Q&A: We Speak With Custom Car Legend Will Castro On His New Show, His Career & His Dream Clients

When the biggest celebrities want to trick out their rides, they turn to Will Castro, the only man up to the job. The owner of perhaps the premiere custom car shop in America, Unique Autosports, Castro’s clients are among the top names in sports and entertainment, Tonight at 10 p.m. the SPEED channel will air the first of three “Unique Whips” hour-long specials, where Castro will ply his trade on the cars of some of the world’s biggest stars, including LeBron James, Sean “Diddy” Combs and 50 Cent.
“There are a lot of car shops out there, but there’s only one that makes your ride unique,” said James. “Will Castro and his team are the best, so all of my cars are customized exclusively by Unique Autosports.”
Machochip Contributing Editor John DeSio spoke with Castro about the show, the pressure of a celebrity custom, his rise to fame and his dream clients. All this and more after the jump.

MC: So tell me a little about the three specials? I see that you’re going to be working on some celebrity cars.
WC: Yeah. We have our own production company, so we did a deal with SPEED. And that’s worked out really well. We wanted to bring star power, like Unique does. So we brought LeBron James, gold medalist, 50 Cent and Puffy. So what we did, we have more control of the content that goes on the show, so basically we can show a little bit more behind the scenes, as far as the personalization with the customers and the celebrities, and to give a little bit more background on my relationships with them.
MC: Is there more pressure when you’re customizing a celebrity car?
WC: Yeah, definitely. Everyone’s going to be seeing it throughout the world because they’re very popular. So they’re pulling up to a red carpet event, or a function, or a release party. That’s what they come out in, that’s what they showcase. It’s a little bit of an image of them.
MC: So far everyone’s satisfied though, right?
WC: Yes. Absolutely. Everything’s word of mouth, so it travels pretty quick.
MC: What was your favorite celebrity to work with?
WC: The most fun person to work with, and the project that was the most challenging, probably was Pamela Anderson’s tour bus that we did last year on the SPEED channel. Some of the things she wanted to do, with the stripper pole and the bed and all that stuff. It was pretty unique. It was a real big challenge to get that done, and it came out really nice.

MC: Most of your business is made of cars that are going to the street, right?
WC: Absolutely. We’re more of a lifestyle. Our stuff is not show, these concept cars. My cars are definitely a lifestyle brand of car. You can drive them. We’re not doing suicide doors and stuff like that. You know, 32” rims on a car. We set them up so they can drive. They can use them on a day to day basis and enjoy their cars.
MC: How did you get into cars in the first place?
WC: I started just valet parking at a fancy restaurant. And that was my first touch of a sports car, parking it. And I just fell in love with cars then, because I saw a lot of fancy cars coming into this nice restaurant. So I started washing and waxing cars, and basically wanted to pursue that as my career. I just had a really big passion for cars.
MC: How did you take from the next level, from parking cars to working on cars?
WC: My forte was actually keeping the details. I was a detailer. I got a call from my brother, he went to school with Erick Sermon from EPMD. He got his first Mercedes, and that was my first big job. And then Erick Sermon put me on with Busta Rhymes, and then MTV came along, and then we went to SPEED.
We were part of the three seasons of “MTV Cribs: Whips, Rides, & Dubs Edition,” in 2002 and 2003. Then we started taping in 2004 with SPEED. They reached out to us, to do a show built around the business.
MC: How was it transitioning from a lifestyle network to one more focused on cars?
WC: It’s a car enthusiast channel, and I like it, because that’s the business I’m in.
MC: Do you feel like you can be more specific about what you’re doing to the cars, since the audience is more likely to get it?
WC: We show ‘em a little bit more on the SPEED channel. We basically show the entire behind the scenes of the business. It’s all about customer service, the quality, the deadlines, how to work with employees. I definitely have a different style when it comes to how I work, but the blueprint’s worked so far.
MC: Why do a few specials instead of a full season?
WC: We wanted to get our feet wet with me being an executive producer. The three seasons I worked on I was pretty much producing it. I was basically bringing all my contacts to the show and executing. I was doing a lot of work behind the scenes for the three seasons, so I said “You know what? Let me try putting my own production company together.” We didn’t want to go too hard at the start and do a whole series, so we started out with these specials. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s been a great experience so far. It’s definitely tough. It’s not easy.
MC: Before you blew up, what we’re some of the worst cars you had to work on?
WC: Oh man. We used to work on jalopies. We used to bring jalopies in. That’s where you gotta start. You gotta start with your Toyota Corollas all the way up to your Hondas and your Nissan Maximas. You gotta work your way up. I’ve got over 15 years in the business, so I feel I put my dues in. When people put on the TV and say, “Wow, look at this guy and this business he has, and this building and the clientele,” they don’t know that I’ve put in 15 years to get to the place where I am now. It’s a lot of hard work and dedication.
MC: What sort of advice would you give someone who was looking to get into your field?
WC: Well, especially the way the economy is now, I would definitely look into making sure that you work with someone and have the experience before you jump into something on your own. And just know that you’re going to have to put a lot of hard work in, a lot of hours, before you see any rewards. I mean, what’s happening right now with the generation now is that they want everything yesterday. And it just doesn’t work that way. They need to know that they have to put a lot of hard work into something. And they need to start off slow, with one or two clients, and then you build your way up. If you want to be big, you can lose focus on that.
MC: What are you bringing out to Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas next week?
WC: We’re getting into marine work. We just opened up a new shop. We have 20,000 square feet in Miami. So we brought out a 32-foot Sensation speed boat. We did a full custom audio system, fiberglass and all that. We bringing something a little bit different. We brought a truck out here, as well.
MC: Is it tougher to work on the boats?
WC: It’s a lot of work. It definitely is. There are a lot of panels you have to remove to get to the wires. A boat comes pretty much fully closed, so we have to take everything apart. It’s definitely bulky to work with. It’s definitely a lot more challenging, but there’s more area to work with. And in Miami, there are a lot of boats out there. We always want to do something different. That’s how I’ve kept my business going. We did tour buses, and now we’re on to the boats.
MC: If you had your pick, which celebrity’s car would you like to soup up the most?
WC: Two people I would love to do are Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey.
MC: Why them?
WC: It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. I think they’re both very influential and inspiring, and I would just like to do a project for them. It could be for charity.
MC: Maybe they’ll see this and we can hook it up.
WC: That’d be great.
On the web:
YouTube.com/uniqueautosport
Myspace.com/officialuniqueautosport
Myspace.com/uniquewhipsonspeedtv