Tag Archives: Jay Leno

1967 Chrysler Imperial – Jay Leno’s Garage

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The Chrysler Imperial was designed “for the man who doesn’t seek prestige because he already has it.” I really don’t think there is anybody in the world more appropriate to present this 1967 Chrysler Imperial than Jay Leno. It’s one of the amazing cars that found its way to him just because he’s the world’s most famous car guy. He bought it from a 93 year old movie producer who bought the car brand new along with 2 spares of every conceivable part on the car. It’s an amazing piece of automotive history from an era when the Imperial was the pinnacle of luxury and sophistication.


Source: Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube

1918 Cadillac Type 57 Victoria – Jay Leno

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This is Jay Leno’s original and unrestored 1918 Cadillac Type 57 Victoria model. Jay likens this car to the CTS-V of 1918 because it’s a luxury model powered by the first ever mass produced V8 engine. Cadillac pioneered precision machining here in America back when the rest of the world was still handcrafting unique individual cars. These Type 57’s were designed to have interchangeable parts for easy servicing and production. Jay tells the story where six of these were brought to England and disassembled. The parts were then thrown into a giant pile and mixed up. Six new cars were then reassembled from the pile of parts that all started on the first try and went on to win an endurance race. That level of precision manufacturing was unheard of at the time. This Type 57 is the crown achievement of an era of American automobiles.


Source: Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube

Jay Leno’s Mazda Cosmo

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This week’s episode of Jay Leno’s garage introduces us to the Mazda Cosmo 110S. The Cosmo represents a classic Japanese halo car from the 60’s. It was also Mazda’s first attempt at a rotary engine powered sports car. We never got any Cosmos here in the US, but this particular car was imported by a U2 spy plane pilot when he returned from his service in Japan. When Jay bought it, the body was in good shape but the engine had seized. Leno’s mechanic replaced the engine with a 1.2 liter 12A rotary engine from the first generation RX-7 with a couple of power upgrades including a Weber sidedraft carburetor and manifold. The car now has over 200 horsepower and a 9,000 rpm redline.


Source: Jay Leno’s Garage

Blastolene Piss’d Off Pete – Jay Leno’s Garage

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Jay Leno brings the creator of his Tank Car, Randy Grubb, onto his show to check out his latest creation. Piss’d Off Pete is the fourth car in Randy’s Blastolene line of gigantic automotive sculptures. It’s a scaled up hot rod built around a twin supercharged 2-stroke Detroit Diesel V12 that was originally used for industrial plant work. Each cylinder is 71 cubic inches which translates to a total of 14 liters. We’ve featured it here on the blog before getting frantically rev’ed to it’s 2800 rpm redline. Here Jay and Randy go over the inspiration and finer details of Piss’d Off Pete as well as take it out for a spin.


Source: Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube

Icon FJ-44 – Jay Leno

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Jay Leno finishes his look at the Icon resto-mod product line by checking out the truck that started the brand, the Toyota FJ. Icon goes out and buys FJ’s for the frames and then puts aluminum bodies on them from Aqualu industries in Vancouver. Aqualu makes a lot of interesting variations on the FJ body including a pickup truck and this 4 door, 6 passenger “FJ-44” variant. A GM LSx resides under the hood and the entire thing sits on top of what looks to be Dynatrac axles and a custom suspension link setup.


Source: Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube