Okay, you can stop laughing at the title now. Yes, John Cena, American wrestler, and icon did in fact have a custom car built named the InCENArator. Actually, John Cena is a big fan of American muscle cars, and as exotic as this car might look on the surface, you might be surprised to find out what home-grown engineering sits just below the surface. Chances are you’ve only seen pictures of the InCENArator if you’ve even heard of it before, and on the surface, it looks like a pretty cool, custom-designed vehicle. To my surprise, it wasn’t very cool at all. 

A rare, one-off custom car

In fact, the InCENArator was actually a piece of junk. It was riddled with design flaws and awkward styling that didn’t quite work. Functionally, the car wasn’t very good, and cosmetically it might look okay. Well, it looked okay if you didn’t get too close, or maybe the lighting wasn’t great. So maybe, it didn’t look good, either. The first time I saw it, the shock of seeing such a rare one-off car left me feeling giddy, and after a quick walk around I realized that the car was a surprising let down. 

The car was designed by Park Brothers Concepts, a company that otherwise had made more than a handful of beautifully designed, well-crafted custom cars. While I wasn’t impressed with the InCENArator itself, a lot of their work has been more than impressive. In fact, the InCENArator had a lot of very unique and eye-catching concept designs that the team at Park Brothers Concept just wasn’t given the time to execute to the best of their abilities. 

A surprising base for the InCENArator

Regardless, the InCENArator made its way into my life and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The fiberglass body was custom-molded around a C4 Corvette, and it was much larger than I had imagined it would be from the pictures. The headlights were molded into the fiberglass and shined through as lightning-bolt shaped cutouts that didn’t do much to provide light — in fact, I’m not even sure if they were technically legal, but let’s not get into semantics. 

The most annoying concept flaw

There was one major design flaw in the concept of the InCENArator, and it became something of my worse nightmare. As you may or may not have noticed from the pictures, this odd-looking vehicle doesn’t have any doors. That is because the glass dome that consumed the top of the build opened into three-piece — now, that probably doesn’t give you a great example of how hard it is to get into and out of this car. 

No, getting into this car was far from a simple task. Once the glass panels had opened to expose the car’s cabin, a small panel in the front of the car could be pressed down to become a step. Stepping up you will find yourself on a short catwalk that guides you back to the dashboard. Then, in an awkward maneuver — and as someone who has crawled in and out of a Lotus Elise, I have a pretty good idea of what awkward is — you kind of just climb down into the cabin over the dashboard and settle into your seat. 

Not as extravagant as it may have looked

The interior didn’t have any extravagant upgrades, keeping its heart as a C4 Corvette alive and well. This might sound appealing to Corvette fanatics, but for a car that has been as extensively modified as the InCENArator, you might expect a few upgrades to the seats or interior. 

Regardless of any design flaws or other problems the vehicle may have had, the concept was still pretty neat. It shot balls of fire from the piping at the top of the car, and it even made its way into the prestigious Gumball 3000. After all, concept cars can be pretty hit or miss for onlookers, and if you don’t look too close, or have to get into it, the InCENArator is still pretty darn cool.