"Which McClaren do you like to drive the most?"
May 16, 2017 6:45 PM   Subscribe

"Well, the F1 is the most iconic, but if you do something, it's a house." The Leno Collection is located in Burbank in some nondescript hangars next to the airport. The buildings house a collection of more than 140 cars, 100's of motorcycles, and a menagerie of engines, spare parts and memorabilia.

Dressed down as usual in old jeans (broken belt loop) and work shirt, Jay
invited about two dozen youtube bloggers, car guys, and asssorted gearheads to a demonstration of his new line of detailing products.


Here is another of the lucky ones.


Car Virgins
posted by shockingbluamp (25 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm partial to this McLaren, myself.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:07 PM on May 16, 2017 [5 favorites]


Boys and their toys...
posted by jim in austin at 7:41 PM on May 16, 2017


Something has always felt offputting about Leno's attempt at maintaining his denim-based Everyman image while standing amongst tens of millions of dollars worth of cars.
posted by hwyengr at 8:14 PM on May 16, 2017 [10 favorites]


I'll take a contrary viewpoint and say, my husband's father grew up very working class, any car he had as a kid he built from parts, and even once he became a successful medical specialist he taught my husband to do the same. They're not in Leno territory but they're both successful professionals in their field but they appreciate doing things for themselves, and we have, between my inlaws and ourselves, a lot of different cars and boats and whatnot. All of which are mostly worked on ourselves. I bet Jay Leno outsources more than our family does but I bet he really enjoys getting deep into working on his vehicles when he has the chance to (I don't know anything about his childhood and upbringing but I have never heard that he came from money, and I suspect he's just doing what my father in law or husband might do if surprised with unlimited buying power).

I don't have a picture of my father in law in his cut-off jorts that he wears when he does his puttering on things, but they are fucking embarrassing as hell and that comes from a girl who grew up living in a mobile home, so maybe cut Jay Leno some slack.
posted by padraigin at 8:25 PM on May 16, 2017 [22 favorites]


I don't know him, I've never met him. My mom's good friend spends a lot of time professionally with him on car stuff. (My mom has gotten to ride around in some cool old cars with Jay.) He's not an everyman, but it sounds like he really is a worn denim all the time kind of guy.
posted by not_the_water at 8:27 PM on May 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


I'd cut him more slack if it weren't for his well-documented narcissism. The aw-shucks attitude seemingly provides cover for showing off.
posted by hwyengr at 8:31 PM on May 16, 2017 [3 favorites]


Jay Leno has put together what I'm pretty sure is going to be the core of a world class museum of automotive history there. As far as narcissism goes, this is certainly one of its better uses.
posted by Grimgrin at 8:33 PM on May 16, 2017 [10 favorites]


I think that, initially, he turned his own wrenches, but as his collection got larger and more exotic, he began to outsource some of the work.

On the last Saturday of the year, the Horseless Carriage Club of America has a rally for brass-era cars in Pasadena, Ca. I have seen Jay there in a 1909 Mercer. He rides, his mechanic drives.
posted by dfm500 at 9:41 PM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Wait, an FPP for promotional materials? Anything's better than Armorall, Mothers, et al, but does the home-detailing market really need bottles with a famous collector's name on them? Or did you post this in order to talk about what's really going on when guys fawn over other males' car collections? The author of Games Primates Play called ...

I'd love to see more automotive FPPs, so really, no complaint from me. Do Leno's products smell like fruit, bubble gum, etc, as so many earnest, earnest car dudes' detailing liquids do?
[Deleted: description of various product lines' fanboys' raving squeals of delight over these scents, as shown in their own self-promotional videos.]


AutoGeek is selling Leno's stuff, so it can't be all bad. But it'll sell on his name, not on its technical merits. This isn't a pro or even informed-hobbyist product.

And it's unlikely, as speculated in yt comments, that he's relabeling someone else's line. Contract manufacturers make it ridiculously easy to tweak existing base formulas to create your own detailing liquids, even in small batches. Padraigin, for example, could make a few phone calls and have a MetaFilter-branded car-care product line on the market within days. (Hopefully not candy-scented, or they'd end up on the green under Can I Eat This.)
posted by wonton endangerment at 11:41 PM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]


Meanwhile, Dave loses his license and owns a racing team.
posted by whuppy at 3:04 AM on May 17, 2017


Leno grew up in Andover, MA. Anyone from adjacent Lawrence would scoff if you told them he's an Everyman, just because of that.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:49 AM on May 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


The aw-shucks attitude seemingly provides cover for showing off.

