Jay
Leno is currently the most famous car
collector on earth and known almost as much for his car collecting passion (or addiction) as for his stand-up comedy and talk show hosting. Jay Leno’s car collection is dynamic so he is constantly adding, trading or modifying cars and motorcycles, but he is currently rumored to have over 100 cars and over 90 motorcycles.
Leno’s
car collection is diverse in terms of age,
price, rarity, engine configuration, brand, etc. For instance he has a 1906 Stanley Steamer but also a brand new McLaren MP4-12C super car. Jay Leno is respected as a true car guy that procures cars (albeit expensive ones) simply because he loves automobiles as opposed to collecting high-end cars as a status symbol. Within his massive warehouse garage he even has special equipment for working on cars such as a sheet metal English wheel, welding machines, water jet cutter, plasma cutter, etc. in Southern California – a world of movies, magic, and make believe – is Jay Leno's Big Dog Garage, a place not without its fair share of magic itself. Spread across two low-slung buildings cooked by the sun, is one of the world's great car collections and one of the world's best-equipped garages custom-built from the groundup to keep everything running in tip-top shape. The garage itself is about 17,000 square feet, sizeable, to say the least, for a private garage, which is enough space to work on about a dozen cars at any one given time. About a quarter of that space is taken up by the machine shop, which includes a massive amount of equipment.
Since
you can't exactly go down to the local
auto shop for parts from pre-teen cars, the garage is geared up to fabricate parts and do just about all required work in house: a CNC Mill, a water jet cutter, sheet metal equipment, a lathe, a regular mill, and welding equipment from Tig and Mig to name some shop highlights.
The
garage is also home to a gourmet kitchen
where Jay shows off his culinary skills for his staff and other visitors. Besides being an avid car collector and mechanic, Jay also likes to cook and can often be found preparing food, especially when on hiatus from The Tonight Show. |
