Have you even maximized the early ’00s if you didn’t binge on Pimp My Ride? That was the holy grail of entertainment courtesy of MTV, which made working at West Coast Customs a few kids’ dream job. Ryan Friedinghaus was the boss of the shop and show but he doesn’t necessarily credit MTV for his fame. He, in fact, says that it was Shaquille O’Neal who blew him up to fame. When he is not giving regular folks an auto glow-up, he is giving celebrity rides an upgrade. His biggest client (quite literally) was none other than O’Neal. Friedinghaus appeared on The Tom Ford Show in 2022 where he revealed what kind of client Shaq is.
Now any Shaq fan worth their salt knows this giant gearhead doesn’t just stop at collecting luxury cars. He loves personalizing them too. And West Coast Customs is the best place for the jobs. Friedinghaus said that he customized 65 cars for Shaq alone. His episode resurfaced to highlight Shaq’s demands aren’t limited to making a Ferrari fit around his 7-foot frame.
O’Neal’s bat signal to Friedinghaus was, “I found this, we need to build this.” The requests aren’t ordinary either. When Ferrari didn’t make convertibles, Shaq bought one and had West Coast Customs take the roof off to make it a convertible. Not sure if this is the same ‘Frankenstein Ferrari,’ the 1998 Ferrari F355 Spider that was fully modified before he sold it in 2020.
But nothing compares to what he wanted to do to a Mustang. “He sends me these links, ‘get me one, build me one of these.’ And it’s like a Mustang that you see in the water like that it looks like a car but it’s a boat.” When he tells Superman that he can’t make an amphibious Bat-Mobile, Shaq comes back with a new request.
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O’Neal’s dad gave him a Bentley Azure that he couldn’t drive it because his knee kept hitting the steering wheel. So Ryan’s team did major modifications including adding a new custom Superman logo steering wheel. He listed this car for sale a long time ago too. Probably because he’s now shifted to muscle cars. Shaq revealed on The Big Podcast recently that he now buys Dodge Chargers because he only needed to move the seat back without physically extending the car to fit in it. But he still calls Friedinghaus to this day to get his car fixed.
The honorary mentions of Shaquille O’Neal’s craziest customs
As mentioned previously, Ryan Friedinghaus credits his success with West Coast Customs to Shaq. He said that he’s not only their biggest celebrity client, but his ridiculous ideas are inspiring. Doing custom jobs for O’Neal pushed the CEO. “That’s where I got that sense of I can do anything.”
There are some customs he didn’t mention on the show but went viral on the West Coast Customs official pages. Like O’Neal’s newest Rolls Royce Phantom, he bought in 2023. The shop added a custom Mansory kit and a Superman logo on the grille.
But the most infamous customization he got was to a Ferrari with very little legroom. The customizers had to take out the engine to extend the space and had to fit – Shaq confirmed it too – a lawnmower’s engine. So O’Neal said that this particular car only cost him $9 in gas. Who knew expensive customizations had that advantage?
Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr
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