This is definitely the feeling I get from him. Old cars are neat, but not that neat. But people seem to genuinely enjoy and appreciate it, so maybe I'm just not the right audience.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:24 AM on May 17, 2017


If you want to watch a boy with other people's toys Dan DeMuro is great entertainment. He analyses exotic cars and then test rides them but the best part is his sense of joyous wonder at both good and bad of the cars.

I don't even drive or care about cars but I enjoy people geeking out and this guy is one of the best at it on youtube.
posted by srboisvert at 5:26 AM on May 17, 2017


Jay's "regular guy" act aside, I do have to give him props for what he's done to preserve a lot of pre-war automotive history, especially the oddities and non-internal combustion technologies like electrics and steamers.

It's easy to build a collection around iconic and super-popular models, but he seems to have gone out of his way to make sure a lot of old iron is remembered. That he has a full-equipped shop to do full, running-condition, restorations on the things is also to be respected.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:07 AM on May 17, 2017 [5 favorites]


I live in Burbank and it's a car lover's dream. Lots of collectors. In fact, at least two of my neighbors are in car clubs and another neighbor fixes up old cars and sells them overseas. Every Friday night at the Bob's Big Boy (technically in Toluca Lake, not Burbank) there's an unofficial car show where the rarest and the most souped up get there before 3 p.m. to get a prime parking spot in the lot. You don't see Jay there much, but if you look in every old car driving down Buena Vista or Magnolia, he'll be in the car as a driver or passenger one out of every 10 times.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:07 AM on May 17, 2017


Something has always felt offputting about Leno's attempt at maintaining his denim-based Everyman image while standing amongst tens of millions of dollars worth of cars.

I'd cut him more slack if it weren't for his well-documented narcissism. The aw-shucks attitude seemingly provides cover for showing off.


Jay Leno is the Bill Gates of entertainment. Not perfect, occasionally a dick*, but a smart guy and many people have had very good experiences working with him. He's also taken his money and done a nice thing with it. Preserving cars aren't exactly curing polio, but it's a nice thing that he didn't have to do.

Wearing denim isn't necessarily performative. It's just clothes

*though NBC really put him in a difficult position once Conan bombed. Jay's a company guy and did what he was asked.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:46 AM on May 17, 2017 [2 favorites]


Jay says that the chambray shirts are A) comfortable and B) prevent continuity issues when shooting videos across multiple days. His shop is also pioneering various restoration technologies like 3D printing of unobtainable parts, vapor honing etc. so he's helping advance the restoration and preservation of some pretty unique automotive history.
posted by Standeck at 6:52 AM on May 17, 2017 [3 favorites]


Jay's 1832 working steam engine. Youtube link. Including operation details and CNC milling a replacement brass fitting.
posted by jjj606 at 8:32 AM on May 17, 2017


"Leno's not a nice guy, he's vicious. He's a "nice guy" - Andy Kindler

*though NBC really put him in a difficult position once Conan bombed. Jay's a company guy and did what he was asked.

So far from reality I can't even....

His car collection is amazing and cool, for sure, but after watching a handful of episodes on Youtube am I really the only one who feels like he doesn't really like cars all that much? Or at least they certainly do not make him happy. His actions/emotions towards them are the definition of "meh".
posted by Cosine at 8:41 AM on May 17, 2017


I have the opposite impression from you Cosine. Also I like his videos a lot. Part of it might be that they are reasonably spare and underproduced with a lot of interesting information over a large range of cars and machines.
posted by Pembquist at 9:22 AM on May 17, 2017 [1 favorite]


I don't give a damn about Jay Leno but I do like cars, so thanks.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:41 AM on May 17, 2017


I went to the same High School as Jay. Different class, and I never met him. That is all.
posted by DesbaratsDays at 9:50 AM on May 17, 2017


I knew a guy named Len Jeno. He wore khakis and didn't own a car.
posted by Floydd at 12:02 PM on May 17, 2017


am I really the only one who feels like he doesn't really like cars all that much? Or at least they certainly do not make him happy.

and Jacques Pepin doesn't care for food and Cristiano Ronaldo hates football and...
posted by shockingbluamp at 12:30 PM on May 17, 2017


I heard that Guggenheim guy is rich. And might have been kind of a dick. Probably didn't even *like* art. So his "collection" is inauthentic/shouldn't be considered seriously/is somehow bad. Or something.

So predictable.
posted by kjs3 at 8:22 PM on May 17, 2017


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