Assess & Caress with Donald Osborne & Jay Leno: When should what's gone stay gone?

[Music] good morning good morning thanks for coming once again the attendance at this particular event never disappoints my name is Ron Fiamma I'm with AIG a private client group based out of New York and along with our partners from Bridgepoint Risk Management we're thrilled to for the fourth year in a row we sponsoring the Pebble Beach Classic our forum it's been a great event for us not only to meet a lot of new friends meet a lot of our existing friends and clients but I think most importantly we get to do things that helped foster our favorite hobby and passion which is collector automobiles I mean the insurance business we insure are the lives of successful individuals we do everything they have my responsibility is ensuring the fun stuff they collect their fine art their wine their baseball card collections and of course my favorite their collector automobiles and what we get out of this this forum is the opportunity to really educate which is important I was chatting with Donald Osborne this morning in the greenroom about you know the need for more education the need to bring more young people into the Hobby and I think that through these seminars we give an opportunity to talk about different topics and whatever is necessary to help keep the Hobby going and so that's probably the most rewarding thing about being the sponsor here is bringing education about our hobby to the public so we appreciate everyone coming I think our next guests need no introduction and I think it's gonna be a very very entertaining educational panel so with that please welcome our guest Donna laws born and Jay Leno thank you up boys it's time to assess and caress with the blood you love classic cars then [Music] stop playing Shaboom by the crew cuts and Danny in the juniors I know what you're talking about at the hop really [Laughter] music it's that crazy music for young people that you the kids enjoy a romantic love a nice love song well once again thank you Ron very much for your introduction and it's great to be back here at Pebble Beach here by the sea with my friend Jay Leno and today's topic that we're going to chat about is an interesting one I think replica recreation or revival when should what's gone stay gone and it's sort of interesting thing to talk about here at Pebble Beach where obviously we celebrate the original the preserved the carefully curated and cared for but there are times when those things are gone or you can't have access to them and I know that Jay is somebody who enjoys all types of enjoyment with cars including more time in the shop than on the road or as much the time on the in the shop as on the road and so he's had some very interesting experiences with bringing back things that have been gone and so you can talk about how that relates to the car collecting hobby in general and we're gonna start with why didn't they build so this is a car so I think it's very interesting do you know about this car Jay the package is at 53 it's a 53 Packard Caribbean but it's a Pininfarina design which they never actually built and the collector bought the plans for the car at the rest mobile flea market and had a shop actually build the car for him okay and you're quite this is this is something on which mr. Jay no I don't know opinion but I'm I'm by Carl I like all kinds of I can go either way and go either way so actually it seems somewhat subdued for a pin of Pina Farina carb because the front end is totally Packard only the rear quarter and the spats seemed to be Pininfarina and even the roof is higher than I would have thought it was was that's meant to be a production car it was meant to be a custom body limited production car they made a design for a coupe and also a roadster as well did they ever display it at auto shows and things or they never built it well they never never built this fellow hired a a body company to build the car Oh Clem the from the original plans that he bought in the flea market well I think that's great the thing I love about it is it's obviously a passion project it's nothing that you're gonna make any money on and that's why you do it you do it for love you do it for to preserve the hobby to show what could have been no I think it's wonderful and I think it's probably a valuable car it's built on a standard 53 Packard chassis I imagine what it 327 yeah flathead great motor no it's a it's funny it looks like a reduction car doesn't look like some sort of wild concept I'm surprised and actually somewhat restrained for Peppino Farina at that time and it well Pininfarina was doing a lot of very clean styling above some of the other Italian body bowls were doing very American sort of transatlantic no luck for my book steal a transatlantic a transatlantic style a romance of fins and chrome but it you can see some of those more flamboyant designs in that and speaking of flamboyant designs which aren't flamboyant designs well I went back I hate that there we go I was a car you may know well that's my car that's the car we that's a car we recreated it's a real Duesenberg and a real Duesenberg chassis all Duesenberg parts but it was called the grand coupe it was Gordon Buehring he built two of these the idea was is built on the long wheelbase chassis because even though the normal 142 inch is pretty big they were not real good everyone and you get in your bit like this so this was the long-wheelbase so someone who's six feet tall could actually get in this car drive it comfortably it's a wonderful car to drive and Marcel the body builder made us the body he did it at age 88 he made this body it took ten years to do just because he's a v8 takes ten years when you're 88 so you had the plans for this car we had we had all the original plans the only nail existed were three factory photographs that was it we just had the plans and we created the car and to me it's a real gusenberg most bodies were built outside of Duesenberg anyway you'd send it off to Mary Mack or anybody else Murphy the most common and they would make the body so for me it's a real Duesenberg I would never say it was if this chassis did not hold this body but the same Duesenberg 153 and a half inch wheelbase did hold that body so it's a real Duesenberg but I would tell people the story on I wouldn't pretend it left the factory in these colors or in there or would that Bobby on it this is one of my favorite concept cars of all time 2006 Cadillac 16 and it never went to production now would you if you had a free afternoon two or