Jay Leno on His Induction Tonight Into the Automotive Hall of Fame, Breaking A World Record, His Passion For Collecting Cars & His Appreciation For the Every Day Man / SiriusXM Video

Legendary comedian and late-night host, Jay Leno was a guest on SiriusXM
Business Radio’s auto lifestyle show “Cars and Culture with Jason Stein” and
spoke about tonight’s induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame, his
passion for the hobby of collecting cars, his extensive and diverse
collection and breaking a world record in his Tesla.

Jay Leno talks about tonight’s induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame
and shows a deep appreciation the man who works with his hands: “I was
really honored by it..because to me, just coming from New England there a
certain, a guy who runs is better than the guy who walks, a guy who walks is
better than the guy who drives, and the guy who works with his hands is
better than the guy who just sits and types in a computer all day. I mean,
probably doesn’t get paid as much, but there’s something more real about it.
And to me as a kid, I always admired the man and to a certain extent, women
too, who could fix things with their hands and work with their hands. I
mean, I always believed the hardest healthiest were when the head and the
hands work together. I tell jokes at night, and then during the day, I like
to come to the garage and work on stuff because when you work on things, it
gives you a perspective of how hard it is to make money.. You need to look
at things from a normal perspective. And comedy is only funny when it comes
from an every man point of view. So when you work with your hands and you do
mechanical things, you just appreciate the every man point of view.”

This episode of “Cars and Culture with Jason Stein” with guest Jay Leno airs
tonight at 7:00 pm ET, with replays on Saturday at 1:00 pm, Sunday at 9:00
am, and Monday at 7:00 am ET. It can be heard on SiriusXM Business Radio
channel 132 <https://www.siriusxm.com/channels/business-radio> , as well as
the SXM App, Pandora, Stitcher, or wherever listeners access their podcasts.

Clips below with transcripts. Credit SiriusXM Business Radio and “Cars and
Culture with Jason Stein”

Jay Leno on Being Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame:

Host, Jason Stein: What does the Automotive Hall of Fame mean to you, Jay?

Jay Leno: Well, it’s kind of cool because when you’re in TV, it’s like the
network will say, ‘we’re going to nominate you for an Emmy, and then we’ll
be sort of pushing it on various websites, we’ll be contact.’ So it’s one of
those things it’s part of the business and people try to get it. You sort of
run for it almost, you know? I mean, some people do, some people don’t, but
to a certain extent, you’re kind of doing it all. This just came out of the
blue. It’s like, ‘oh, well, thank you.’ I mean, somebody thought maybe this
might be a good idea, probably because of “Jay Leno’s Garage” because we
feature so many different guys, not just Lamborghini’s and supercars and
things like that. It’s just all types of transportation from steam wagons to
s-turbine. So it’s more the history of transportation and the engineers and
the men and women behind it. So I think it probably has more to do with that
than anything else.

Host, Jason Stein: Well, yeah I mean, you certainly didn’t run for it. I
know you’re a student of automotive history hugely, but what was your
reaction? I mean, when the phone call came in?

Jay Leno: I was really honored by it. I thought ‘oh, well that’s pretty
cool’ because to me, just coming from New England there a certain, a guy who
runs is better than the guy who walks, a guy who walks is better than the
guy who drives, and the guy who works with his hands is better than the guy
who just sits and types in a computer all day. I mean, probably doesn’t get
paid as much, but there’s something more real about it. And to me as a kid,
I always admired the man and to a certain extent, women too, who could fix
things with their hands and work with their hands. I mean, I always believed
the hardest healthiest were when the head and the hands work together. If
that makes any sense at all. You know, I tell jokes at night, and then
during the day, I like to come to the garage and work on stuff because when
you work on things, it gives you a perspective of how hard it is to make
money. When you only get paid 80 bucks to take a transmission out, and your
hands are all cut and you’re covered with grease and smell like transmission
it’s like ‘Oh, that’s a hard 80 bucks to earn’ as opposed to just standing
on the stage and talking and people throw dollars at you, which is just
excellent too. Please don’t get me wrong, I love that, but it does make you
appreciate it. I always hear friends in show business, say ‘I got off at
this. I’m not going there for this kind of money.’ I go, ‘what are you doing
on a Tuesday that’s worth that kind of money?’ You need to look at things
from a normal perspective. And comedy is only funny when it comes from an
every man point of view. So when you work with your hands and you do
mechanical things, you just appreciate the every man point of view.

