Standing at a towering 7-foot-1, Wilt Chamberlain’s love of exotic cars faced a major challenge: He couldn’t fit in most of them.
After he was forced to sit on a padded mat in his Lamborghini Countach because he could not fit in the driver’s seat, Chamberlain had a one-of-a-kind supercar built in 1986 called the Searcher 1. According to the New York Times, the custom car cost the former NBA legend around $750,000.
The Searcher 1 is set to sell at Julien’s next month, carrying a pre-sale estimate of $300,000-$500,000. The lot has a starting bid of $50,000.
Made using a chassis reminiscent of those built for the famed Le Mans endurance races, the interior of the car was “stretched an extra six inches to accommodate Chamberlain,” according to the auction house.
“Wilt never knew what it was to be comfortable in a sports car until we built the Searcher,” Richard Paul, an engineer who built the car’s engine, told the New York Times in 2006.
The car is currently equipped to reach speeds of 200 miles per hour.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.