The Filthy Rich Guide

Blinged-out cars of filthy rich celebrities

Blinged-out cars of filthy rich celebrities

A gold Ferrari drives through the Knightsbridge section of London, Aug. 8, 2014.
Getty Images

Paris Hilton may be an incredibly wealthy hotel heiress, but in many ways she's just like the rest of us. She puts on her pants one leg at a time, she's worked at a fast food establishment and she played with Barbies as a little girl.

Her love of the anatomically challenged doll made headlines in 2008 when she bought a Bentley Continental GT and had it painted pink, right down to the tires. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the $200,000 automobile was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

"I've just always wanted a pink car," she said. "I think when you're a little girl and you have the Barbie Corvette you're like, 'I wish I had a car like this one.'" But Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, was less taken with her choice of ride.

"If the exterior color doesn't fully cross your taste line, check out the pink interior trim," he said.

Paris Hilton isn't the only mega-rich personality to bling out a car, or several cars, to an absurd degree. Read ahead and be transported to a faraway world, where the rich and famous blow mountains of money on cars, simply because they can.

—By CNBC's Daniel Bukszpan
Posted 28 Oct. 2014

You can dream big, but they live large! See how 1 percent of the 1 percent have 100 percent of the fun! "The Filthy Rich Guide" premieres Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. ET.

C.J. Wilson

cjwilsonphoto | Instagram

C.J. Wilson pitches for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team. He's also the owner of a McLaren P1 supercar. This is no small thing, as Car and Driver magazine said that owning one of these limited edition beauties will set you back a cool $1.2 million. But how can you stand out from the other 374 people who also own one?

In Wilson's case, you buy one in blue and purple, or, "blurple" and consider yourself part of a proud tradition. "Creative colors are the most common form of vehicle personalization we see from wealthy car owners," Brauer said.

Dan Bilzerian

Daimler AG

Professional poker player Dan Bilzerian does nothing halfway. That goes for his choice of vehicle, and who can blame him? After all, why drive a mere 4x4 when you can drive a Mercedes-Benz G63 6x6 utility vehicle and command six, count 'em, six wheels instead?

"We're well into the second decade of the 21st century, and that calls for 50 percent more driven wheels," Brauer said. However, it doesn't come cheap, and according to Autoweek it costs approximately $634,000 to garage one of these beasts.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Mercedes-Benz Unimog E-Drive.
Daimler AG

Arnold Schwarzenegger's days as a blockbuster movie star may belong to decades past, but as recently as 2012 he was still living the good life, as his purchase of a Mercedes-Benz Unimog proved at the time.

"Just the name, 'Unimog,' sounds like something out of a sci-fi cyborg movie, making it the perfect Arnold Schwarzenegger ride," Brauer said. Sadly, times change and celebrity fades, and in September 2014, he put his 5-ton ride up for sale for$275,000.

"The Filthy Rich Guide" is a fast-paced guide to how the .00001 percent spend their money. From the entrepreneur who ran up a $500,000 bar tab to the junk bond king with 39 bathrooms and the casino owner who's paying to be cryogenically frozen, this series is an inside look at a world where the party never ends, the cash always flows and the toys are the biggest in the world.

Tyrese Gibson

tyrese | Instagram

Actor and musician Tyrese Gibson became the proud owner of a customized Mercedes-Benz Ghost Sprinter in May 2014, and put photos of himself in its spacious interior on Instagram. The seats were pink and beige, for reasons best known to him, and guests whose eyes happened to wander from the 42-inch television screen had the suede interior walls to look at instead.

One suspects that Gibson might bore easily, because his possession of the van proved short-lived. In October, a mere five months after buying it, he announced that he was selling the van and moving on to greener automotive pastures. Onward and upward.

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber's Fisker Karma is shown parked outside Prime 112 Steakhouse in Miami Beach, Fla.
Steven Gonzalez | FilmMagic | Getty Images

In 2012, on the occasion of his 18th birthday, teen heartthrob and musical sensation Justin Bieber became the recipient of a $100,000 Fisker Karma from manager Scooter Braun. He promptly had it plated from top to bottom in chrome, much to the heartbreak of the people at Autoblog .

The car has earned Biebs a cozy relationship with law enforcement. The singer was cited for driving it in a "reckless manner" in July 2012 on the 101 Freeway in California.

Gold Ferrari

A gold Ferrari drives through the Knightsbridge section of London, Aug. 8, 2014.
Getty Images

In August 2014, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported that the streets of London's most affluent neighborhoods were being overrun by expensive sports cars, owned predominantly by citizens of such countries as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Daily Mail said that the owners park their cars there in the summertime to prevent the lava-hot Middle Eastern climate from damaging their pricey exteriors. One of the cars was a gold Ferrari (pictured), owned by an undisclosed 1 percenter.

The most expensive Rolls-Royce ever made

The Celestial Phantom, the most expensive Rolls-Royce ever made, features a diamond-studded interior and fiber-optic “stars.”
James Lipman | Rolls-Royce

When the words "Rolls-Royce" are uttered, those hearing them are transported to an imaginary realm of unlimited luxury, mountains of cash and fawning supplicants. This response was never more justified than it was in 2013, when the company produced the Celestial, whose interior is studded with 446 diamonds and fiber-optic stars, according to the U.K.'s Telegraph.

According to The Telegraph, the customer for this car was an undisclosed Asian buyer, who bought it for himself as a birthday present, for an alleged $1.6 million.

Swarovski crystal Mini Cooper

A Swarovski crystal-covered Mini Cooper is displayed at the “Ripley's Believe It or Not” museum in London, Aug. 21, 2008.
Shaun Curry | AFP | Getty Images

The Mini Cooper is a car whose cool factor has withstood the test of time. However, once you cover it in more than 1 million handcrafted Swarovski crystals, driving it ceases to be an option.

Luckily, Ripley's Believe It or Not! London was ready and willing to display it. Valued at more than $800,000, the museum said that "the car depicts American icons including the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and the bald eagle."

Michael Jordan

A 2007 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster is shown during a press preview for the Middle East International Motor Show in Dubai, Nov. 15, 2007
Karim Sahib | AFP | Getty Images

When buying a new car, many of us hope to have the privilege of seeing its odometer turn over many times. However, many of us aren't former NBA star Michael Jordan, who bought a 2007 Mercedes McLaren SLR 722, only to put it up for sale after driving it just 962 miles.

Jordan put the gently used car on eBay for $430,000, and according to the specs listed by Yahoo Sports, you get a lot of rear-wheel drive for that price. Specifically, you get the ability to go from zero to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds, and reach a top speed of 209 mph.

"The Filthy Rich Guide"

"The Filthy Rich Guide" is a fast-paced guide to how the .00001 percent spend their money. From the entrepreneur who ran up a $500,000 bar tab to the junk bond king with 39 bathrooms and the casino owner who's paying to be cryogenically frozen, this series is an inside look at a world where the party never ends, the cash always flows and the toys are the biggest in the world.