On his passion for the hobby of collecting cars:

Jay Leno: That’s the fun thing about this hobby. If you’re studying the
pyramids while everything is 5,000 years old, and the chances of you finding
any actual artifacts, a piece of history are pretty slim, unless you have
just ways and means beyond the average person. But automobile, the history
is really no more than maybe 150 years old and that’s probably stretching it
as well. I mean, it really starts from the early 1900s. So when you go to
King’s Bookstore in downtown Detroit, here’s a book for $5 written in 1906
on the history of the automobile. Oh, this is pretty cool so that’s what I
like about it. The history is not that old, and you can learn a lot about
it. Dr. Joyce Brothers, she got famous because she was on ‘The $64,000
Question.’ That was a quiz show that was popular back in the day, and you
had to have a topic. So she picked boxing, even though she knew nothing
about boxing, but she knew it was only from about Jack Johnson to now, and
you only had to memorize about a hundred names. And so she studied all those
and she won ‘The $64,000 Question.’ And that’s what’s kind of fun about it,
it all sort of takes place, at least for America in and around Detroit,
Indianapolis and you can actually walk down the same streets that Henry Ford
drove down and see a lot of the same factories, a lot of the same buildings
that have been converted. I mean, Connors Avenue just is gone now, I guess
where the Packard [Automotive Plant] Factory but Woodward Avenue is still
there and there’s still the old guys who are now my age can tell you about
racing with GTOs and Corvette. I find when you first get interested in cars,
you like the fast cars of today, and then you go, ‘well, what came before
this?’ So that was the muscle car of the sixties. ‘Well, what came before
that?’ Well, it was the big, powerful muscle cars of the fifties, the
Chrysler 300s with the 392 hemi and all that. ‘Well, what came before that?’
The Buick Straight-8 with the overhead valves. And before that you had steam
and electric. And so it’s fun to keep going back and see what came before
whatever it is you like.

On his extensive and diverse collection:

Jay Leno: It’s rather eclectic. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. It’s
anything that rolls and explodes and makes noise. I never really get one
make collections where guys just have 64 to 66 Mustang and that’s all they
have. I mean, to me, the fun part is seeing the difference between. All
automobiles now have the sameness to them. They got park, R, D, and neutral,
whereas the old days you had the push button transmission, you had just all
kinds of odd ball, semi clutch things, record players. I’ve got a Nash
Airflyte and you stop it by taking the shifter and pulling it towards
three-on-the-tree and pulling it towards you, and that’s how you start the
car. But anybody trying to steal this would have no idea how to start this
car so that sort of makes it fun.

Jay Leno on Breaking Records in his Tesla:

Host, Jason Stein: Yeah, you just set a record with that. I mean, you were
recorded setting a world record.

Jay Leno: That thing is unbelievable. I mean, we did one pair. I went to
Famoso dragstrip in Bakersfield..drove to the strip, lined up under the
lights, air conditioner on, four-door, nail at light change, green go, and
we did 9.247 and 152 miles an hour. I mean, it is the fastest accelerating
vehicle you can buy now.

Host, Jason Stein: World acceleration record for a quarter mile.

Jay Leno: Yeah, and Rimac, they’re building a car, but there’s is 1.8
million or something. And I’m not even sure if it’s certified yet, but for
now the Tesla Plaid. There’s no maintenance, it’s pretty bulletproof, you
got just about a 400 mile range. It’s a pretty amazing vehicle. I’m stunned
at how good it is.