Leno and Duesenburgs

There's a series on the DIY channel called Celebrity Rides. There was a series of 6 - 30 min shows restoration of the last unrestored Duesenburg. They showed the whole thing this afternoon.
It was a Town car owned by Jay Leno. They went trough whole proccess of restoring the car, from tear down to Jay driving it on the Freeway. It was really good. Great detail about the restoration and all the fabricating they did for the car. The Dueseys were hot rods too. Huge Twin Cam, 4 valve 420ci straight 8. 265 hp on carb and 320 hp with a supercharger 130mph in 1929. Lots of history on the car.
Leno is such a dyed in the wool car guy too. Now he has 7 Dueseys along with all of his other toys. Lucky SOB.
I would recommend the show If you get a chance to see it.

 

Have not seen it yet but have heard about it. As you may know----my protoge Tim gets to be an intern with Jay's Duesy guru Randy Ema next summer.......he should learn alot for sure. Terrific opportunity.

 

It was a great show.

 

SeesKo, people can say ANYTHING they want about Jay. But one thing that CANNOT say is that he doesn't love and respect well-made cars!!! I am sure he has charities he gives to, BUT one thing I know he's done otherwise is to create a LIVING museum, whereby he can DRIVE the cars he restores and, THUS, remind all Americans of the rich history of American auto-building and the hard-working men and women who made every make great -- some for decades, some just for a few years! Salute to you, SeesKo AND to Jay Leno!!!

 

I was able to catch a few episodes this afternoon. Great Stuff and a very nice collection especiallly the Aerodynamic ride.

 

He should learn a lot. Randy was the guy. What an amazing business. Unbelieveable what he knows about Dueseys and his archive of drawings and parts. Mind blowing. Jay was very knowlageable too. What's funny is Jay wanted the car as a driver. It was 300 gs to get it where he wanted it. Randy said it would take another 200g to get it to Pebble beach quality. Jay said for an old car they drive as good as anything new. Jay's really cool.

 

That car was amazing.

 

Jay and myself are a lot alike, except he is a celebrity, has a lot of money, is a talk show host, has a lot of cars........maybe we aren't so much alike after all. I will have to watch the show, because I want to be just like him, except I don't want to be a celebrity, or a talk show host......hmmm.

 

was this the one he found in a garage near his shop?

 

I don't think it was the Model X four-door sedan for which he waited more than 20 years to buy out of that garage near his place. There was a show and a Popular Mechanics article about that car, and I recall that they fixed some engine problems and left the rest of the car alone.

 

I got ****ed into the series today and must have watched four episodes one after the other. I thought it was so cool how they had not only the original parts drawings, but the tooling too. And Jay Leno is the man... first thing he did when they delivered his car was said, "let's take it for a spin!"

 

Saw it just in time to set the DVR, haven't watched em yet about to put the wife and kids to bed so I can crack a beer and get started!

 

He found this car in a garage or warehouse in NY city. It was rumored to exist and he looked for it for a long time until he found it. It was a town car with a retractable roof for the driver. Not as sleek or flashy as most Duesenburgs. Very elegant though when it was finished. They said it was the last privatly owned unrestored Duesy in exsistance.
Also interesting was that of the approx 600 Duesenburgs built, 70% still existed. Just the Ch***is alone was 8500.00 in 1929. the rest of the cars were custom built to suit.

 

Jay is without a dought a "REAL" car guy, lots of repect for what he does.

 

That must be the car that is the subject of a law suit the original owners family has filed. Something about the person that sold it to Jay did not have the full authority to sell it or something like that?

Scott...

 

I remember seeing that show about the X model, they said it takes 40 hrs to adjust the valves on that motor. A full work week to adjust valves!

 

That's the one.

 

Sounds like a good show, hope I can find it.

 

In reality the Leno car its not the only unrestored Duesenburg... there are others around, I`ve seen a couple that have sat in one spot for decades.. they are`nt for sale, and the owners are "going to fix`em up someday" .

 

Have had "the tour" of his garage. Amazing place. Every completed car in the place must start and run - on command. They never know when he shows-up what he's gonna choose to drive that day. Leno will benchrace at the drop of a hat. There's a store in Burbank named "Auto Books". Form time-to-time Leno will just show up, buy something, and benchrace with anyone. Very, VERY neat guy!