three want to build another one it's interesting this is Bob Lutz again and it's it's a great it harken back to the great error of the v16 Cadillacs and I saw that the show was blown away but by then that was 2006 was the beginning of the green movement in earnest and automobiles we even built a car called the echo jet we had a jet engine that ran on biofuel we took up the auto shows and we used you know non animal skins and all artificial things for the into all that kind of stuff I thought it's a great idea it was just the wrong time to come out with a 16 cylinder engine when the Prius and all this was were sort of making that debuts yeah I think it's great if they had built them that it would be a hugely valuable today because that very easily could be some Bugatti variant at this point you know with a 16 cylinder engine I thought it's great it looked great nice style still look like a Cadillac but unique yeah I think they should have built it well not they wouldn't have made any money no but today as a collector yeah that would be an interesting project to to build another one yeah the trouble is all brands have a price point it's like the NSX had to be called an accurate because they thought calling it a Honda nobody pays 150 grand for a Honda so let's call it something else and that's what happens like when Cadillac came out with their what's at the XLR XL which is supposed to compete against the Mercedes you know people just fine Mercedes you know I mean that's kind of where people went so Cadillacs kind of peak out at 100 maybe 110 max this would have to be 160 170 and then people go oh I could get a Maybach or something else you know so probably smart not to make it but it would have been fun if they did I think it'll been amazing and this is a car that we had on one of our segments on the show mm-hmm it's an amazing car the Ford Mustang prototype show car that actually did run running a driving car but they obviously I saw when was called the Allegro I was 12 years old and they used a Ford Thomas engine which was a German Ford engine but it was the precursor to the Mustang it even has the Mustang badge on the front of it is this something you can see building another one in your shop no because why didn't your shop would be fun but the idea was it was a two-seater Mustang and the two-seater thunderbird they learned their lesson with that once they went to foresee seistola gazillion of them you know they doubled production so a two-seater Mustang probably would not have sold the whole idea behind Mustang was it was a family car that was sporty the great thing is the horse on the front you know the story this is one of these stories that has been around and I've been tracking it down the horse on the front there was a guy with a really long European name I can't remember the name once he's he's a stylist in this and he was an equestrian and he was in the 1938 Olympics and then World War two started he got drafted okay and he was in and since he was a question he was in the Calvary and when his commanding officer got killed he was made commander and he led the last charge of men on horseback with pistols and bayonets against tanks got wiped out he survived came to America was the designer and that Horace isn't homage to the horse he rode in that last and it all sounds very romantic and so you realized he was fighting for the Nazis then you go ah ah well I like the story so much now but yeah he he was on the other side he was attacking our troops on a horse yeah boom tanks well thank you very much and everybody gone but ever you see people start to tear up then they go yeah but he was a Nazi oh okay well okay forget about that I'm glad I'm glad he got why you didn't get wiped out but yeah but it's just it's one of those stories and nobody ever talks about it but what else lost story perhaps good reason but this is a happier story this is one of my favorite cars in your collection yeah and this is a well why don't you describe with this I wish you told me all this before we come in here hold on a second one of the reasons why everybody in this room really enjoys our segments is because Jay knows what cars were going to see but doesn't have any idea about what we're going to say about them so spontaneity is actually jay-z this little tower was built by guy named Barnes in 1951 I believe it was and he was a guy that had absolutely no money but one of those guys oh y'all that greatest generation that was just natural-born mechanics and he went to aircraft junkyards he's got this was for Al Unser senior to drive at Pikes Peak in 51 he built it Cadillac engine made the chassis made the radiator hand formed everything LaSalle three-speed rear-end it's just a fascinating and with with this disc brakes and 51 he got off a plane inboard this boards disc brakes yeah he drilled for lightness everywhere no for lightness everywhere Cadillac engine and it had a he took a body from an austin-healey and made a fiberglass mold that was quickly lost or just anyway his son had this in the garage and he was moving to Chile in South America and he says we will you keep it and I said sure I'll keep it in preservative and there it is right there so it's really a fascinating just a fascinating piece of history when you look at it the detail work on it and you realize like movies that are done with no money it's all imagination you know he everything like you said everything is drilled for lightness it's got disc brakes the transmission is back here it you know the the generator runs off the drive shaft all kinds of interesting little things on it so it's it's a fascinating piece of history would you ever want to finish it or you think anyone ever should finish it well it's one of those things where the fun part is in the details of the chassis you put a body on it you go you know underneath this and people don't want to make sure I don't want to see yeah you know I've got an Owens magnetic which is a very early hybrid car in 1916 and it's a gas engine and it's called magnetic because there's no mechanical connection between the engine in the drivetrain the engine starts a flywheel spins which is a magnet creates a magnetic field which spins the electric motor electric motor powers the car the idea of being there was no clutch there's no shifting so people had a bad leg or couldn't drive the standard shift car you just moved to rheostat like on a like a lion el train when you were a kid you know so it was an electric car and since batteries Lionel trained by the way and he's complaining about the music make a note I