Photography by Lucas Scarfone
Jay greets us at the doorway wearing his trademark Canadian tuxedo (denim shirt and jeans) and invites us inside into what he affectionately labels “the more money than brains club.” He may be one of the biggest celebrities on the planet, but here, at home in his garage, he’s just a car guy, albeit one with a jaw-dropping collection, notable for both its scope and diversity.
Labelling Jay’s collection as eclectic feels like an understatement, as it doesn’t begin to capture the breadth of what he owns: a Stanley Steamer, a McLaren F1 and just about everything in between, including a WWII tank.
“It’s completely street legal,” says Jay, motioning to the tank. “The wheelbase is no bigger than a 911. I put cameras and screens inside. I can do 65 miles an hour on the freeway and people get the fuck out of the way.” I privately hypothesize that that might have something to do with the 37-mm machine gun mounted up top.
Some collectors are in it for the money, others for the notoriety, but Jay collects simply because it makes him happy. “I could have a big bag of twenties or I can have these. I’d rather have these.”
We ask him if his wife of 40 years minds the time and effort he puts into the collection, and his answer reminds us that he is as much a comedian at heart as a car guy. “It’s not like I’m banging hookers and doing cocaine,” he says. “The trick is to keep it out of the house. I feel sorry when I go to a guy’s house and they have an engine block in the living room and I can see the tears in their wife’s eyes!”
Jay acquires what interests him, what he finds noteworthy, unique or historically significant. “I buy the story as much as I buy the car,” he explains. “Often you’ll see the previous owner’s picture on the wall beside the car. They become friends.”
One of the most storied vehicles in his collection is a Duesenberg with two previous owners.
“The original owner, a young guy, bought it brand new in 1928 with $17,000 that his grandfather had given him,” recounts Jay. “The kid’s father lost his mind when he found out he’d blown all that money on the car and it sat around in a barn for years. A young GI named Schuster ended up buying the car after the Second World War with loot he’d smuggled back from Germany. He and some of his army buddies broke into safety deposit boxes and took gold and diamonds and hid them in a motorcycle which they then left at a German dealership for two years until they could import the bike into the United States. When they got it from Germany they retrieved their haul and Schuster had the cash to buy the Duesenberg. Some time afterwards Schuster became despondent over a woman, drove the car into a barn, turned it on and killed himself. It sat untouched and undriven from 1948 till the mid 80’s. Schuster’s brother refused to sell the car to anyone who knew his brother’s story.”
Then, at a car meet, Jay happened to run into the brother who was so impressed with Jay’s knowledge of Duesenberg’s history that he offered to sell him the car. It was only after he acquired it that Jay heard its chilling tale.
There isn’t a wish list. In fact, Jay doesn’t even truly seek out anything in particular, but he gets plenty of unsolicited offers to buy. If they are interesting enough or have a good story, he just might roll the dice. “An old guy called me the other day. He’s got a 1963 904 Porsche that he bought brand new. It’s got 900 km on it. He wants it to go to a good home. I’ll go take a look.”
There is one mark made conspicuous by its absence, however. Look around Jay’s stable and you won’t find a single prancing horse. The man has his reasons…
“When I was coming up, Ferrari was the only game in town, but I didn’t like the idea of having to buy two Mondials in order to be allowed to get a 348. And I didn’t want to hand some guy named Ace an envelope with 10 grand for the privilege, nor did I want to have to go find Italian air to pump into the tires!”
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any Italians hanging about. There’s an immaculate 1959 Fiat Millecento that sat in the previous owner’s living room for 43 years until Jay acquired it with 5,000 original miles; a stunning Maserati 3500 GT, and not one but two Lamborghini Miuras.
“One of [the Miuras] I got for free,” he says. “It used to belong to Dean Martin and one of his kids blew the engine. There were no parts readily available back then, and there was no internet. What were you going to do, write to some guy in Italy? And he was told it would cost more to fix than it was worth. Someone said ‘give it to Jay he collects old cars.’ I said, ‘sure I’ll take it off your hands.’ I had it restored. He’s probably kicking himself today.” Miuras routinely fetch north of a million dollars at auction.
