With millions of followers across her various social media platforms, you would never know that car customizer Christina Roki started out by learning how to fix a broken car on YouTube. A Christina Roki aren’t just popular: they’re positively viral.
But Roki tells Playboy that is exactly what she did with her mom’s car to save money – a choice that eventually led her to a career doing something she loves with a fierce passion.
Roki is known for sharing her jaw-dropping custom jobs on social media from start to finish, explaining the process as she goes.
In a recent interview, Playboy asked her to share some of her favorite jobs over the years. Here are the top five Christina Roki customs.
Best Christina Roki Customs
1. 1994 Ford Mustang
“My birthday is on Christmas, and I do so many car makeovers and surprise builds for my family and my friends for their birthdays. So with this car, I wanted to do something for myself,” Roki says. “I decided I was gonna make my own huge calendar for car parts. I planned to wear a different outfit each day to also show some style. The 1994 Mustang was also designed by Emeline King, a Black female engineer. So it was super cool.”
2. Mitsubishi Eclipse
The Mitsubishi Eclipse was actually only Roki’s “second or third surprise makeover”. But she chose to get more daring this time around, not only customizing a car for her sister, but selling her original car altogether.
“She was going to Europe for a month at the time, and I was like, pkay, I want to do something nice for her when she gets back,” Roki said. “She just had a Ford Fusion. So I was like, Okay, let me just sell it. I’ll buy her a nicer car. And I specifically chose the Mitsubishi Eclipse, because she loves the Fast and Furious series and Tyrese Gibson had the Mitsubishi Eclipse. So I was like, let me bring that back.”
Roki says she doesn’t often see the car worked on in the auto community, as many creators choose to work on cars that cost $50,000 or more. But Roki only paid $3,800 for the Eclipse, which she then wrapped in a beautiful shade of pink. “
“I actually ended up having to hide the car at my boyfriend’s house,” Roki said. “And because she came in, I think I had to, like, I had to wait for a couple few touches. So I was like, like, finish up the car. So, like, oh my god, it’s not completely done. I wanted to be 110% done before she sees it. So I drove it to my boyfriend’s house, parked it there at the night. “She came back, she went to work the next day, and then I went to her job and surprised her with it. I pulled up to the back and asked her if she wanted to come out real quick. And then I showed her the car, and it was all it was a very happy moment. We don’t normally hug each other, but we hugged each other that day.”
3. Ford Bronco Heritage Edition
Roki customized this Ford Bronco for her TikTok friend Kayla, going to the trouble of setting up a scavenger hunt to lead Kayla to the car and hiding inside so she could capture her expression once she saw her gorgeous pink and white ride.
“Ford was paying respect to the older Bronco with this model, going with a retro look and color,” Roki said. “This car was very limited. It was originally baby blue. But I wanted to make it pink and customize it. Because on her TikTok Kayla starts videos with ‘Y’all, literally’ so I wanted to put that somewhere on the car.”
Roki flew to Florida to “steal” the car, then went to a nearby shop and wrapped the car over the next 48 hours. She absolutely loved it, and I love the way that car turned out. “I don’t work on sedans and coupes, so it was one of my first times working on an SUV. But I’m so obsessed with it.”
4. Dodge Challenger RT
This Christina Roki custom was done in collaboration with Dodge, which sent Roki an engine and $10,000 with the stipulation that she catswap it and drag race in in 30 days.
“It wasn’t just a regular Hellcat engine, it was a Hellcat Redeye engine, which is more souped up,” Roki said. “So we had to manual swap it. And I’ve never drag raced before. You typically don’t want to drag race in a manual. So that was insane. I chose this vehicle because I loved the mod-2000s look of the challenger. It’s such a sleeper — what the car community calls a car that looks slow but is actually really fast.”
Roki did get the job done in under 30 days thanks to her cousins, who drove to Michigan from Canada to help her. She documented it all on social media, but then she had to learn to drag race at 4 a.m. the day before as it took that long to complete the car.
“I ended up winning my first race, it was so cool,” she said. “And then eBay Motors took it on a national tour and it went to all these different states. I absolutely love that car, and the story behind it.”
5. 2002 Subaru WRX
Roki created this Subaru as a part of her partnership with 7-11 as its auto influencer. She says they are one of the best car culture brands out there, and the whole automotive community loves to meet up and park their cars there, so she was excited to do this project.
Roki chose to use Slurpee’s older logo, which she preferred as a match with the build.
“I love their old logo, I love Slurprees, I love 7-11,” Roki gushes. “There’s so many details with this one.”