know crazy I was doing that for the older people like this and and it was just fascinating to look at because as I said there was no mechanical connection the engine would spin and that was so they called the car of a thousand speeds because you could vary it and it was like you know when opposing magnets you put them together the Kirk they kind of do this that's what it does is you go as you sort of quote go through the gear and once I put a body on it I've just had to explain what people couldn't see you know it's got a really neat badge you know what the lightning bolts on it but it was really cool so to answer your question I'm not gonna put a body on it I like it just the way it is and the next car is is one which will be quite interesting to you I think because you're a connoisseur of great design and practicality and this is one of those examples of a concept car that when it made it to production a little was lost so perhaps you might want to think about a project to recreate the concept car the Pontiac Aztek that's the concept it's not a bad looking concept car but what they built was sort of actually it's a bad looking concept that was cherry yes Windsor Wayne cherry designed that and I saw him here a couple years ago I took him for robbed my Auburn I didn't bring up the ass yeah I don't know what they were thinking on that one it you know it looks almost Citroen esc' yes it looks French because the French love these kind of weird things and yeah it's just it's just sort of yeah it didn't it's like the Queen family truckster it's one of those why would why would you build that yeah and it was obviously not a success no well they have their adherence but the next section is sort of they didn't deserve the crusher cars that they made but didn't continue with or they did in small series and related destroyed because they didn't want to put them out in the public and of course my absolute favorite example of that the Chrysler Turbine car right oh I love my presence over that still feels like the future you turn that key wound and you pull away and the concept behind it was fascinating there's no warmup you drive away immediately it's it runs on any fuel that burns with oxygen when they took it to Mexico they ran it on tequila they did when they took it to France they filled the tank with Chanel number five any fuel but in 1963 gas was 19 to 26 cents a gallon so why would you want alternative fuels and it couldn't run on leaded fuel that's the only fuel that wouldn't run on so consequently people had to go find a kerosene pump or a diesel pump and those are back in the old days diesel pump was always at the back of the station where the trucks work in a greasy and dirty the biggest hindrance to this car was the fact that it's a jet and jets are inherently very dirty they can't you can't clean up a jet I mean I mean emissions wise it just everything just comes out there just burns it and goes out the back that that was they knew they wouldn't be able to meet the 1968 emissions as to which they knew were coming in 63 or 64 they built 55 of these and it was an interesting experiment they ran a contest they said who wants to drive a jet car and they if you wrote a letter to Chrysler like you know 800 words why you want to drive a jet car and 209 Americans were chosen and each got the car for three months and they would keep a diary of when they put fuel in and what happened with it and people loved it to this day I get people come to my garage guys in their 60s and 70s now that were 12 when their dad got the car you know and that kind of stuff will they remember it going by or I mean it's really a fascinating concept it's just it's it's turbine smooth that's really quiet there's no heat out the back it actually runs cooler than a piston engine it's about 20 degrees cooler people think they used to set the grass on fire and all kind of no that's that's not true because they had regenerated they regenerate the heat would go through and through and through until it was cool the back the trouble was gia did the bodies in Italy and they were brought here on a temporary visa so they didn't have to pay tax and then after the experiment was over in Christ I realized there was no future in the turban they had to crush them because they were afraid people would you know put a Hemi engine in it or a 318 or whatever because the body style was so attractive well you don't think that today with the technological laws we have today it wouldn't be worth building another one because again with the alternative fuel issue well the instinct thing was they crushed them because they couldn't give them away they offered them to museums they offer them to trade schools everybody said no because it was a new car nobody was interested which seems unbelievable now so all but a half a dozen were crushed and mine is probably the only one that gets driven on a regular basis on the street because nothing breaks if something does it's catastrophic but nothing does it's only got a couple of moving parts and the Petersons has one but the ones the museum's it did take them and only three did I think the engines had to be made inoperable they had to pull out all the internals so they can never be used again because cause of liability and all that kind of stuff with Chrysler but it's a fascinating glimpse of the future I mean it still feels like like the few 20 you turn the key and suddenly you're in 1975 yeah it pulls away smoothly and it was never meant to be a race car or a sports car it was a quote personal luxury car and and and so it's I think it's probably one of the most valuable post-war cars just because of its uniqueness it's an amazing vehicle again my favorites and this is a vehicle which also no longer existed and this is also in your garage okay this is obviously makes me president of more money than brains clapping the original of these anybody of a certain age probably guys a little older than me my age in the 50s all the Grand Prix races were in Europe Portugal Spain England Germany France all around that area and the Germans did not like to fix their cars at the track where everybody could see what was going on so they developed this with a Gullwing engine and it was the world's fastest car transporter it ran the Autobahn 108 miles an hour and when there was a race they put the car on the back they races the Germany work on it all night and have it back before the next race the next morning and it became hugely popular with kids and somebody at the factory in 1967 said this thing is taking up space but it would we