Leno has an enormous car collection that reigns superior over even Elon Musk and Bill Gates’ collections, but now that his show, Jay Leno’s Garage has become a viral sensation, the cat’s out of the bag. One of his favorite cars to drive, and to look at is his Mazda Cosmo 110S.
This was the first Mazda to be equipped with a Wankel rotary engine, and because of its scarcity and uncanny beauty, Jay couldn’t keep his hands off it. Jay is also praised by motor enthusiasts since he’s not shy to stretch his cars’ legs; click on this link to watch the episode of him driving his Cosmo in all its glory.
7 Daniel Wu (1968 Honda S800)
The S800 was Hondas’ second-ever production car, and it’s a very scarce sight to see them still alive today because they’re more than half a decade old, but Daniel Wu has one of the coolest S800 models on the face of the planet . His Honda is nowhere near stock and built by two large names in the automotive industry, SEMA, DJ Designs, and Pandem.
The entire kei car was built from the ground up with new fenders, a new roof, modern Toyo wheels, and a stunning black paint job that suits its design perfectly. Not-so-fun fun fact, if it wasn’t for Daniel Wu almost dying in 2019, the S800 you see today, might have never even existed in the first place.
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5 Bucky Lasek (Subaru WRX GC8 aka “Buck-it”)
The story behind Bucky Lasek’s old WRX is actually phenomenal. He bought the GC8 WRX for $600 off of Craiglist then strived to create the ultimate rally racer that could also be used as a daily driver. He swapped the stock motor for something that has a bit more power, a turbocharged four-banger out of a 2002 STi, and built it further to produce more than 400 hp.
He also transformed the entire interior to fit the exterior’s racecar look and of course, added a sick widebody kit to it too. If this isn’t one of the coolest WRX builds ever, we don’t know what it is.
4 Sung Kang (1973 Datsun 240Z aka Fugu Z)
Sung Kang, or as most of us know him, Han from the Fast and Furious franchise is a total gearhead on and off camera, and his modified Datsun 240Z shows it. It’s nicknamed the Fugu Z, and started its life as a 1973 240Z that Sung bought off Craiglist after seeing it rot away in storage; his intention was not to restore it to its OEM state, however.
Sung’s 240Z got an aggressive Rocket Bunny widebody kit, as well as a 2.6-liter RB26 straight out of a Skyline GT-R. They removed the turbos and replaced them with individual throttle bodies, and after putting the Fugu Z on a dyno it produced 245 hp, which is more than adequate if you ask us.
3 Ruteldge Wood (1986 RWB Porsche)
Rutledge Wood was one of Top Gear USA’s hosts, and his car collection ranges from old pick-up trucks to this widebodies Porsche built by RWB. RWB, which is short for RAUH-Welt CONCEPT, is a tuning company that specializes in taking older Porsche 911s and transforming them into wide performance behemoths that scrape the floor.
And Rutledge is one of the very few individuals on this planet to have his hand-built by Akira Nakai alongside Randy Allgood, and the geniuses at Kenwood Rod Shop. They took his ’86 Carrera, painted it green, gave it satin gold Forgeline wheels, and replaced its Porsche heart with an American Chevrolet LS3 that produced 525 hp.
2 Paul Walker (1989 Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R V-Spec)
The late Paul Walker was no stranger to unique and rare sports cars, especially ones built in Japan, but his R34 GT-R has to be the coolest one out of them all. This Skyline is no ordinary R34 either, it was imported out of Japan, hence the Spec-V badge, and it was different from other Skylines found in the States.
His sonic silver R34 came from the factory with a 276 bhp twin-turbo inline-six but got upgraded through its lifespan with an HKS intercooler, a new body kit, as well as a carbon fiber hood. Paul ended up selling his first V-Spec for a newer white V-Spec II, but his original silver GT-R still remains a legend to this day.
1 T Pain (Nissan 240SX S14)
In the real world, T-Pain isn’t just a hardcore rapper but also loves cars to bits, especially drifting. One of his favorite drift cars is his S14 Nissan 240SX, and its exterior is plastered with a shocking Rick and Morty-inspired wrap, more specifically, a Pickle Rick one.
Performance-wise, there isn’t much to write home about, unfortunately, so we can just assume it still has the stock 2.4-liter inline-four motor it came from the factory with, but at least T-Pain enjoys sliding his cartoonish cars around the track.
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About The Author
Marnus Molman
(86 Articles Published)
Marnus Moolman is a young aspiring automotive writer from South Africa who is making a name for himself, despite his young age. Currently, he is studying to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting to pursue his lifetime dream of running his own automotive detailing establishment.
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