Will.i.am’s Car Collection: DeLorean, Corvette & AMG Builds
Will.i.am doesn’t collect stock cars — his most famous vehicles, a widebody DeLorean and a Mercedes-AMG GT reshaped like a G-Wagen, were rebuilt from the ground up by West Coast Customs at costs topping $700,000. One build got him in trouble after he told Jay Leno’s audience it was made “from scratch.” This guide covers his real custom cars — what they actually are, what they cost, and which viral claims about them are true.
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Quick Answer
Will.i.am owns several one-off vehicles built by West Coast Customs: a widebody DeLorean (reportedly $500,000–$700,000), the “Willvette” 1958 Corvette ($687,500), a $900,000 custom VW Beetle nicknamed “The Monster,” and the 2022 will.i.AMG “The Flip.” He also reportedly keeps a stock McLaren MP4-12C and Tesla Roadster.
Who Is Will.i.am, and Why Does He Customize Cars?
William James Adams Jr., known as will.i.am, is the Black Eyed Peas frontman and a serial entrepreneur who has put money into everything from tech startups to STEAM education. Instead of buying finished exotic cars, he founded his own automotive brand, IAMAUTO, specifically to commission one-off vehicles. Almost every build carrying his name was done at one shop: West Coast Customs in Burbank, California — the same garage MTV made famous on Pimp My Ride.
The Custom DeLorean: West Coast Customs’ Most Controversial Build
Will.i.am’s DeLorean is a real, heavily modified DMC-12 — not an original vehicle, whatever he claimed on television. West Coast Customs started with an actual DeLorean chassis and added a widebody kit, new front-end styling with recessed headlights, 20-inch wheels, a single-piece redesigned rear brake light, and a full interior rebuild with a Beats by Dre sound system. One detail often gets misattributed as a “custom modification”: the gull-wing doors. Those are the DMC-12’s original factory design from 1981, not something West Coast Customs added.
What West Coast Customs Actually Changed
The biggest change is under the rear hatch: the stock 2.85-liter PRV V6 — a 130-hp engine shared with Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo — was pulled and replaced with a GM LS3 E-Rod crate engine. Reported build costs vary by outlet, ranging from $500,000 to $700,000; no single official figure has ever been confirmed by will.i.am or West Coast Customs.
📊 The LS3 E-Rod engine swapped into the DeLorean makes 430 hp and 425 lb-ft of torque — more than 3x the 130 hp of the DMC-12’s original French-sourced V6. Source: Chevrolet Performance, official LS3 specifications
The Jay Leno Controversy
In early 2012, will.i.am unveiled the car on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and claimed he had built it “from scratch” using Chrysler parts. That wasn’t true. West Coast Customs had already documented the entire build on its own television show, clearly starting from a real DMC-12 donor car. The mismatch between his on-air story and the footage became a minor auto-press scandal at the time.
Why It Got Impounded
In June 2012, police impounded the DeLorean after will.i.am tried to drive it on public roads without a VIN, registration, or license plates. Because the car had been so extensively rebuilt, it didn’t carry standard registration paperwork like a normal titled vehicle.
The “Willvette”: A 1958 Corvette Rebuilt for $687,500
Nicknamed “Vett.i.am” during its build, this 1958 Corvette was reworked by West Coast Customs in bright red with silver accents on the doors and front fender. The shop hand-fabricated a bespoke front end, reupholstered the interior using parts sourced from a donor 2008 Corvette, and installed an integrated touchscreen computer system. The build was documented on West Coast Customs’ own show on the Velocity network, and the finished car reportedly cost $687,500.
The $900,000 VW Beetle Nicknamed “The Monster”
Will.i.am’s strangest project started as a 1958 Volkswagen Beetle in 2009. He first took it to Austin Weiss at The Garage in Florida with a plan to build a SoCal-style speedster powered by a twin-turbo Porsche flat-six. Partway through, he changed direction entirely and asked for something “crazy futuristic” instead, with stretched doors and a front-mounted engine. The car spent roughly two years at The Garage, then moved to West Coast Customs so it could be finished in time for a planned appearance at the 2011 Super Bowl Halftime Show. By the time it was done — roughly four years after it started — the Beetle carried a supercharged LS3 engine and had cost close to $900,000, and it was unrecognizable next to the car it began as.
The will.i.AMG “The Flip”: His 2022 Mercedes-AMG Collaboration
Unlike the earlier builds, the will.i.AMG wasn’t a solo West Coast Customs project — it was will.i.am’s sixth official one-off collaboration with Mercedes-AMG, built with West Coast Customs’ help. Starting from a Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, the team converted it into a two-door car with massive rear-hinged doors inspired by the Rolls-Royce Wraith and a nod to the old SLS AMG’s gullwing legacy. The front end was reshaped into a boxy, G-Class-style face. The AMG V8 underneath was left alone — nobody touched the engine on this one.
