The other day I stumbled on a photo of two regular car guys, who just followed their dreams and now truly enjoy their lives. The guys I am referring to are Magnus Walker and Jay Leno. Both have been featured on FulTrot and I always use them as examples of how one should just follow their dreams.
I guess lately I have been confronted by too many who seem to have lost their dreams along the way and are now just counting the days until retirement. Luckily there are a few who go against the grain and don't mind being labeled as silly or out of their minds. Kudos to these folk!
Did you know that Jay Leno, the late night talk show host of the "Tonight Show", has a passion for everything that has to do with automobiles. He has a huge garage somewhere in Burbank, Los Angeles, with a team of mechanics who maintain his collection. The garage has even its own website: Jay Leno's Garage
My personal connections are limited but I will attempt to get an invite to the Big Dog Garage. This may take a while, so in the meantime, I have written an excerpt from an article on Jalopnic, called "Burbank Envy: A glimpse inside Jay Leno's Garage".
They were lucky enough to snag a tour of Jay Leno's Big Dog Garage during the L.A. Auto Show some years ago.
Here follows a list of things seen there:
- a wall of Vincent motorcycles,
- the tank car,
- some of the best garage art known to man,
- a fully operational Tatra T87,
- a very large steam engine that used to belong to Thomas Edison - it still works,
- a water-jet cutter,
- ordinary, run-of-the-mill stuf, like a McLaren F1,
- and maybe Jay Leno himself.
To be honest, it was simply amazing. His collection of cars and bikes are exactly as we'd have them -running condition, nice without being too nice, and correctly restored. There was even a collection of art and assembled mobilia- the larger pieces were painted by NBC's set department - and was astonishing to say the least. The in-house restoration and service shop is complete enough to make your toes curl. And in the middle of it all is an ordinary, down-to-earth machine nut who just happens to be one of the most famous men in the world.
It is said the man sure knows how to collect cars.
Mr. Leno, I will be calling for an invite, on behalf of all the petrolheads of Curacao.
