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Jay Leno's car collection everyone has probably seen them on TV here are some pictures and Big Money

Mark Gregory

By Mark Gregory
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Mark Gregory 10,000+ Points

Mark Gregory

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EXCLUSIVE: Jay Leno reveals he got his first car as a teen because he wanted to go take naked pictures of his girlfriend, as he gives DailyMailTV a private tour of his multi-million dollar 357-vehicle collection

  • Jay Leno, 69, gave DailyMailTV an exclusive tour of his impressive collection of 189 cars and 168 motorcycles – some worth millions of dollars apiece – at his Los Angeles-area garage
  • Leno explained he got his first car - a humble 1934 Ford - as a teen living in rural Andover, Massachusetts because he wanted to be able to take naked photos of his girlfriend
  • He said: 'When you got the film you had to find a place that would develop it that didn't know your parents. So you had to go two towns over, and then we got the pictures back and there'd be black bars over all the parts' 
  • Coming a long way from then, the ex Tonight Show host now hosts his own car TV show, Jay Leno's Garage
  • His most valuable and coincidentally his favorite modern car, a 1994 McLaren F1, is now worth around $17m, though previous auctions of the model have topped $24m 
  • One of Leno's oldest models is a 1906 Stanley Steamer Vanderbilt Cup Racer, a vintage steam-powered racing car he has had to restore twice, the second time after its boiler exploded 
  • The stand-up comic, who still tours the country performing when he isn't in his Big Dog auto shop says he enjoys the balance of manual and mental labor
  • He said: 'The idea is if something's broken and you fix it and then you drive it, you feel like you're not some rich sod who just drives around all day and has no idea how the thing works. I don't want to be one of those guys

Leno explained he got his first car as a teen living in rural Andover, Massachusetts because he wanted to be able to take naked photos of his girlfriend He said: 'When you got the film you had to find a place that would develop it that didn't know your parents. So you had to go two towns over, and then we got the pictures back and there'd be black bars over all the parts.' Pictured: Leno's Mercer Type 35J 'Raceabout' that was the first mass dual purpose sports/race car produced in the pre WW1 era, which costs nearly $1 million

 

A representative for Visit California, who arranged the Big Dog Garage tour, said visitors wanting to plan a road trip to the golden state should go to visitcalifornia.com and discoverla.com

 

Among the comedian's scores of vintage bikes is the world's largest collection of British Brough Superior motorcycles, popularized by Colonel Thomas Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. Pictured: Leno posing with a Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle

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Crazyfamily 2,500+ Points

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I have a customer that sold Jay Leno a 1911 and 1913 Packard, both cars are on his “Leno’s Garage” YouTube page....  My Grandmother was good friends w the gentleman “Oakley Sumpter” that restored the 1911 many moons ago.....

 

Cool story with a local connect......

 

 

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edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

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1 hour ago, alsancle said:

 

Wasn't that his first car?

 

Personally I would go for the Murphy Doble,   not one of the Duesenbergs.


I would be stuck between a J and the Doble.

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1937hd45 25,000+ Points

1937hd45

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2 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

I don't believe that.  Can you provide documentation

to back up that claim?  I've inferred that the Duesenbergs

and the steam cars have been some of his favorites.

 

 

Sarcasm is sometimes tough to understand, that was in reply to the above claim that Packard Coupe was the best car in the building.  Bob

Edited by 1937hd45 (see edit history)
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Steve_Mack_CT 25,000+ Points

Steve_Mack_CT

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Walked right into that one..  I would be curious which one is sentimentally the best.  Matt was not looking at market value pecking order and picked "his car", I wonder which one Jay would pick, Packard or mid 50s Buick I think, are up there.

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72caddy 2,500+ Points

72caddy

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Jay did some videos where he talks about what cars mean to people. In that video he talks about a 55, or so, Buick he drove all over the US when starting his career. At the end he pulls up in a early 70's Truimph Spitfire that was his late brothers. You could tell by his voice, that car was much more than a car and he stated it will always be his favorite.

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md murray 2,500+ Points

md murray

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I remember Leno commenting in the 12 cyl Packard coupe episode how he had done very little to the car in all the years since he had obtained it from Phil Hill. This is pretty amusing when you read some of the outlandish figures folks are forced to spend in maintaining some of the other great cars of the era at that level!

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Crazyfamily 2,500+ Points

Crazyfamily

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On 2/27/2020 at 1:04 PM, Restorer32 said:

Oakley Sumpter...now there is a name I haven't heard in maybe 30 years. First resto shop I was ever in was his in Maryland in about 1967. Dad almost bought a Model T Huckster truck from him but $700 was too much to pay for an old car,  even if it was restored.


Oakley Sumpter was a good friend of my Grandmother’s when I loved with her in MD.  I take it has cars were fairly well known?

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Marty Roth 25,000+ Points

Marty Roth

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My wife and I were honored to have been invited to visit Mr. Leno's collection a few years ago. We were actually driving our 1988 red Corvette convertible on a VMCCA Western national Tour, and continued to Burbank for the opportunity - truly an amazing collection. Jay is a very decent and hospitable true car-guy. He honestly enjoys his stuff, and enjoys sharing !

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2236F286-BAB3-4167-B9ED-BF4E650E2760.jpeg

Edited by Marty Roth (see edit history)
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JamesR 25,000+ Points

JamesR

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Jay seems like a very good ambassador for the old car hobby. I'm getting a little tired of JL Garage, though. Too many modern super-cars for my taste. I also really don't like the non-youtube network TV version of the show where he talks to movie stars about their expensive cars (yawn.) But he does showcase some of the very small one-off builders of modern cars and I'm sure it's beneficial to them to get the exposure, so that's cool (and interesting.)  

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KURTRUK 2,500+ Points

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And yet, still no Studebaker in his collection. 😲  He has been asked about this--I think-- and he's always kinda vague.  Of course not just any Studebaker would do.  Maybe a 4 Seasons Roadster?   I think he's waiting for one of the 9 Avanti R3s that's to his liking to become available.  Or maybe a 1956 Golden Hawk with a dual quad 374 Packard under the hood...

 

P.S. Oh, yeah.  He has a Baker Electric doesn't he?

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95Cardinal 5,000+ Points

95Cardinal

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17 hours ago, KURTRUK said:

And yet, still no Studebaker in his collection. 😲  He has been asked about this--I think-- and he's always kinda vague.  Of course not just any Studebaker would do.  Maybe a 4 Seasons Roadster?   I think he's waiting for one of the 9 Avanti R3s that's to his liking to become available.  Or maybe a 1956 Golden Hawk with a dual quad 374 Packard under the hood...

 

P.S. Oh, yeah.  He has a Baker Electric doesn't he?

 

We were fortunate enough to be invited to view Jay's collection back in 2008.

Jay was doing several short videos for the Garage website and one of the videos featured the Baker.

Jay was driving it in the aisles and sneaking up on folks, then ringing the bell to surprise them.

It was a VERY fun day.

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