Took a trip to Jay Leno's Garage today...

[Wayne 962]

Very, very impressive collection. I had no idea it was so big. It takes up 5-6 buildings, and is filled with more than a hundred cars. We weren't allowed to take photos, so I don't have any to share, but if you google "Jay Leno's Garage" and then hit images, you can see some photos that others have taken.

The coolest of all are the wall hangings. Basically when Jay finds something that he likes in a magazine or poster, he takes it down to the NBC art department and they make a GIANT poster for him. When I say Giant, I mean GIANT. Like 10 feet wide and 15 or so feet tall. Really makes the place great!

Here's a photo I found on the web, this is one of about 7-8 rooms all like this one - it just seems to go on forever. I would say he has more cars there than the Petersen museum. Maybe not as many as the museum in Reno, but those are really packed tight in Reno. More cars than at the Imperial Palace in Vegas, that's for sure...



and here's a link to more photos:http://www.glamcar.com/general/jay-lenos-garage/

Looks just like the photos there. Cool, something to aspire too?

-Wayne

[Wayne 962]

Oh, favorite car was probably the tank-engine hot rod. The thing is huge!!! (22-ft long). He has eight full-time employees there just working on restoring cars. Looks very much like a museum / restoration shop - it's a pretty big enterprise.

They are working on putting a W12 modern Bugatti powerplant into something - I think it was an old Bugatti chassis. A lot of the cars were like that in the collection - old chassis, new super-powerful powerplant. Jay's not shy about upgrades, apparently.

-Wayne

[axvel]

Wow I wish I could be there with you

[futurefun]

I do appreciate others collections but prefer to just have a couple of fun drivers that put a smile on my face. I have been in Reno for several weeks so it is time for a visit to the museum downtown as it has been decades since seeing Harrah's complete collect in the 70s & 80s.

[s_morrison57]

I saw his steam powered car on TV once it was pretty cool, not too fast off the line but I think it went about 55-60 mph, 1913-15 something like that.

[MikeD930]

Thanks for sharing Wayne! Is the visit to Jay's garage(s) by invitation only? Have you seen any motorcycles? How about a 930? I remember reading that he said it's his "baby" car. I supposed he meant it's small compared to huge beasts like one you mentioned.

I've heard about his collection...he makes one feel poor (not in a bad way) as in how few cars we own let alone any exotics! Just wow.

[CharlieB]

Uh Oh!! I feel a parts price increase at PP!!!

[schamp]

Jay had his crew redo a Greyhound bus. On the show one of Jay's guys said Jay being Jay, we had to jack the engine a bit. Said the bus would likely pull the front wheels off the ground. Getting a tour thru there is about as good as it gets for a car guy.

[screenwriter-X]

I've always liked Leno's approach to getting the cars out there and sharing his enthusiasm for all kinds of eccentric historical machines we'd never see operating and driving around otherwise. There's nothing worse than some weenie who buys up classic cars and locks them away so nobody can ever see them, or that retarded "shock jock" in England who buys up classic Ferraris and paints them all white. They are the ugly side of the car collector hobby. Leno is the exact opposite and represents the best that a celebrity car collector can be, in my opinion.

[daniel911T]

Wayne,
So he has some awesome cars... neat-o.

Now does he have a 959? That's what I call a special car!

-Dan

[CJFusco]

IIRC, Jay generally dislikes Porsches, except for the CGT.

[romad]

The guy has hundreds of cars and he manged to put 10000 miles on one of his 1000000 dollar Duesys

[ratpiper71T]

Leno is one of the funniest comedians there is in my book, his comedy always show class and good taste. He's never become an politicians asskissin' fuddy-duddy like another late night fellow who's name I won't mention. The coolest car collector there is. Wayne, I bet that trip was one of the coolest you've taken.

I saw a couple of times where Leno jabbed at Porsche owners saying, 'porsche guys, I just don't understand you guys!'
I always felt that it was tongue in cheek humor and a sort of joking nod to the marque. Here's a couple of quotes from Jay.

"I have a Porsche Carrera GT and, for whatever reason, the battery went dead and I literally had to take the fender off to get to the battery. I’m one of those people that, once a car leaves the dealership it never goes back there. It took all day to pull the fender off and put the new battery in, then reassemble the whole thing, and I drove the hell out of the car after that. I drove for two or three days straight because I felt really involved. It made me want to use the car more."

And

"I’m always amazed at people who want to own exotic cars and couldn’t care less what’s under the hood. I just don’t understand what their passion is, what their reason is for wanting them.* I spoke to someone I know in showbusiness, who had wrecked a brand new Porsche and they were going to get another one. I know that’s what people normally do, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of remorse. To me, wrecking a car is like breaking up with a girlfriend – I put a lot of work into trying to make a car work properly, as opposed to buying one, wrecking it and buying another one. I just wonder if this next generation of enthusiasts feels that way… or if they feel that cars are throwaway.


One reason I don’t have a Ferrari is that no private person can work on one themself. Just the Ferrari tools and the diagnostics that plug in, I was told, cost something like ,000. Ferrari doesn’t want people fooling with its cars, and I suppose for good reason, but that just puts me off. I want to be involved and I want to know how they work."

And this...

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

What a cool guy!

[bkreigsr]

Originally Posted by CJFusco

IIRC, Jay generally dislikes Porsches, except for the CGT.

that'l probably change after spending time with Wayne.
(hey Jay, wanna drive my 962?)
Bill K

[kycarguy 935]

I went there about 10 years ago. It was before the "no photo" days. I will get some posted when I get a chance to scan them.

[Jdub]

I met Jay after his show here in Seattle at The Paramount, in the '80's. It was a Friday night, and it was beginning to snow - I had parked my '69 MGB on the overpass so I-5 would be accessed by gravity only...

The thing about Jay was, first, he shared his pizza back at The Sorrento with the three of us (Mark Pfenning, the guy who had been invited backstage/hotel, met Jay years before at a small comedy club on Roosevelt), next that, after a two-hour show that I swore was going to cause the woman behind me to need an oxygen tank, he had the time to hang with up until 2am. He told us the great stories, the one about Blue the radioactive dog, and the buried Vincents a vindictive father had gathered and punished for the loss of his son, and a few others.

But I loved that he pointed me to SuperTwins to get the Dzus fastners for a John Player Norton I was restoring. I still have both the backstage pass and the first-class ticket he wrote the info. about SuperTwins on. Such a cool guy - he saw that the three guys were just talking motorcycles, but the one date was bored - so he directed the conversation to something she'd be interested in. He owned the room no matter where he was but not intentionally, not by ego. Neat guy and the Norton turned out great!

[Plavan]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Oh, favorite car was probably the tank-engine hot rod. The thing is huge!!! (22-ft long). He has eight full-time employees there just working on restoring cars. Looks very much like a museum / restoration shop - it's a pretty big enterprise.

They are working on putting a W12 modern Bugatti powerplant into something - I think it was an old Bugatti chassis. A lot of the cars were like that in the collection - old chassis, new super-powerful powerplant. Jay's not shy about upgrades, apparently.

-Wayne

He brought that huge hot rod out to California Speedway a few years back for one of our VARA races. He was our Pace car in that thing. It was so cool. I could imagine the drivers on the freeways having no clue what that monster hot rod was.

[Joe Bob]

REALLY sucks to be you.....

[RWebb]

Wayne, did you drive over in the 959?

[Hawkeye's-911T]

Hey Joe Bob

Luv yur pome

Cheers
JB