The custom car scene was pretty wild in the mid 2000s. Much of the industry was on fire due to the popularity and success of the first few Fast and Furious movies, which featured brazenly custom builds that included huge power upgrades, but also lots of aesthetic modifications, like bright multicolor paint jobs and TVs in glove boxes.
The flashy (and profitable) custom car scene, bolstered by the extremely popular television show Pimp My Ride, eventually leaked into the OEM side of things, through outlandish concept cars or one-off specials. Some even made it to production. The peak of this crossover undoubtedly came from Ford in 2007, when it launched the two-tone, 20-inch-wheel-equipped Expedition Funkmaster Flex Edition.
Born out of a collaboration between Ford and New York area radio DJ Funkmaster Flex, it was built in limited numbers and released just months before the global financial recession kicked into high gear.
Living Legend
Funkmaster Flex is a legend in the New York-area hip hop community. He kicked off his career at 16 years old as a nightclub DJ before getting on the radio. In 1992, he secured a position as host of his own rap/hip-hop radio show on WQHT, otherwise known as Hot 97. His unique delivery, clever quips, and endlessly entertaining use of sound effects—including “bomb drops” and race car flybys—made his shot a hit, and he’s been doing it ever since.
Like anyone who grew up in the greater New York metro area over the past 30 or so years, I’m deeply familiar with Funkmaster Flex. There have been dozens of classic moments worth remembering from his broadcasts, but my favorite has to be when he seemingly incited mass robbery by telling listeners to go into their nearest convenience store and put their hands in the cash register “for no reason.” Here’s the clip, in case you want to hear it for yourself:
Flex’s obsession with music is only part of his story, though. He’s equally enthusiastic about cars and customizing them. He took advantage of his blossoming career in radio to pursue that passion. From Curbside Classic:
Cars had long been a passion for Funkmaster Flex (his given name is Aston Taylor, Jr.). Upon achieving financial success, Flex began buying classic cars, and then customizing cars, starting a customization firm called Team Baurtwell, which included celebrities such as Ludacris, Queen Latifah, and Shaquille O’Neal among its clients. With near limitless energy and a passion for broadcasting, this quickly led Flex to host several TV shows. On “Ride with Funkmaster Flex,” aired on Spike TV in the early 2000s, he would visit car shows, host other celebrities, and talk about customized cars. This was followed by other shows with similar formats, such as “Car Wars” on ESPN2, and soon Flex was considered a leading figure on urban car customization. As he said in the “Car Wars” introduction, “Music is my life. But cars are my passion.”
It wasn’t long before all this involvement in the industry led to endorsement deals, specifically from the likes of Turtle Wax, Castrol, and JL Audio. Flex even struck a deal with Hot Wheels to market model custom cars. But his biggest partnership would come from an even bigger fish: Ford Motor Company.
Hanging With The Cool Kids
Ford, in an effort to build up a younger, more diverse buyer base, saw an opportunity to team up with Funkmaster Flex and wasn’t shy about thrusting time, money, and product into their ventures together. According to Curbside Classic, the deal involved Ford giving Flex an F-150 and a Fusion to customize while on the show circuit for his 2005 Celebrity Car Show Tour series, which featured a multitude of custom cars and A-list rap artists. Here’s a video of Flex walking the camera through all of the customizations made to the Fusion published to YouTube in May 2006, just six months after YouTube was launched:
According to Autoweek, Flex appeared at five different promotional events around the country with the cars before giving them away to fans at the end of the year. People seemed to like the two powerhouses teaming up, meaning these two cars were just the beginning. From Autoweek:
James Malone, the agency’s group account director, says Flex brings panache to the Ford brand.
“He brings some style and pizzazz to Ford, which is really a tried and true brand,” Malone says. “We’re going to have him show another side of Ford and the product line that (people) don’t see beyond the Mustang GT and Ford GT. They’ve got some exciting vehicles coming, and we want to get Flex involved in those.”
Malone says the agreement with Ford also calls for Flex to customize versions of the Explorer SUV and the 2007 Expedition SUV.
While the Explorer ended up as a one-off SEMA concept (above), the Expedition customized by Flex had a much more exciting fate: Full-fledged production.
Fully Customized, Right Out Of The Showroom
The original Expedition ordered by Ford from Funkmaster Flex was a one-off that debuted at SEMA in late 2006. It leaned hard into the custom-tuner scene with bright Colorado Red paint on its lower portions and black on the upper parts of the body, with two wide, black racing stripes on the hood. The grille was red, the bumpers were red, and much of the interior trim was red. Oh, and there were gigantic 24-inch alloy wheels and a body kit from a company called Street Scene.
By late 2006, the Expedition had already been out for a few years, so to inject some excitement into the lineup, it decided to actually put the Funkmaster Flex edition into production in mid-2007 for the 2008 model year. You’d think the company might’ve toned things down a bit in the transition from SEMA concept to full-on production car, but you’d be mostly wrong.
The production Funkmaster Flex Edition Expedition got the same over-the-top two-tone paint as the concept, and the same flashy red accents inside (save for the steering wheel, which was normal black leather instead of bright red). The wheels dropped from 24 inches to a paltry 20, but they retained their mirror chrome finish. There was also a subtle bodykit with unique fascias and side skirts to make the truck appear to be riding lower than it actually was
The embroidered Funkmaster Flex “FMF” logos on the headrests were retained, as was the logo on the center console. Being limited to just 650 examples, it also got a production number printed just below that logo.
Despite that Ferrari-esque paint job, every Flex Edition Expedition used the short-wheelbase Expedition Limited as a base and didn’t feature any mechanical upgrades. That meant a 5.4-liter V8 under the hood, making a clean 300 horsepower, paired to a six-speed automatic sending power to either the rear wheels or all four wheels via the optionally available all-wheel drive system, according to Car and Driver. There was also a booming sound system with MP3 device connectivity, captain’s chairs in the second row, and power-folding third row seats—pretty high-end stuff for the mid-2000s.
All of these cosmetic changes cost just $2,170 (around $3,400 in today’s money) on top of a normal Expedition Limited, which is pretty reasonable for the amount of stuff you get. According to Curbside Classic, Flex said he wanted to keep the price low to avoid “breaking people’s pockets.”
The Funkmaster Flex Edition’s rarity and distinctive looks have meant they hold some value compared to your average 2008 Expedition Limited. It’s tough to find more than a few for sale around the country at any given time; here’s one in Illinois with just 62,000 miles on the clock for $14,000. If you’re the type that loves to take on a project, this one’s seen some better days, and according to the seller, it needs an engine. But at $3,500, it’s a cheap way into a fun, obscure piece of Ford history.
Flex hasn’t collaborated with Ford on a production car since the Expedition, though I don’t see why the two entities couldn’t do it again. I’d love to see a modern Expedition in this paint scheme, so long as the wheels are bigger than 20 inches, of course.
Top graphic image: Ford
Growing up listening to Hot 97 from its inception, I was certainly a FMF fan, and he had some nice compilation albums from the mid-90s to 2000. Unfortunately like many radio DJs that came before him he was accepting bribes from record companies to play their music. I didn’t know about him encouraging people to rob cash registers but it makes sense considering his obvious lack of ethics.
Put your hands in an open cash register that someone like me is responsible for and it’ll likely get kicked closed on those hands real hard and real fast, “for no reason”.
Moron.
Ford had an actual Flex too 😛