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most
guys in Hollywood have one car and several wives," says Jay Leno.
"I have one wife and several cars." One of those cars, a fully restored 1923 Dusenberg, was parked out in front of Kevin Costner's Twin Palms restaurant in Pasadena last July during the annual NBC party for television critics. Just how many cars does he own? The affable Tonight Show host admits to "50 or 60 I guess," but counting motorcycles, there could be as many as 100 vehicles. Asked where he keeps them, he says, "in a really big garage." Isn't that expensive to maintain? Leno frowns. "You sound like my wife." |
In fact, Leno stores most of his prized collection - which includes everything from two vintage Stanley Steamers to newer-model Lamborghinis - in a converted warehouse in Southern California. There, two full-time mechanics work on keeping them in tip-top shape. However, at least half a dozen are always being restored and renovated - some by Leno himself. The 49-year-old comedian is widely
acknowledged as an auto expert. He writes a national car column for
Popular Mechanics and even drove the pace car this year at the
Indianapolis 500. He also answers questions about cars on the NBC
website where you can see which car he drove to work that day. A few of Leno's beauties have turned up on television, including a pristine 1956 white Chrysler Imperial coupe featured on an episode of Home Improvement. The "enormous land yacht," as Leno affectionately calls it, comes complete with big fins, gunsight taillights, giant white wall tires and the original Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels. His collection also boasts several Bugattis and Packards - including a 1932 coupe he bought from racing legend Phil Hill - 1946 Morgan barrelback three-wheeler, a Hispano-Suiza Delahaye, a 1913 Mercer Raceabout Rolls Royce with an aircraft engine and a Shelby Mustang fastback coupe. Then there are the motorcycles. Leno's growing bike collection includes a World War II vintage Harley-Davidson with sidecar, several rare Indians and Triumphs, and a 1918 Pope. He owns nine Vincents, three of which are the most sought-after of all, the treasured Black Shadows. Leno has been collecting cars longer than he has been licensed to drive them. When he was 14, he bought a '34 Ford pickup truck for $350. His first new car was a 1965 Buick Grandsport 401 V8, bought with money saved from working at McDonald's. "To have this new car in high school was very funny, since all my teachers were driving old DeSotos," Leno wrote in his 1996 autobiography, Leading With My Chin. "No wonder I got lousy grades." Leno takes his love affair with cars seriously. In fact, the first time Leno was intimate with his wife, Mavis, was in his 1955 Buick Roadmaster. "A very roomy car, it could seat seven - for dinner," says Leno, who still owns the car. Of course, that wasn't the first
time he had fooled around in a back seat. Back in college, between
comedy gigs, he worked part time for a Rolls Royce and Mercedes
dealership where he occasionally "borrowed" some of the pricey
cars to try and impress girls. One memorable conquest took place in
Joseph Kennedy's 1954 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith limousine, which Leno
fondly refers to as "the Hyannisport Sexmobile." |
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And drive them he does. Leno is often
spotted cruising through the San Fernando Valley in one of his
Dusenbergs. And when he wheels down the street, people are blown away.