While we were in Los Angeles last week for the annual auto show, we couldn’t resist Mercedes-Benz ’s invitation to visit comedian and car enthusiast extraordinaire Jay Leno’s famed garage. What we expected to be a light sampling of the Jay’s Garage wound up being an extensive tour – with a special surprise for Leno from Mercedes’ AMG unit.
Tickling Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, Jay’s Garage is everything we believed it would be – and more. Imagine your dream garage, if you will.
That’s just Jay’s Garage’s outdoor parking lot.
Room after room of the most intricately-selected, eclectic automobiles compose the sprawling main garages, while a full-service shop lies in a separate building.
It would take us too much space to even begin to detail each car in the collection – not all of which are even housed in Jay’s Garage.
Season’s Greetings: A gift from Mercedes-Benz
Knowing that Leno is particularly passionate about driving his collection of cars, Mercedes-Benz gave him his very own, personalized M159 6.2-liter AMG V8 to be installed in a 300,000-mile W109-series early-’70s 300 SEL 6.3.
Leno doesn’t keep show queens in his collection, although the value and condition of most of the fleet made us think otherwise. Instead, he is adamant that each of his cars be entirely drivable – which is why his Garage features the kind of repair and refurbishment shop would even stop a Pebble Beach-level restorer in his tracks.
It is in this shop that Leno’s crew will disassemble the 300 SEL 6.3 and install the AMG motor and its seven-speed dual clutch transmission. Despite bearing a small “Specially made for Jay Leno†badge, this engine was actually intended for a Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS (Leno has one of those now, too). To say that its 563 horsepower will be an improvement over the 300 SEL 6.3′s 250 ponies is bound to be an understatement – we’ll hopefully have the opportunity to hop behind the restomod’s wheel at a later date.
Quite a collection
While we were wowed by the sheer number of Bugatti s and Duesenbergs that compose Jay’s Garage, it was the unpredictability of the fleet that impressed us the most. This is a man who can afford absolutely the best, yet his collection shows off his obvious interest in all things mechanical. In one corner sits a little Fiat Topolino, which can barely contain the comedian’s oft-mused signature chin, while across the way you’ll find a humble Ford Festiva stuffed with a mid-mounted Ford Taurus SHO V6 – the Shogun. Turn a corner and you’ll encounter a Tatra T87 parked next to a Chrysler Airflow – the Chrysler looks like a boat compared to its little Czechoslovakian imitator. Keep strolling a bit and you’ll find a Chrysler Turbine, a Saab 93, one of the last Pontiac Firebirds to roll off the line, more steam-powered vehicles and engines than in Scranton (Steam Town USA) and Leftlane’s favorite story – a one-owner 1967 Chrysler Imperial.
Though not especially notable on its own, the Imperial’s story is one that left us in awe. The car’s previous owner bought it new in ’67 and, according to Leno, acquired two of every single trim piece so he would be able to restore the car should an accident arise. Mechanically, the car was kept beyond factory by a Chrysler team that performed two full services every month. We imagine that the Imperial has used more motor oil than gasoline.
Leno – and host Mercedes-Benz – was perhaps most excited about the vehicle he drove home later that evening. Mercedes 300 SL Gullwings are rare sights, but most are dolled up show queens. Not Leno’s. Found in storage in the desert, his red Gullwing is not shy about its patina. Leno likens it to a snapshot of what Gullwings would have looked like in the 1970s when they were merely used higher-end cars. He recounted how the dealership where he worked in Massachusetts took one in on trade for a mere fraction of the cost of one today.
Beyond the four-wheeled assortment
We couldn’t help but be transfixed with the massive paintings sprawled over every wall in each garage room. Leno told us that he takes a vintage ad or poster to the set designers at NBC and, within a few days, they’ve whipped up an enlarged wall hanging. On their own, the paintings would be individual showpieces. But in this garage, they compete for attention.
And we at Leftlane realize that your attention, by now, has probably become focused on the photo gallery of Jay’s Garage courtesy of Mercedes-Benz and Greg Jarem.
Words by Andrew Ganz. Photos by Greg Jarem.
