Ben-Victor with Jeremy Piven...
Ben-Victor with Jeremy Piven during an episode of "Entourage" - Photo by Doug Hyun/HBO
Ford Bronco Was a "Dirty Word"
As his career picked up, Ben-Victor started buying new cars. He loved his mid-1990s green and beige Eddie Bauer Ford Bronco, but that was around the time Broncos became infamous because of that low-speed car chase seen round the world. "I ended up doing a Ford commercial, and it was the year that O.J. ran off with his white Bronco," he says. "I got called in to do the commercial, I got on the set -- all these big executives were there. They said, 'What are you driving?' I said, 'I'm really proud to say I'm driving a Ford -- a Bronco."
The room went silent. "That year they were trying to ignore the fact they made that car," he laughs. "Bronco was a real dirty word at that moment. All these big blue blood executives changed the subject real quick."
Ben-Victor got the idea to buy the Bronco after doing a movie in Texas with Mickey Rourke. On set they gave him a Ford F-150. "I'm thinking when in Rome. I'm in Texas and I took the pickup for a month and fell in love with it."
When he returned home he bought the Bronco, but later graduated to a black two-door Tahoe with barn doors in 2000. The Tahoe was a comfortable ride to San Diego where he was on the SciFi show "Invisible Man." He had just returned from Australia, filming the ABC bio-pic "Three Stooges." "I'd cruise down there in my black Tahoe. I had just come back from Australia where I played Moe and Mike Chiklis was Curly. They gave me a signing bonus and I decided to trick it out, spruce it up a little bit."
Big mistake. He found some guys who said they tricked out cars for some of the Chargers and Padres. "A guy pulls up in a low-rider an inch off the ground and out come these guys," he says. "I said I want to get some new rims, tint some windows, and get wood paneling in there."
Ben-Victor left to shoot a movie, came back, and saw his Tahoe. "They pulled my car up and my co-star of the show Vincent Ventresca said, 'Man, you're going to ride the Batmobile!" he says, mimicking Ventresca's voice. "It was the cross between Knight Rider and Batmobile. It had lightning-bolt rims, they stuck chrome on there, the wood panel was not what I wanted. I looked like an ex-convict driving around in it. I figured they did cars for famous athletes they must do a good job."