don't use anymore just crush it so they crushed it and the outcry from like German kids and toy manufacturer you doing that's very much so they built another one and it cost some two million dollars to build theirs this one costs about four and a half to build it's a 180 Mercedes cut in front of me I mean it's it's a full working you know transporter but it doesn't have a going end you just has a Mercedes truck engineering but it's a lot of fun and when you go to Mercedes events it's fun they're like eight people that know what it is one guy makes it all worthwhile but we put air conditioning in and we use it as a transport it's my transporter it looks awful low to the ground but we have an air suspension that brings it up so it you know it's kind of cool and your question is what should it be crash to what is you know it's the fact that replicas were made of this and that's obviously a good thing in your mind yeah and to complete the to complete your rent transport replica how about building another one of these w19 for because the mercedes museum is not selling there's any time soon yeah I mean that would be great but what do you can't I mean the thing that makes it unique is it's the only one you know and when you start making it you know when I was a kid I used to love the Auburn boattail speedster and then they started making those Glen play replicas and they're a bit like they're just off you know you ever see those st. Bernard's where they have both pupil in the same eye in a dog you know you walk on the grass I walk right away there's something wrong with this st. Bernard it it looks like it's a little screwed up here and and that's what I always thought about those gallant but to me it ruined the look of the real car it's when do you see a bad fiberglass Cobra replica and it's just a little like the Saint Bernard just a little off you know what I mean so uh so my fear is that nobody would get it correct my fear is that nobody would build it properly and there's some stuff that should just remain a dream car you know that's why I like about it a great segue to our next car I know that there's a few of these around that the Mercedes keeps around then you have had one of these as a guest in your garage and many yeah I drove one it's fabulous car it's a fabulous car rigidly meant to have a rotary engine it was their next variation off the Gullwing I drove one in Germany and in here and yeah really a fantastic car how about a project like the Rennes transporter to build another one of these well for yourself I mean you know it's a thing is you want to do it right and it would cost you like what would it cost you 2 million bucks to build that something like that probably usually yeah I just I got another job you know the next is an example of a car that disappeared and was brought back ok this is a racing car as a 1955 launched a d50 Grand Prix car after launch I handed over their racing Department of Ferrari before I use them the next season won the World Championship and then destroyed all of them except for two that had been kept back one is in the FCA Heritage Museum and other was in the Museum of the automobile in Turin my favorite thing about this car those are gas tanks on each side and the drivers are smoking that's my favorite that's my favorite thing a nun would survive if they had survived because I mean you ever see this guy that got their cigarette and they loved the helmet and you've got 200 guests absolutely on each side so no matter which side to get him on you gotta get sprayed but there were four original engines left and transaxles and so they made four replicas of those cars with the original engines and transaxles and with the gas tanks inside now of course their fuel cells right so the riders rather safer than they were in 1955 so do you think this is a good idea what they've done well I think it's a great idea but whose day is it the factory no it's not the factory okay across weaith and Gardner who built e they were built by IRA actually they built in Italy by the fellow that worked was launched about he was the original fact lots of factory mechanic I mean to me if it drives handles and looks like the real thing that's I mean yeah I think it's great you know it's like going to strip clubs you gotta fake boobs that works for me there's another example for me well we'll we'll skip this one for a reason because I don't want to go there because it involves racing around Sicily but the Chrysler Norseman went down Andrea door and the aunty Doreen yeah yeah that was a 1956 56 yeah Andrew Doren what dad's still down there by the way if you want to go get it wouldn't be easier to build a new one yeah it'd be a hopefully a very big air pocket near the kitchen if you're in it yes it no wait no well I mean it's a great show car but look at how unpractical is that thing I mean I can't believe it roof don't you there's one to make that work that looks like the Marlin doesn't it looks like that Marlin that American Motors deal and the back with no bumpers and though I mean it's a great show car but it's it's nothing you could really it's probably more famous because it went down than anything else you know so I guess you wouldn't be interested in doing a club de mer no I remember these I remember these give us a story on this one again this is a a one of the Motorama GM Motorama show cars from the 1950s 96 plenty of club demerit it debuted the big pontiac new v8 engine and the amazing thing is how low incredibly low it was 39 inches I'm gonna say this one of us have the longest ankles in history look where she is proportionately here it doesn't make me make any sense she has to always behind be behind that car to look normal I think she's actually probably standing on a platform yeah that would be my guess but just saying but she's still saying they're actually winning it but it's not an attractive car you think it's an attractive car absolutely not no a horrible looking thing the front end it knows awful and the hubcaps don't match either that looks weird a James Bond movie but now this is another thing when old is new again the whole theme of this is supposed to have been about reproducing cars that are gone or all right things like your Duesenberg but what about what happens when the manufacturers get involved this is a car which you're very familiar with Steve McQueen and the universe a lot in his Jaguar XK is which he bought and loved and sold and bought back and is now in the collection of the Petersen museum and of course Jaguar built new XK SSE's right based on the chassis of the