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Influencers Who Pimp Their Rides Aren’t Petrolheads. They’re Just Tacky

It’s only natural to want to leave your mark on anything new you buy, be it a house, a car or even smaller stuff like clothes. That gives you that feeling that those things really do belong to you, and no one else.
Influencer Daria Radionova with her Swarovski-covered Aventador 8 photos
Photo: Instagram / Daria Radionova
Influencer Daria Radionova has 3 cars covered in Swarovki crystals, including an AventadorInfluencer Daria Radionova has 3 cars covered in Swarovki crystals, including an AventadorInfluencer Daria Radionova has 3 cars covered in Swarovki crystals, including an AventadorInfluencer Daria Radionova has 3 cars covered in Swarovki crystals, including an AventadorRapper 50 Cent's custom-Versace wrap on his Lamborghini AventadorMercedes SL600 covered in diamonds and mink furMercedes SL600 covered in diamonds and mink fur
When it comes to cars, you can leave that mark by placing trinkets inside: an air freshener with your favorite scent, a neck pillow shaped like an animal, fuzzy dice on the rearview mirror, or what have you. Or you can tune your car, wrap it in whatever you like, place funny stickers on the body, or make even more drastic alterations. Some may have no functionality other than to make you feel better when driving it, while others actually improve the car’s performance to better suit your needs.

Celebrities, as it turns out, are no different. They too like to make the places they live and the cars they drive more pleasing to the eye – they just have more money than us regular folks. That doesn’t mean they also have better taste and, when it comes to some car mods, that certainly doesn’t make them petrolheads.

Influencer Daria Radionova has 3 cars covered in Swarovki crystals, including an Aventador
Photo: Instagram / Daria Radionova
Spend enough time online, especially on social media, and you will be amazed at some of the stuff people think of in the name of their love for cars. Take for instance Instagram model / influencer Daria Radionova, a Russian beauty who lives in London and runs a beauty salon there.

Radionova is loaded, though no one seems to know for certain where she gets this kind of money from. She is so well-off that she’s already covered a Mercedes-Benz and a Huracan and, more recently, a Lamborghini Aventador in real Swarovski crystals.

The Aventador, who is now a sparkling wonder, was covered with 2 million crystals by the guys at Cars in Cloaks from London, and Radionova was so thrilled with the result that she took it all over the world to show it off. She also did plenty of showing off on social media.

The crystals add to the overall $400,000+ value of the Lambo but, at the same, they make it less spectacular of a car, by adding weight to the frame and making it less fast than it would be otherwise. It’s like buying a purebred horse and putting diamond shackles on its front legs, if you will. Because it would make it look better and sparkle in the sunlight.

Rapper 50 Cent's custom\-Versace wrap on his Lamborghini Aventador
Photo: Instagram / 50 Cent
Granted, whatever Radionova or any other influencer / regular person does with a car that’s personal property is their business, but one should steer clear of thinking of them as petrolheads or car collectors. The same goes for rapper 50 Cent who, out of a desire to match his car to a certain outfit, had his own Aventador custom-wrapped by Versace (and turned into a horrid eyesore, if you ask us).

Or when Saudi Prince (Amir) al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul-Aziz celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Mercedes-Benz SL550 by covering a Mercedes SL600 in diamonds and mink fur, to a total cost of $4.8 million.

You could argue that this type of car modifications turn the car into pieces of art, and there would be no reasonable argument against that because art is, by its very nature, divisive. On that same note, the Blenheim Palace in the U.K. recently hosted a piece of art by Maurizio Cattela, called America that was, in no complicated terms, an 18k solid gold, fully functional toilet that people could poop and pee in. Art.

Mercedes SL600 covered in diamonds and mink fur
Photo: carfromjapan.com
Cars, on the other hand, are meant to be experienced, lived. You truly own a car when you drive it, when you get to know it down to the most delicious purr or the angriest roar, when you go a mile and you can figure something’s up without stopping to check.

If you only buy a car so you can pimp it to show it off, you own a show pony. It’s still a beautiful thing to behold and maybe you can make it even more impressive looking with whatever mod you think of or maybe you turn it into a huge steaming pile of tacky, but it’s not your car and you’re not a petrolhead. Claiming otherwise, as many these celebrities and influencers do, is dishonest.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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