Agreed, that was an enjoyable watch . I also love Jay Leno

Bill Lee (watch jewelry magnat Fcar guy) was a cool guest - the no socks thing was good also

otherwise, guests didn't add anything for viewers but likely got Jay access to some fun cars

It is sometimes cool to see the guy that built some weird cars, like the guy that built Jay's tank car. Or his Merlin engine powered car.

It is pretty easy to skip ahead if the guest is not interesting.

Nice to see Jay doing a tour of that car.
I hadn’t heard the back story about the brother...
The Duesenbergs are all works of art.

It’s super cool that he drives them!

I feel very lucky to be able to say that I work on some of the cars that come through Randy Ema’s shop. I detailed that car in 2010.

The Town car he mentions towards the end of the video was in the shop a couple weeks ago getting a new clutch.

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The current project is a ‘33 Auburn 12 Speedster. (Not one of Jays)

The hours and hours of time that gets put into one of these restorations is amazing!

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WOW... Thanks Cooper.

And every Duesenberg has been accounted for.

I find that amazing. A lot of people must have put some real effort into that one task.

Here is a 1929 Model J that Randy did for the Pebble Beach Concours in 2019.
The restoration took around 2 years. The first year it was worked on part time as other cars were completing. It went together fairly quick after that. Randy has 3 full time guys and of course, a network of other quality machinists, fabricators, platers, wood guy, and upholsterer.

(The black/red Auburn was slated for Pebble 2020 but that got canceled...)

I did some of the color sanding and all of the polishing/detail work as the car went together.

The car won it’s class and has gone on to win Best of Show at other Concours’ de Elegance.

(I have tons of detailed photos but can’t post most publicly out of respect for the owners)
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The car looked totally different when it came into the shop. It had been restored and modified at some point in the past. A supercharger had been added. There were actually very few supercharged (SJ) Duesenbergs. Randy won’t do an SJ conversion. He’s very much about the history and preserving it.

So, the car had all of that removed. This required new hood sides and an exhaust manifold. (You can buy a driver 997.1 for the cost of the exhaust manifold) 😳


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Other than the engine change, the owner decided he wanted a more stream lined sporty car. There were only 2-3 Model J’s delivered with dual mounted rear spare tires. They took the fender mounted spares off and moved them to the rear. (Lots of work as they had to have the pieces of the tire mount cast in aluminum. Randy has the blue prints for the parts at least)

Fun working on pieces of history.

I grew up about 15 minutes from here. In 2006, I won the Sports Car class at their Concours D'Elegance with my '83 SC Cabriolet. Tremendous museum. On another note, one of my elderly friends (he's in his 90's....)...his father was a ride-along Indy mechanic in the 1910's, and when my friend was younger, he drove a Cord 812 to high school.

It's crazy the amount of auto manufacturers that existed in Indiana, pre-war. Detroit crushed them.

You guys still manufacture a lot of vehicles.

Another beauty but something like this is actually attainable.

Enjoy as always :)

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People in the midwest should check out this museum, while it is still open, if only for the beautiful stained concrete floors:
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/indiana/car-museum-in/
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Totally agree. Fantastic place to spend a day
The story of E.L.Cord is a fascinating American dream

My wife also, especially in two tone.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1f/db...1864e55013.jpg

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I think you can still get the genuine imitation Naugahyde. If you're lucky.

Sa-weeet!

I was concerned with the thread title. Reminded me of the The Chrysler TC by Maserati. I really liked Lee Iacocca and then this rediculous car based on the K-Car platform appeared.

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Just to possibly clear things up for some of you, LeBaron was the coach builder that built the body (a phaeton) on this car. There isn’t really such a thing as a “Duesenberg LeBaron”, per se. Formally this would be a Duesenberg Model J Barrelside Phaeton by LeBaron, or something like that. LeBaron was founded in part by the designer Ray Dietrich. It was part of Briggs by the time they built this body, and Briggs was ultimately bought up by Chrysler in the ‘50s.

Also known as "rich Corinthian vinyl"

They built the chassis and coachbuilders did the body.


Indy 500 chassis, luxury coachwork