nine that were lost in the fire what do you think about that what interesting was they couldn't give this car away when it came out the idea was they had all these chassis left over so he said let's build a street version D type chassis each had chassis they build a bunch of these could not like to 427 Cobra it seems incomprehensible now we're back in the day it was too much money it was Impractical you couldn't lock it there's no doors you you there's no key you couldn't you know it so it just it was too expensive they just couldn't give them away if I used to see this car guy named Fleshman Fleischman I think in California I when I'd go riding my motorcycle he would often pass me he just drove around Malibu with this thing and at the time is $200,000 you're out of your mind good luck pal you know and now it's like with 17 million dollar crime something like that plus the fact that Steve McQueen owned and it is the greatest car to drive I often I have driven replicas of it and I think oh these are ok but it feel like a Jag this doesn't the engine is canted lead over a little bit different engine it's dry some but it's more horsepower it's just I thought was one of the greatest cars I ever drove and it was still at the point where an idiot was talk-show host could borrow it and drive it they wouldn't do that anymore but but when I had was fantastic I loved I know it was the greatest car I ever drove so the fact that the fact you rebuilt it to the same specifications they didn't use the standard Jaguar motor and just stick it in there and say it looks like it and sounds like it it actually is I mean it's built by in the factory with and I think Norman do it I'm gonna do a family heaven we just passed away he was involved overseeing it cuz he tested the original one he just died at age 99 and what 362 days something like that so for all intents and purposes it's a real one still for the factory and it's cheaper than the original so and then there's the the other replicas like the temporal replicas built in New Zealand okay now look at that opening the grill okay there's your st. Bernard again just a little bit often you know it looks like a face I mean it doesn't it's not even close to there's something about that I know it looks similar to the same go back to the other one turn back to the grill it doesn't it just looks off it just looks off so I would go with the factory over Aston Martin db4 GT mm-hmm amazing successful race car those gato model one of these are about 14 million dollars today so the Aston Martin factory decided well we've got some extra chassis numbers sitting around so we're gonna make some new ones just like they made the old ones right but these are not street legal because they don't they're new cars that don't meet any of these specifications right one thing about that well I don't know what you do with it I guess it's a piece of art you put it in your Museum you can't drive what anyway I suppose you could drive it in Saudi Arabia or someplace that doesn't have the same restrictions that we have it's built by again by the original people same technology same motor as original yeah so it's it's real one you just can't do anything with it you know you just can't can't drive it you know that's sort of the sad part I mean that's sort of the golden era is there any and it's not a slide on Aston Martin but is there any new aston martin that looks better than this no you know i mean this you know this is the last days of esthetics conquered aesthetics conquered aerodynamics conquered everything because it had to have now this night I'm sure that's about as aerodynamic as a brick but it looks it looks proper to the eye doesn't it exactly it's just a beautiful it you know the best-looking cars are both masculine to feminine is form they have feminine curves but they have a like that like the haunches over the real wheels those look like like an animal about to leap and yet it's smooth it's the kind of car you enjoy washing with a hose but you run your hands over the whole thing okay exactly I'm a creepy old guy yes we have all those videos of Jake arresting his cars yes indeed and our final example is is something that is very interesting I think to me when this came up and a phoenix rises from the ashes this is a Mercedes that's right out front it's right a font many of you when you came in you may have seen it parked outside and it's an absolutely beautiful spectacular example of one of the best free or Mercedes ever this car was born as this model a Cabriolet B which is a very nice for passenger touring car and all that was left of it after world war two was a twisted chassis and a an engine with a hole in the side of the block some instruments and a few other assorted pieces and the owner decided to embark on a project that saw him do what as you mentioned before with the Duesenberg you go to mercedes-benz you order a car this is what they sold you a chassis and an engine right and then you could choose from their factory bodies or from whatever body bill do you want to take it to and so he chose to employ great experts who have done great Pebble Beach quality restorations to create this special roadster body for the car as if he were a customer designing to do this in 1938 for the next 86 rather where are your thoughts well it's a rebodied car so maybe it's ten percent less than the real one that I mean it's nice that while I have the only real I mean I think he's done a beautiful job this is obviously a labor of love that's got to be well over a million bucks a million I'm guessing a million won a million two to restore and it took him what seven eight years and it's a real engine real chassis I mean go with what what the the law says you know it's a real chassis real engine and it's a real car you know it's like remember the last scene in America on 34th Street ladies and gentlemen no no great Authority the United States Post Office says this man is Santa Claus they had to declare him Santa Claus and to me it's Santa Claus it's the real car I mean okay it doesn't how it's much better-looking the original MA but I mean if you bought a 65 Mustang and it was a coupe and you put a fastback Bonnie on it it's still a mess yes it's it just didn't leave with that bad you know a lot of this stuff to me is rich guys throwing silver dollars in the ocean to see who gets more he's got more money you know like Corvettes you should just be Corvettes well now it has to be a matching-number Corvette oh but this engine came for months after the production line it's the same engine most of them