John Cena’s Lamborghini Diablo Replica Is Up for Auction

You’re not going to find many auction cars with a weirder story than this.

A replica Lamborghini Diablo roadster owned by wrester-turned-actor (and noted car buff) John Cena is currently up for bid on Bring a Trailer. The faux supercar, which is powered by an old BMW engine, actually runs too.

On a recent episode of Shannon Sharp’s Club Shay Shay podcast, Cena admitted to having commissioned the replica 20 years ago back when he was nothing more than an up-and-coming WWE star. It turns out that building a supercar from scratch, even a replica, is rather difficult. It would take two decades in and out of different auto shops for the kit car to finally make the car roadworthy. And now that it is, it would seem that the actor is ready to be free of it once and for all.

At a glance, Cena’s “Diablo VT” looks just like the real deal. But take a closer look and the differences start to pop out, especially if you’re the most ardent of Lambo lovers. The car has the same general shape and profile as the supercar, but its lines and details don’t look quite right. The metallic blue paint job and 18-inch alloy wheels with Lamborghini caps look legit, though. The interior, meanwhile, is almost a picture-perfect recreation down to the plaques that identify the kit car as having falsely been designed by the late Marcello Gandini.

It’s in the engine bay where the similarities dry up. Cena’s fake Diablo is powered by a V-12, but it’s one built by BMW, not Lamborghini. That mill appears to be from either a 7 or 8 Series, according to The Drive. No power figures are provided, but we imagine it won’t pack quite the same punch as the Diablo VT’s 12-cylinder, which made 529 hp and 446 ft lbs of torque in its final iteration. The fact that the engine is mated to a five-speed Porsche-sourced manual transaxle gearbox is a decent bonus, though.

Usually, when someone buys a Lamborghini, they want the real deal. Not every fake was owned by one of the most famous wrestlers of all time, though. If this Diablo kit car’s Cenna connection has piqued your interest, the auction runs through this coming Saturday, October 5. As of press time, bidding had reached $75,000.

Click here for more photos of John Cena’s replica Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster.

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