I love Jay Leno

I think in my life, I've seen maybe 5 minutes of his shows..

But I've watched hours upon hours of him with his cars. The absolute earnest love he has for them and their histories is something else.

He considers himself a custodian of these cars going back a century. He tries his best to drive them the way they should. He's living the dream and thankfully, these cars can be with him for decades and then can be passed on to someone else who will hopefully respect them the way he does.


https://www.youtube.com/user/JayLenosGarage/featured


Highly recommended.

Jim Bob Scratcher

Dat chin though

peasant

Really like his steam car obsession and particularly fascinated by the Doble cars

Avatar MIA

peasant wrote: »

Really like his steam car obsession and particularly fascinated by the Doble cars

First thing I've ever subscribed to on YouTube.

Capt'n Midnight

And then there's car shows done by journalists and TV stars.. Has Clarkson ever done an oil change ?

Love the Stanley Steamer - did you know steam engines don't need gearboxes because of the constant torque across rpm's.

Avatar MIA

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

- did you know steam engines don't need gearboxes because of the constant torque across rpm's.

Jay might have mentioned it once or twice

Franz Von Peppercorn

No interest in cars in general but that steam car is amazing.

dr.fuzzenstein

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

And then there's car shows done by journalists and TV stars.. Has Clarkson ever done an oil change ?

Love the Stanley Steamer - did you know steam engines don't need gearboxes because of the constant torque across rpm's.

Clarkson did an oilchange in the £10k Italian supercar challenge.
The engine later exploded.

Pelvis

You should check out Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee... Seinfeld driving around in the car de jour with some other comedians... getting coffee.

dr.fuzzenstein

I watched pretty much all of Leno's channel.
Absolutely fantastic stuff.
I'm also watching my way through Car Throttle at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/user/CarThrottle

Sonics2k

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

And then there's car shows done by journalists and TV stars.. Has Clarkson ever done an oil change ?

Love the Stanley Steamer - did you know steam engines don't need gearboxes because of the constant torque across rpm's.

Keep in mind that Clarkson is playing up a character on Top Gear and The Grand Tour, he is actually quite good with car maintenance, just not great.

cantdecide

I just love that guy. He's the embodiment of everything good about the passion of everything mechanical.

I love that he features cars by ordinary people build in sheds and he has endless passion and enthusiasm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-zRpfsZ7hc

take everything

Yeah I like Leno. Genuinely funny guy and I watched all of that clip not intending to. His passion for cars is infectious and heartening.

The guy is just doing exactly what he wants to do.

That CoCo business aside (love Conan O Brien as well tbh) he always came across as a happy in his own skin guy and that is really admirable.

His appearance on Joe Rogan (talking about his early days as a comic etc) is great viewing as well IMO.

take everything

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

No interest in cars in general but that steam car is amazing.

Actually during that clip check how many times he goes over the central divide.
It's funny when you see it. Those things are lethal I'd say if you didn't know what you were doing. Great stuff though.

Yamanoto

Nice that he curates his car collection with diligence & enthusiasm, but in an industry rife with back-stabbing, ego & venality, Leno is considered by many in the know not to possess even a fraction of the professional or personal integrity of contemporaries like Letterman or Conan O'Brien

Ken.

Mod-Moved to the motors forum. Please read the local charter before posting.

DaveyDave

I'll give these a watch later tonight. I enjoy someone going into detail who has a passion for cars. I'm only subscribed to a few car channels, Car Wow for quick car 'reviews', Autogefühl for the really in depth reviews and Doug DeMuro.

I like that Doug has everything from Ferrari and Corvettes to Rolls Royce and an RX-7, although some of his newer videos focus less on driving and seem a bit rushed and some may find his personality a bit cheesy but I'm looking for more videos like that.

I watched some of the Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and thought it was interesting, the cars are really beautiful. I like that it's not all about a million Dollar supercar, but he'll roll up in a well looked after Volvo for example.

corcaigh1

Jay Leno is such a legend, really nice guy and I love his passion for all things motor. This clip with bob riggle is hilarious, bob is 80 here and the two lads just brush it off...brilliant!

chicorytip

Yamanoto wrote:

Nice that he curates his car collection with diligence & enthusiasm, but in an industry rife with back-stabbing, ego & venality, Leno is considered by many in the know not to possess even a fraction of the professional or personal integrity of contemporaries like Letterman or Conan O'Brien

What criteria, I wonder, do those "in the know" utilise to enable them to arrive at such a conclusion?