are e stamped anyway you can't tell a difference a that no but you are me I mean to me the owner loves his car he enjoys driving it it's it's it's a recreation recreates its the real car with a different body on I mean suppose you didn't have this Bobby if you just had the chassis in the four wheels like that previous picture oh my god Peter that's two million dollars well you put a body on it and what it's it's less now you know what I mean I mean you're not gonna find another one III would contend any Mercedes expert would go through this and tell you yes this is 100% authentic he's done it as as good as you possibly can I mean to me the thing that's ruined this type of thing is all the bad replicas we've seen over the years you know the bad you know the st. Bernard cars you know I mean if a special roadster on a Volkswagen chassis they're my favorite my favorite there was an ad it runs it ran and all the car magazines you could buy a XK what's the Mercedes 1929 Oh SSK SSK Mercedes and I had a Volkswagen engine in it and in the ad dad's got it laid on the garage floor Timmy's handing him the wrench mom's got a pain and little Suzy's got something else oh and the whole family is building this Mercedes okay that's what made you go hey wait a minute you know made it all very suspicious because in the old days people would do this and just begin oh my god that's what a genius what an artisan I mean to make that it's believable you have no idea how many hours in the frustration but and then you look at some bad replicas you know like a clone a or a Zimmer or something you know any Clooney and Zimmer owners here in the audience no see they wouldn't show their face here nobody's show I mean every you buy this car because you love the car you have the passion for it recreates an era have another banner yeah but okay and with the claim the zimmerit those cars are just to show off you want to pull up in front of a golf club in Florida or something you know no to me I to me this is a real car I I would I would love to own that car I would pay real money for that car and maybe if I just trying to negotiate a deal I might say it's a little bit less than ER but I'm guessing it's probably better than rim when a you have new wiring new everything but all done to original specs so I think it's a I mean I thank God there are people in the Hobby that have the resources to save these and to bring them back and help recreate it for another generation because to see a picture of it or read about in the book is one thing when you see it parked outside to go wow wow that I mean it's genuinely striking I mean it really makes an impression on it especially on kids or people who have never seen cars from this era it looks like oh my god what is that you know and it's done proper all the proportions are right on it so I I applaud them and I think it's great and I would love to see more of this kind of thing it's something that here at the at the Pebble Beach Country d'Elegance on a few occasions they have done for years they've actually done a new coach work class right so that cars like that anymore they haven't done for many years and it'd be terrific everyone applaud if you'd like to see another one I think amazing artists out there artisans creating port for cars that are original chassis that have lost their original bodies and right and can no longer enjoy any of those cars and so I think that indeed I agree with you that the owner should be applauded and the answer in whether obviously thinks should be brought back recreated is something you should decide for yourself it's something that I think Jay has certainly done in in his own shop and with his people had made some remarkable restorations and recreations of cars some of the other cars we didn't get a chance to talk about are some of the aero engine cars which were very very fashionable in Britain in the 1940s and 50s and you've got that spirit running through you somehow it is absolutely amazing thing so always remember obviously if you love classic cars then I love you and I think Jay does as well questions absolutely question time yes although we're gonna get we're gonna get microphones yeah hi Jay I in about 1964 in a different lifetime I actually worked at Ford Motor Company with Charles Kirsch - he was a sculptor modeler he was of course not a designer but mostly true Charles was a legend in in his own line we called him the count I and of course I always said he was Swiss an important a our Vice President actually owned to clean a ghost you know couple of our designers did work on the Zimmer's - at the time but that's again another story and the lifetime Allegro was a separate car there actually wasn't only made a couple of the little mustangs and another little fascinating sideline one of the designers my friend he did the little horse on the front the design of the horse Charles just sculpted it in the clay okay well that's good to know because I've never thought anybody did it when you do if you see the horse is actually coming in a 3/4 front clip to squashed up so when we actually did the car the Mustangs for the production curves we turn to complete sideways and that went on and on now I also heard a rumor that Lee Iacocca had the horse turned around and says had the horse facing west hasn't go west young man was a tree usually tried to make the horse going towards the front of the vehicle or something like that to the you know left to right Charles what other points on that is it's also 105 years old by the way we'll also comment on the fact that the horse's legs are configured in such a way that if that was a real horse the horse would be on its face yes in the next frame but it looks much better with the legs all tucked up underneath that was great because I've never been able to you know find anybody knew anything about this and I would tell this story and go I'm not sure but this is what I heard sir but there was the authority right there so there's on this side yeah you've had automotive interest for a long time when you think today what your interests are in collecting is that on one offs are you more focused on an area area or are you very eclectic in your thinking boy act like a guy I buy this story to me if there's a story to the car it's hilarious that we tell the story about my 67 Chrysler no no no please do I one day I got a call Toronto my name is uh pumpkin FF his first name was I'm 92 years old I can't drive anymore I want you to buy my car I said what do you got you got a 67 imperial crown coupe two-door with dual air conditioners front