Driving with Jay Leno
By Karla Pincott · 23 Dec 2010
The popular talk show host sees all the vehicles as favourites in his legendary Big Dog Garage - which contains more than 200 cars and bikes spread through several sheds in Los Angeles.
"Well if I had a single favourite I wouldn't have all these cars," Leno laughs. "Anything that rolls and explodes and makes noise I like.
"There are lot of cars that are valuable here and others that aren't worth anything . they're all just cars I like."
Among those "likes" are a street-legal McLaren F1 and a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, the first Ariel Atom, a jet-powered car built at his Big Dog Garage, and a long, list of other vehicles that - taken together - read like the history of the wheel from straight after Ugg brushed the final stone chips off the first one right up to the present day and perhaps a little beyond.
Wearing his signature denim shirt and jeans - the latter with a hint of grease and oil that looks too genuine to be an affectation from the costume department, Leno is ready to show us some of the collection's high points.
But first it's time for that drive in a century-old car that matches the performance of some of its parallel vehicles today. It's a 1909 Baker Electric, a tall and elegant "ladies' car" that does 160km on a single charge - the same as the BMW Mini Electric currently being tested in lease programs around the world.
"The Baker was a very advanced car for its day," Leno says. "It has leather fenders - leather was the carbon fibre of the day for its lightness - and it has electric headlights, where in 1909 most cars you had gas headlights.
"Women loved these cars because they were easy to manoeuvre and they made no noise, and they weren't smoky or greasy and you didn't have to crank them by hand.
"And that was what really killed the early electric cars. Women loved them so consequently women bought a lot of them, which was the death of them, because you know, today you can't sell a man a "woman's car" . they're just not gonna buy it," he laughs.
As Leno starts the car, it moves off swiftly and almost silently, and - steered by tiller - manoeuvres easily in and around the squads of vehicles in his garages. Leno says electric cars had a big share of sales 100 years ago - and he believes they're a key to the future as well.
"In those days it was pretty much right down the centre, you had gas, electric, steam, each had a third of the market," he says. "Gas was a nickel a gallon so there was no reason to go to electricity, but New York had hundreds of these at the turn of the century, there were charging stations all over the city taxi cabs were electric."
Leno says the big downside for electric cars against petrol power was their restricted range. "While electric was popular, it'll would only take you halfway wherever you want to go - and that's always been the problem with it," he says.
"I think electric is probably the future but only if they can come up with something interesting. "You know the mistake I think BMW makes with their little electric is, you can't be equal. The technology's gotta be better. like the Porsche 918, that hybrid sports car, it's their fastest car ever, it gets allegedly 78 miles per gallon (3L/100km).
"It's a hybrid that does everything better than a regular car. well, then you would want one.
Leno's interest in exploring the potential of a green future doesn't stop at cars. In a joint project with Popular Mechanics magazine, for whom he pens columns, Big Dog Garage itself has steadily become more environmentally sound, with a solar roof, wind turbines, ultrasonic cleaners and even a tank of 100C liquid swimming with microbes that ease grease off parts.
And there's a lot of parts to clean, when you have a collection this size that covers almost the full history of wheels and engines, ranging from stationary steam giants of the 1800s through to classic muscle and on to jet power.
To explore each one fully would take weeks, but he's happy to spend an extra hour or so on a whirlwind tour through some of the high points.
"The oldest car would be this 1906 Stanley Steamer - the oldest car ever ticketed for speeding on the LA freeway. Quite proud of that," Leno grins. "It was at 78mph, and that speed in a 100-year-old car made of wrought iron.
"This is Howard Hughes' first little car, a Doble. he went 132mph in that car in 1925. The interesting thing about the car is that it meets all current emissions standards til about 1991/1992 which is pretty amazing for 1925. So they were concerned with pollution even then.
"And this one is the jet-powered car we built here at the shop. That one over there is the F1 McLaren parked next to Gordon Murray's F1 Rocket. Well that's a great little car that red one that's Gordon Murray's car.
"There's a Chrysler Turban pretty rare. There are only four of those left. "And this (pointing to a behemoth engine barely contained in a vintage body) this is the most anti-green car here. It's an M47 Patton tank engine, around 37 litres, and we put twin turbochargers on it and Bosch fuel injection."
The lines of cars seem to go on without end, as we move into another section of the garages, devoted to British and European marques.
"This one's a 1915 Hispano-Suiza . very rare," Leno says. "You notice that red Jag right there. the E-Type? It's only 5/8th size. We took a Series 1 rear end, grafted it on a Series 2 front end."
Moving on to other parts of the massive collection, there are some of the beefiest examples of muscle: Shelby Cobra, Ford GT40 and Dodge Viper among them. Rarities like the DeLorean DMC12, Bentley Speed Six and Shotwell. More attainable cars, like the Saab 93B, pre-BMW Mini and the Ford Festiva/Fiesta he rolls out to compare with the modern Fiestas we're about to take on the first leg of an around-the-world trip.
There are ranks of motorbikes as well, from the earliest builds - little more than bicycles with a little power assistance - through the halcyon eras of Indian, Ariel, Vincent, Norton and other long-gone badges and on to today's track-inspired racers.
And then there's the Y2K jet bike. the legendary turbine-powered beast that Leno says is more a cases of surviving rather than riding. "The wonderful thing about being on this thing is that you're so thankful when you get off at the end of the ride," he laughs "Jet engines only have torque at the top end, 0- 60mph is quite quick, but 60 to 160 is unbelievable, that's where it all goes. aaaarrggghhh.
"It just pulls so hard, and it's such a wonderful noise. But abysmal gas mileage... it's a jet. It burns 8 gallons an hour, no matter what you do."
With this kind of variety, it's little wonder he can't pick a stand-out favourite. Nor that there are so many "projects" across the garages in various stages of being upgraded, restored or just plain rescued.
"Well that's sort of the fun of it with the older vehicles," Leno says. "Modern cars are very difficult to restore because they're made from complicated machinery that stamp things. They're just like carbon fibre, not materials the hand usually works with.
"But with the older cars, anything that was made by hand once can be made again - that's part of the fun of it, and we even make all our own parts here."
He says Big Dog Garage is more than just a collection of cars to him. It's his very hands-on - but very non-celebrity - way of unwinding. "This is where I come to relax. It's my Malibu beach house," Leno jokes.
And he admits there will be more additions to it, although there are no particular vehicles he sees as gap in the line-up. "No, there's not really a wish list. I mean you know the next one you want when you see it," Leno says.
And then as we say goodbye, the compound's gates swing open as the next project is trailered in - an old Buick in sorry condition - and Leno helps his team push it into position in its new home. Where you can bet it will get the care and attention it deserves.
