Jay Leno’s automotive obsession

last updated 8 January 2015

Jay Leno owns so many cars, he has lost count, says Ezra Dyer in Men’s Journal. The comedian’s famous motor pool currently consists of about 105 cars, plus 85 motorcycles, he guesses—but it’s the quality of the machines that interests him. And they have to work. “I drive everything,” he says. “I take my Model T to work all the time.” Leno keeps his fleet in a 17,000-square-foot compound in Southern California, where, despite the demands of hosting a nightly show, he often spends a couple of hours a day. Surveying his holdings—which include a 1906 Stanley Steamer, one of nine surviving 1963 Chrysler Turbines, and a hot rod built around a V12 tank engine—he recalls when the car bug bit him. “When I was 9, a guy let me sit in his Jag XK120. It made such an impression on me.” When he was 19, Leno just showed up at a mechanic shop in his hometown of Boston and started doing odd jobs. After three days, the manager realized Leno wasn’t on the payroll and hired him. Now that money is no object, Leno spends vast amounts of it buying cars and restoring them to pristine, working condition. That’s not always easy. He once had to convince a turbine company to make a part that was out of production for 80 years. “I enjoy the pursuit of the unusual driving experience,” he says. “It is a bit of

a disease.”