At the recent Cars & Coffee hosted by duPont REGISTRY, I came across a vehicle of a different breed. I have seen golf cars, and I have seen Ferraris, but I have never seen those two worlds collide, until that faithful Saturday.
I was checking out a Ferrari 458 when a black golf car whizzed by sporting a prancing pony on the front, F1 racing stickers on the side, and some mean looking rims. I LEFT the Ferrari 458 to check this thing out. It was decked out in custom seats that were covered in Ferrari red & black upholstery, speakers, mini Enkei rims with calipers, and much more. I got a chance to talk to the owner, and was inspired by how passionate he was about his golf car business. Here is what he had to say about the building process and his company, Green Envy Golf Cars:
Green Envy Golf Cars is about truly unique and innovative designs for the ever growing golf cart market. Our focus will be theme-based designs for individuals, corporations, and charities. Golf carts have proven to be an extremely versatile personal vehicle option for all walks of life, not to mention a spectacular, rolling advertisement that would be a hit at any event. We will use electric drive systems exclusively, in keeping with a greener future for all of us. Future plans consist of a less expensive production line, as well as much higher end designs, including chopper/trike and tractor trailer designs already in the works.
Now, about the golf cart:
I was commissioned to build a golf cart to match the customer’s Ferrari 599. The car has a black exterior and interior with red daytona inserts in the seats. The brake calipers on the car are Ferrari yellow, and the car has OEM Ferrari black wheels. The customer is also a big fan of Ferrari F1 racing. The cart needed to be street legal, have seating for six, a nice stereo system, a rain enclosure for the Mrs., and more speed than the cart I had built for his friend.
I started by researching the design of the F1 car, including sponsors and color schemes. Obviously, the golf cart does not have quite as much room for sponsor logos, and I didn’t want to overwhelm the look of the cart. The customer acquired the OEM hood emblem, horse, Pininfarina, Scuderia, and Ferrari badges to use on the cart. Automotive grade vinyl decals were used for the sponsors. He did not want to put OEM Ferrari wheels on the golf cart, so I had to search high and low for the closest match in an aftermarket wheel. The Enkei wheels were a near match. To fit these to a golf cart requires wheel adapter/spacers be used. A custom designed high-speed motor was used to get the top speed over 30mph, about 5mph faster than his friend’s cart. To increase stability, we installed a long-travel front suspension, with racing style tubing and progressive coil-over shocks, and front wheel disc braking system to reign in that extra speed. The calipers were custom painted yellow to match.
The stereo package consists of all marine-grade components, with the exception of the subwoofer. An Alpine marine head unit and 4-channel amplifier is used to drive Polk Audio 6.5″ components mounted in a custom dash, in the front, and Polk 6.5″ coaxials in the rear of the cart. The subwoofer is a 6″ Bazooka Tube custom mounted under the rear seat. I would have used Bazooka’s marine-grade 8″ tube, but maintaining cargo space was a priority. Custom red LED lighting was installed around the entire cart to highlight key areas, including cupholders, key switch, dash cargo area, front and rear footwells, rear cargo area and subwoofer, front grill, and turn signals in the side mirrors, as well as a full underbody LED light kit.
Overall, the cart was a huge success with it’s owner. We exceeded all of his expectations, both in design and execution. The cart is even more impressive when parked next to the 599 it was designed to match. Mr. Diaco has given an open invitation for pictures to be taken of the car and golf cart side by side.
If you have ever though about getting a golf car, it would be hard to pass up one of these custom rides.