let me go well that's kind of big tanks not my god you come look at it I said where do you live Sunset Boulevard Beverly Hills okay okay right there now now I'm William Holden you know he's like he's like two miles from me so I go to this guy's house and it's the long driveway and I pull up and he's there he's 93 he's got an ascot in a smoking jacket and he's got a guy with him it looks like me about 70 with hair he goes Jay is my mechanic he from Chrysler he comes once a month to service my car and check it over he wants to retire that's why I gotta get rid of the car I said okay and then he tells me his story and his story is he was a producer and he produced african-american films for african-american audiences but real films he had the black James Bond the black singing cowboy who was the G note he just died of famous like 100 Jude you know who I'm talking about he was a he was a famous african-american cowboy actor and he had all pictures them you know all these kind of thing he had them all in his house we go in his house his house has not been touched since 1948 1950 maybe as you walk around his house his picture this beautiful woman you know when these kind of pictures I go older say pretty you say well that's my wife I said oh she's very beautiful she said well oh yeah she's here we go to the door he knock coach jet honey Gerren Liles hair she goes I'm kind of busy right now I don't want to come out and he says to me she doesn't look like that anymore you know so I said oh you know so I said well oh well that's okay I said well nice talking to I'll see you some other time yeah yeah nice meeting you thank you very much can they go he goes let's go outside and I'll show you the car right so we go outside and he opens the door and for all intensive purposes it's a brand-new 1967 Chrysler Imperial I think goes him you buy the car you gotta take all this crap and he opens the other garage door he bought extra bumpers extra wiper motors he bought everything he had in case the car was ever damaged he had just tons of spare parts well now I have to buy them I mean I have to buy the car now and so and I had 144 thousand miles on it but it looked brand-new and I still have it it's a dual air-conditioner you turn it on and the air goes back and forth I mean within seconds you're just freezing in this thing it's just the most hilarious car and just ABS complete absence of road field just no room no work for any kind of this thing so and then I bought it and I bought it from him you know sensor I mean that's the case of the story was great I mean he's got a smoking jacket he's a producer here he's got a movie star wife who doesn't look like that anymore I have to buy their car you can serve the car but not the wife yes in the back corner yes yes sir oh sorry have one year get that seat okay yes do either of you have any recollection of the Ford Brooklyn and why that seemed to never never go anywhere Oh Malcolm the interesting character Malcolm Bricklin what I first moved to LA the guy next door for me had a Bricklin it was it was supposed to be a safety car remember really interesting character twist he's also the person who introduced Subaru to the US right right over all those little Subaru 360s and right all that stuff he had lots of automotive ideas the trouble was he got his engines from one place and somebody else made the body if somebody else did this and it was mostly a quality control problem you hold the gold wing doors down and the seals didn't seal you know the average car has what 10,000 parts in it and when you're a guy like him you're buying all your parts from somebody else so your quality control is really this you just hope it doesn't and they there was a lot of warranty work and then he was using an American Motors engine and the they shut him off and then he started buying 351 Ford's I mean it was that's why I always give Tesla so much credit he actually builds a car I mean he gets it out the door and the quality control is good and he's it's he sells a hundred thousand year people so think Tesla sells like twenty five hundred cars a year of him they don't they sell one hundred thousand cars a year and the fact that he can get it that far is amazing because guys like Malcolm Brooklyn Brooklyn like Tucker he wasn't an engineer he was a guy with a dream and he had a few bucks when the Brooklyn was a Salesman yeah doesn't a marker yeah he sells everyone learned about it wasn't an engineer and that's why it didn't make it but they're interesting cars and they're very collectible I think now because it's really an interesting it was the first sort of safety car came in safety colors like orange and lime Metallica and I had the big bumpers that you know that accordion being and all that kind of stuff but no they were interesting interesting cars question yeah yes young man oh is that mark from the rifleman yes it's mark from the rifleman exactly Oh yesterday the first plug-in hybrid Ferrari was released what are your thoughts about electric supercars oh I think I like this supercars are great I drove the new Tesla Roadster the prototype it does a quarter-mile and eight eight zero to sixty one point eight 630 miles on a charge and allegedly the engines guarantor the motors guaranteed for a million miles there's no fluid there's no maintenance it's pretty much the future I mean I have a Tesla and I've had it three years I've never done any anything to it but you wash it but J for a sports car what is the toll it takes on your voice if you don't vocalize and wearing cuz you've got to make groomed room sounds why well that's true that is that that's true but but no I think that is a few dry how old do you know how well he's getting older at all okay he's although but I would predict a kid born today I've said this before probably will will drive an electric car well driving a gas car as often as a kid today drives into stick shift car they'll still be around but I think it'll be mostly on anything I see where it's going we look at Audi look at Porsche I mean they're all going electric to me the Chevy Volt brilliant car I had one I put seventy thousand miles on I didn't do anything to it you change the oil because most of it was electric we just run around town you know we've got 40 miles for you they were use it at the shop to run errands and Bernard would take it home to work those 26 miles who he never really put gas in it there was a joke every December third we put gas it have a little gasoline that was it yeah and I never changed the oil and I think the gas engine only had like 4,200 