by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
Jay Leno’s side project, Jay Leno’s Garage, webcast on the NBC website (nbc.com) is a notable example of the best use of the burgeoning phenomenon of webcasting, which has drawn the Internet and television closer together. One day soon, television and the Internet will be one in the same. That is: Television will incorporate Internet technology run from a household server. Today’s webcasting has made a quantum leap in quantity and quality, with all the alphabet networks and cable channels offering complete episodes of their series’ shows available the next day via streaming video webcast. Indeed, the love affair between the Internet and television is headed to the altar in a technology marriage. So your next computer monitor should be at least a 32 inch flat panel, incorporating a HDTV receiver with a household server running all your multifunction monitors.
Jay Leno’s webcast via streaming video of his JLG was born from Leno’s second occupation as a mechanic in his Big Dog Garage, a fully functioning custom car factory, holding Leno’s large collection of classic cars and rare one-of-a-kind collectibles. Leno states adamantly that his garage is not a museum. This gear-head wonderland is where Leno, along with his staff of technicians, restore and modify rare vehicles like his old fire truck he got from the City of Burbank. It was in terrible shape and Leno got it for nothing. He took it and restored it, putting in modern parts, and converting it into a motorcycle rescue truck with a lift-gate. It’s powered by a 12 cylinder 400 hp engine with beaucoup torque.
Leno boasts of one of the world’s most extensive car collections–everything from a jet-powered motorcycle to a collection of steam-powered vehicles and industrial steam engines. His 17,000 square feet garage has enough space for Leno’s collection and enough fully equipped bays to work on dozens of cars at one time. There is also a massive industrial machine shop for fabricating just about any part.
This working facility is a dream come true for Leno, who modifies all his vehicles for the street. Yes, he drives them all–a different car every day. In the Big Dog Garage compound, Leno has a gourmet kitchen where he shows off his culinary skills for his staff and visitors. When Leno is not performing his nightly talk show, he’s at his garage working on cars or trying out new recipes.
In total, Leno’s collection of cars spans 100 years of automotive history. The oldest cars in his collection are a 1900 electric car and a 1906 Stanley Steamer. The newest is his 2006 Corvette. He also owns rare antique cars such as a Monteverde, a Bugtatti Atlantic, and his pride and joy, his jet motorcycle powered by a modified helicopter turbine engine. In his webcast on this road rocket, Leno cranked it up and it sounded like a jet engine–loud. It has digital readouts like a glass cockpit in modern airplanes. He joked that when he rolls up to motorcycle rallies with this machine, he has to be careful to tell people to avoid the exhaust which will burn skin.
Of all the expensive cars in Leno’s collection perhaps his most treasured is his 1955 Buick. It was the first car he purchased and the car in which he drove to California. It’s an apartment on wheels. As a struggling comic in Los Angeles, Jay often slept in the car parked in alleyways near the club. Of course, he restored it by dropping a hot engine in it and a Corvette suspension. And he still drives it thinking about how far he’s come from sleeping in it.
On each of Leno’s short webcasts he introduces a vehicle, such as the one he calls his “Tank Car.” This baby is all engine, powered by M47 Patton tank engine with 800 hp and it weighs 5 tons. Leno calls it the Ultimate Hot Rod. It has an Allison transmission and no one has yet had it up to full speed. Leno and his engineer friend, Gale Banks, modified the Tank Car with fuel injection and a turbo-charger carefully hidden to keep its all stainless steel look. This thing turns heads when Leno is driving it to work in Burbank.
Another one of Leno’s oddities is his Three Wheeled Car, built by Bob Shotwell who lives in a small town in Minnesota. His dad said that if he wanted a car he’d have to build it himself. So he built it in the 1930s from scrounged parts. It’s powered by a 77.2 cu-in four cylinder 1931 Indian motorcycle engine. He called it the Philbert Puddle Jumper. He took it on a 6000 mile odyssey across the country, eventually putting on a total of 150,000 miles. He went on to become an airline pilot for American Airlines. Now 82, he called up Leno and asked him if he would like to have it. Of course, Leno said yes, but he modified the engine to make it street worthy and he drives it regularly. Leno calls it his Shotwell Car.
With more material available every day via webcasting–either live or on streaming video-- it bridges the present gap between one’s TV and computer. Jay Leno also writes for Popular Mechanics Magazine.
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