The car, officially nicknamed “The Flip,” debuted at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Miami in May 2022 with Lewis Hamilton among the guests. A six-part documentary series called DRIVE, following the build, premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The entire project existed to raise awareness and funds for STEAM education through will.i.am’s i.am Angel Foundation, which helps students from disadvantaged communities access science, technology, engineering, arts, and math careers.
MBUX Sound Drive: His 2024 Mercedes Tech Partnership
Will.i.am’s most recent Mercedes project isn’t a customized car at all — it’s software. At CES 2024 in Las Vegas, Mercedes-AMG and will.i.am unveiled MBUX Sound Drive, technology that reads a car’s driving dynamics (acceleration, braking, steering input, and regenerative braking) and turns them into a real-time musical performance, effectively letting the driver “conduct” the music as they drive. It was demonstrated live in a Mercedes-AMG EQE SUV. Will.i.am also launched his own company, Sound Drive, around the technology.
“Imagine a car that conducts a song, and the driver is the conductor.”
Will.i.am’s Reported Car Collection at a Glance
| Vehicle | Built By | Custom or Stock | Reported Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeLorean DMC-12 | West Coast Customs | Custom (widebody, LS3 engine swap) | $500,000–$700,000 (disputed) |
| “Willvette” 1958 Corvette | West Coast Customs | Custom | $687,500 |
| 1958 VW Beetle “The Monster” | The Garage, then West Coast Customs | Custom | ~$900,000 |
| will.i.AMG “The Flip” | Mercedes-AMG & West Coast Customs | Custom one-off, not for sale | Undisclosed |
| McLaren MP4-12C | McLaren (factory) | Stock, unmodified (reported) | ~$239,400 MSRP new |
| Bentley | Bentley (factory) | Stock, unmodified (reported) | Undisclosed |
Note: the broader collection figures (McLaren, Bentley, Tesla Roadster) come from secondary entertainment and car-blog coverage rather than an official statement from will.i.am, and are presented here as reported rather than independently confirmed.
Will.i.am isn’t the only celebrity with an unusual relationship to cars. See what similarly unconventional collections look like for Shaq and Jimmy Kimmel, or browse what cars the rich typically drive for context on how his builds compare to more conventional celebrity garages. West Coast Customs’ other famous TV work, and what happened to its Pimp My Ride builds, is worth a look too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is will.i.am’s custom DeLorean a real car?
Yes. It’s a genuine, heavily modified DMC-12 built by West Coast Customs, not an original vehicle built from scratch as will.i.am once claimed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. West Coast Customs’ own footage documented the build starting from a real DeLorean donor car.
How much did will.i.am’s DeLorean actually cost?
Reported figures range from $500,000 to $700,000 depending on the outlet, and no single confirmed number has come from will.i.am or West Coast Customs directly. Either way, it’s one of the most expensive celebrity car customizations on record.
What happened to will.i.am’s custom DeLorean?
In June 2012, police impounded it after will.i.am drove it on public roads without a VIN, registration, or license plates — a direct result of how extensively the car had been rebuilt from its factory state.
What is MBUX Sound Drive, and did will.i.am really help create it?
Yes, it’s real. MBUX Sound Drive is a Mercedes-AMG technology, unveiled with will.i.am at CES 2024, that converts driving inputs like acceleration, braking, and steering into a real-time musical performance. Will.i.am also launched his own company, Sound Drive, around the tech.
How many cars does will.i.am own?
Secondary coverage puts his collection at around 9 vehicles, most customized by West Coast Customs, with a stock McLaren MP4-12C and Bentley reportedly the only two he’s left unmodified. Will.i.am has not published an official, complete list.
Did will.i.am found his own car company?
Yes. He founded IAMAUTO specifically to commission one-off custom vehicles, working almost exclusively with West Coast Customs in Burbank, California on projects like the DeLorean, the Willvette, and the VW Beetle known as ‘The Monster.’
Conclusion
Strip away the viral headlines and will.i.am’s car history holds up: a genuinely rebuilt DeLorean, a six-figure Corvette and VW Beetle, a charity-driven Mercedes-AMG one-off, and now a music-tech partnership that has nothing to do with body kits at all. The one claim that didn’t hold up was his own — the DeLorean was never built “from scratch,” just rebuilt more thoroughly than almost any other celebrity project on record.