Franz Von Peppercorn

chicorytip wrote: »

What criteria, I wonder, do those "in the know" utilise to enable them to arrive at such a conclusion?

It’s generally the way he treated the succession on his show. From the reaction to that it’s clear a lot of people didn’t like him.

Anyway he’s good tv so I don’t really care.

Oafley Jones

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

It’s generally the way he treated the succession on his show. From the reaction to that it’s clear a lot of people didn’t like him.

Anyway he’s good tv so I don’t really care.

Leno's less than stellar reputation with his peers extends way back before the Conan fiasco. There does seem to a genuine dislike (and outright hostility) for the guy that goes beyond the more popular stories of him hiding in closets. I think he's a lot better at hiding his neurosis from the public, unlike say, Letterman who was always a cranky ****.

I like the channel and he does come off as a grounded, amiable kind of guy, but I've no doubt that amount of vitriol for him has to come from somewhere.

Great thing about Leno is that he doesn't seem to care more about really expensive and flashy motors but gets exited about any interesting cars. He did a great review of a Panhard PL17 for example. He just loves any properly designed stuff while is quite polite about heaps like the Honghi (spelling?), a Chinese "Mercedes 600". He got much more exited about some early 70's Datsun his camera man has. And it's nice that he properly drives his cars and is not afraid to give them beans.

Jay is a true petrol (gear) head with great interest and understanding of these machines and what makes them special.

Wibbs

LIGHTNING wrote: »

He loves a good "unrestored and original" classic which is great. His Countach has decent milage on it as he actually drives his classics.

Down the years I've read of similar owners who drive their classics and they report that many so called unreliable classics can be extremely reliable if driven regularly and you keep an eye on normal maintenance. Apparently 60's Ferraris are a case in point. Can go on for ages, but go downhill fast as static displays.

Interesting thing about cars in general is that personally at least driving and working on them I get a special kind of bond and the some of the most enjoyable cars I have ever had have been the ones that have needed most work even if in reality they should have been POSes. I always say that the best car I have ever owned was a 175 quid '00 Brava that I bought with a cylinder head in the boot and the most disappointing one was a new '99 Focus 1.6. Cars like any machines are happiest when used and maintained regularly and within the specs and they deteriorate if left sitting especially outside. Avoiding red line for good time is a disaster especially on diesels and the same goes for frequent short trips.

Leno's cars are probably quite happy driven properly every so often and then let to rest under perfect conditions in between. And no expense spared on servicing and no salt on roads there.

dr.fuzzenstein

Wibbs wrote: »

Down the years I've read of similar owners who drive their classics and they report that many so called unreliable classics can be extremely reliable if driven regularly and you keep an eye on normal maintenance. Apparently 60's Ferraris are a case in point. Can go on for ages, but go downhill fast as static displays.

I think that the most perverse thing anyone can do with a car is to buy it and stick it in storage somewhere as an investment. He might have bought shares in a sausage factory, cement futures, a TV station or Amazon shares, it's all the same, it's a thing that sh*ts money.
Same goes for works of art.
It's this investment mentality. Where some guy who has zero interest in the world other than a good return buys stuff he doesn't care about to lock it away from the world.
It's the kind of mindset that turned the world into a profit obsessed rat race where money is the only motivation at the expense of the people and the planet.

Anyways, WILDLY off topic.

On the man himself, I have all the time in the world for Jay Leno, been bingewatching his channel and I love his stuff. He is a true petrol head and he seems to genuinely care and he knows his stuff.
Clarkson is an entertainer and TG is not a car show. Leno's channel is so bang on the money and I love his penchant for orignal cars.
To me the hot-rodding scene has probably destroyed more cars than all the scrapyards put together.
I once saw an episode of American Hot Rod where they buy a Model T that has been lovingly restored by the owner over years and years. First thing they did was smash all the windows, rip out the engine, chop the roof, in other words they might as well have put the car into a crusher, because they just made sh*t of it. Can't stand hot rodders since then. Enemies of classic cars, worse than any scrappage scheme.
And could not find any scrap of evidence anywhere other than that he's a genuinely nice guy and what you see is what you get.
If there is "hate" out there for him, it must be either the usual professional rivalry between late-show hosts which is a bit of gentle ribbing and mocking, or some people with a grudge are trying very hard to stoke some animosity that is simply not there.
He is about as aggressive as an oversized teddy bear.

DaveyDave

So I'm a few videos in now, really liking it so far. Just watched the Enzo, now on the Ford GT then the F40 (one of my favorites) but also enjoyed the Lincoln Continental convertible and Husqvarna bikes so far. Good stuff