The second Miura has a Canadian connection. Jay stumbled upon it in a used car lot in Toronto when he was in town for a show years ago. He thinks he might have paid about $80,000 for it. Canadian.
Occasionally, Jay will buy a brand new car, and when this happens he, just like the rest of us, likes to be treated well by the dealership. Jay recounts his experience owning the McLaren P1. One day he got a call from the dealer. “They said ‘Mr. Leno there’s an upgrade available for your car that will take it up another 65 horsepower,’ so I thought that’d be nice and I asked them how much it would cost. ‘Nothing just bring the car in.’” Jay was impressed.
Once a car makes it into his collection it’s unlikely to ever leave. Jay simply doesn’t sell anything. And it doesn’t matter who asks. He shows us a massive 5-ton behemoth of a car that looks like it’s ready to take on Armageddon. He tells us that it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favourite car and that he has begged to buy it.
“I luv this cahr, I have to have this cahr” says Jay, summoning his best Arnold impression. But despite his friend’s pleas, the vehicle will remain in his garage.
The fact that said garage is both a museum quality showcase for his collection as well as a complete repair facility allows Jay to undertake a top-to-bottom restoration on just about any car, whether it requires an engine rebuild, part fabrication or paint job. But here again the craftsmanship runs the gamut from state-of-the-art 3d printing to recreate parts that no longer exist, to hand-crafting wooden wheels made by Amish artisans.
But not every car gets a full restoration. There’s a Mercedes Gullwing whose paint shows the cracks and wear of having been left out in the baking desert heat for many years before he rescued it. “I like it this way,” says Jay. “I can bring it to car shows and sit on the hood, and little kids can climb over it and I don’t have to worry.”
Regardless of the state of repair, there are no garage queens here. Every car (and bike) gets driven. Jays philosophy is to “restore them to 100 points, drive them down to 10 and then restore them again.”
Despite its obvious impact, the collection is not meant to impress anyone. In fact, it’s not meant to serve any grander purpose other than to make him happy. Cars are his hobby, and he never acquires anything based on whether it might appreciate in value. But sometimes the numbers just work in his favour.
“When I acquired the McLaren F1 it was $800,000 and I thought ‘this is crazy!’ But the last offer I got for it was 17.5 million.”
On the flip side, when Jay was deciding between a Lamborghini Espada and a Ferrari 330, he landed on the Lambo. He figured that they were both V12s, and the Espada was about $4,000 cheaper. Plus, he found the Lamborghini more interesting. Today, however, the Espada is worth about $100,000 and the Ferrari around a million.
Jay took over the reigns of the Tonight Show from Johnny Carson in 1992 and worked at it in two stints covering 22 years. In one corner of his garage sits Johnny’s 1939 Chrysler Royale, the car in which Carson went to his prom. Johnny left it to Jay in his will.
Nowadays Leno is known for his immensely popular car show show Jay Leno’s Garage, in which he highlights pieces from his collection. He’s pleased that the shows are so different from one another that they don’t draw comparisons. It’s clear that in many ways he’s more at ease in his current role than with his old one.
“I enjoyed the Tonight Show, but I had to fake it a lot. I’m not really a sports or a music guy. I remember I’d be introducing some act: ‘And our next guest has sold more records than Elvis and the Beatles combined,’ and I’d be like ‘who the fuck is this?’ I’d never heard of them until five minutes before.”
But with cars, he never has that issue. His knowledge of the history and stories behind the marques is humbling.
Jay’s incredible passion for his motorcycles, cars and trucks is evident, as is the fact that he takes nothing for granted. “I’ve heard stories about me saying things like ‘I’m Jay Leno I can buy any car I like.’ I don’t talk like that. I’m lucky I can do that. I was broke for the longest time, and now I’m grateful.”
So what does it take to get a peek at Jay’s incredible collection? You don’t have to unwrap a golden ticket or write for an international car magazine, but you do have to make a contribution to one of the worthy charities that Jay supports, such as Wounded Warriors or Make a Wish Foundation.
“We raise about 1.4 million dollars a year, and every cent we get goes to the charities. There are no administration fees or any crap like that taken off.”
In this way a collection assembled for one man’s enjoyment ends up spreading joy to a much wider audience.
