n his 1994 bestseller Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man, Tim Allen explained that men look at women the way men look at cars. Every- one looks at Ferraris. Now and then we like a pickup truck, and we all end up with station wagons.
  These days, Allen has plenty of Ferraris, pickup trucks and station wagons in his various driveways. And they're not just for show. Allen
not only drives them, he gets under the hood and rebuilds them.
  Ever since his high school days in Detroit, TV's former Tool Time guy has had car fever. His favorite school subject was auto shop and he once traded a whole summer's work at a local speed shop for a VW-powered dune buggy he built from scratch.
  When his TV series Home Improvement first took off, he teamed up with race car specialist Steve Saleen, who built the sporty red ZZ Top hot rod, to build a super-charged 1993 Mustang with a 575 horsepower engine. Allen boasts that it's as close to a street legal racecar as you can get.
  "That's what I want," says the 47-year-old actor, "something comfortable and faster than anything needs to be. More power. That's how I like my life."
  Allen's fleet of high performance cars also includes the red 1946 Ford convertible that sat in the Taylor garage for eight seasons on Home Improvement. Allen cleverly leased the car to the show for an enormous fee.   Allen has also owned Jeeps, Mercedes and Cadillacs as well as a pair of Mustangs, a Dodge Viper and a souped up GMC Typhoon truck.
  He also once received a $75,000 four-wheel drive Porsche from the Disney studio in 1994, the year he pulled off an unprecedented triple play: No. 1 TV show (Home Improvement), No. 1 movie (The Santa Clause) and the No. 1 book (Naked Man) all in the same week.
  And the power trip continues. Allen recently picked up a Sci-Fi Award as Best Actor for his work in the space spoof Galaxy Quest. Upcoming films include Barry Sonnenfeld's Big Trouble as well as Cletis Tout, a comedy about mistaken identities, co-starring Billy Connolly and Richard Dreyfuss. Variety reports he's also set to star in a live- action version of Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat.
  The crown jewels in Allen's car collection may well be his Ferraris. He has at least two, including a '66 and an '88, and once visited the Ferrari factory in Italy. In fact, it was the '88 Ferrari police pulled over in 1997 when Allen was clocked going 70 mph in a 40-mph zone. A subsequent drunk driving charge helped sober up the star, who quickly checked himself into rehab.
  Now Allen confines his need for speed to the racetrack, where he spends a lot of time both as a driver and as a fan. A big Indy enthusiast, Allen was among the many celebrities in the crowd for this past summer's Molson Indy in Toronto and has attended several Detroit Grand Prix races.
-Bill Brioux