A Day with Jay
by: Dennis Gage

Recently, I had the opportunity to spend a day with Jay Leno and his car collection, taping a segment for "My Classic Car." It certainly means a lot to the show to land an interview with a celebrity of Jay Leno's stature. And I must admit, it's pretty cool to have the host of The Tonight Show on my show. But for me, the real thrill came from having the chance to interact with such a hard-core automotive enthusiast.

Jay isn't just some rich guy with a bunch of automotive museum pieces.He amazed me with the depth of his knowledge about every vehicle in his collection. And he was as comfortable talking about form as he was about function. He could move seamlessly from waxing philosophical about the beauty and elegance of a Gordon Buehrig body design, to standing at a work bench beside a Jaguar whose engine was completely torn down, grabbing up various components (and fragments) to illustrate the nasty things that can happen inside an engine when a valve hangs up.

Since one of the hallmarks of our show is that most of the cars we feature get driven, I eventually asked Jay if he'd be willing to take one of his out for a spin. I got the distinct feeling that this was the part he had been waiting for too. His pick for this was a 1930 dual-cowl phaeton Duesenberg. Be still, my heart!

Now, I'd been close to a Duesenberg or two before, but I had never sat in one and I certainly had never ridden in one. I figured we might cautiously take it around the block a time or two. But instead, we got in, fired it up and before I knew it, we were on the Golden State Freeway north of LA doing 75 mph along with the rest of the traffic! You can imagine the looks you get flying down the road in a Duesenberg with Jay Leno behind the wheel.

This car was amazingly powerful and performed flawlessly. Jay commented above the roar of the wind that there is no reason an old car shouldn't be as reliable as a new one. Then he turned to me and said, "Do you want to drive?" I was so astonished. I think my initial response was something like, "Ya, right." But he was serious and I quickly gathered my wits and took him up on his offer. Soon we were back up on the Interstate with yours truly at the wheel.

It wasn't too long before the nearly debilitating fear of possibly screwing up one of Jay Leno's Duesenbergs was replaced by absolute euphoria from this once-in-a-lifetime experience. All too soon though it was time to head back to the garage and wrap up the day's shooting. On the way back I picked up some more of Jay's automotive philosophy.

He believes that cars were made to be driven and that's exactly what he does. He drives them all and he drives them hard. And if (or rather, when) they break, he fixes them and drives them some more. Unfortunately, most of the craftsmen that specialized in fixing these rare machines have gone out of business because nobody breaks them any more. However, Jay certainly does his part to keep the remaining ones in business.

This has to go down in the books as my most memorable experience since we launched the show. Jay was a gracious host and just an all around great guy. He's passionate about the hobby and concerned about its future. He commented frequently on how important it is to continue to bring young people into the hobby and believes it's a heck of a lot more exciting to see some cool classic cruising down the road than to see it roped off in a museum. On this, I couldn't agree with him more. And Jay, if you ever need someone to exercise one of those Duesies again, feel free to call on me. Please!