miles on it out of the 70,000 and it was brilliant and you realize you know from technology succeed it can't be equal it's got to be better and your point now where Tesla has a three hundred and what forty mile range it's the fastest accelerating four-door sedan you can get and there's no maintenance so but the driving experience itself well the driving experience changes doesn't it changes from electric to steam if same from steam to internal combustion and when I talk to people about a Tesla experience ago that's so quiet I love this thing is no shifting I don't feel the anger it's a different I mean the absence of noise is almost as uniquely interesting as an abundance of noise it's in the middle where it gets boring you know they're like yeah I can kind of hear a camera engine I don't care really you know no I don't that's not a slightest isn't it but the idea of just going through you know the idea of stepping on the gas in going zero to sixty and two second step on the gas well you don't step on the pedal but I mean the fact that the fact that the cop didn't even notice you because you made no noise just like but you know he's on his cell phone in later so no I mean it just becomes a different experience you know it's like rap music and rock and roll they're both music one drives you nuts one you love okay what you ever wanted what you ever want it is yes thanks for coming out um just question J what was your first car ever in was 94 Ford pickup truck I got it it's what new yeah that's right fun yeah I paid 300 dollars my dad and I dragged at home and I was 14 I had two years to get it ready for when I got my license when I was 16 and I used to have nightmares what if I can't drive a stick when you're a kid you worry about stupid stuff you know and I used to think what if I can't drive it what if I just just not a kind can work at collector work I used to worry about all these things but that was my first time and I really enjoyed it you know yes how many cars do I own now you sound like my wife you remember this one honey maybe blue maybe this is not Mavis is not here so you can answer the question yes but see but one wife one hundred one hundred and eighty seven cars so they see most guys in Hollywood have one car and 187 girlfriend this is actually healthier and cheaper and that's vehicles or cars was that vehicles or vehicles 163 motorcycles and 187 and they're all insured every day is sticker day hope the last car I got the most recent a month well there are a couple I found and I thought this is again this is not a car I was looking for guy buys a 1957 pink although desert sage is the original town imperial electric windows every option in 1957 for his wife she goes it's too big he parks it it's at from 63 until I got it original pain original chrome it looks brand-new I Drive it around people go crazy in this thing it said original Exner kind of just that while forward Lord he's a forward look suddenly it's 1960 remember that was the beginning and it's a fantastic car my favorite thing about it are the instruments yeah because it's so small they're almost unreadable you mean so big exactly oh yeah I'm joking yeah yeah I mean the largest I mean your glasses to see these you shouldn't be driving and then I got a 1925 Cadillac from Farmers Insurance they it was their first car they ever insured them v8 and you know things started to break out at starter motor gas tank leaking you know gets this thing out it's a fire hazard you want a J I'll take it boom and now we've gone through it and got that running and a really unusual car called the Kleiber they only built well there's only two left it was the only car built in the city of San Francisco and Paul Kleiber is the grandson and he goes I got this thing either I can't afford to keep enough to do with it if I give it to you will you keep it and I said sure but the unique thing about it is being the only car built in the city of San Francisco it has massive brakes the brake drums are as big as the wheel it's basically a truck chassis with a car body on it it's eight cylinder it's a great driver car and it stops right now I mean no it's really good you know most old cars below good you know you try to use that accident avoidance technology we do this thing I drive in LA traffic I hit the brake it stops right now I mean it's I mean it's an old car but it's got these just a nought and that was the selling point the only car you could drive in the hills of San Francisco and at a time it was cause in 1927 most cars just had rear wheel brakes and you pull it they lock up when you're sliding down the hill where's this thing seriously the brake Trump's are that big they're just massive and it's it's it's a lot of fun it's one of those time machine moments that I often think about imagining what traffic was like in San Francisco in the mid and 20s I cannot and not as much imagining break fail in Sanford I mean the hill is still the same you know you go down and now and you go people don't even know what breaks fade is anymore I mean with older cars that was the idea you hit the brake and the pedal goes right through the floor and it's all there is sorry I mean that's not that that's what it is so I mean yeah it was it's a fascinating car to drive and it's fun to jump from the McLaren f1 or a p1 and then you get into Kleiber and it's interesting yes my favorite cut why don't have a faith you know all depends what sort of mood great whatever you're working on the last or whatever you're fixing you know I always try to rationalize why I'm driving so well I have to road test it not you know you know it's that kind of thing it's like I I'm very proud coming to England you know I have a pool but I've I haven't been in the pool in 30 years because I have that Boston voice I mean I get up to here father is this what you do now where you had you sit in the pool you rich guy go no no you gotta have them broken no you're right alright I got stuff that's broken I go back on that I get close to the pool but I I can't go in it I can't get to the pool because I hear that all is this what you do miss that you need me you need to put a pool in at the garage full of the garage and I could and I could clean parts with it then it's okay yes well he will close out and I'm sure you got your hundred dollars in the well how unusual that's the same guy that asks last year yes Mr Osborne will close out with nothing yes attractive person yeah I'm from China oh no way I thought that was Texas accent yeah I do for you what am I here for know what was your question our question is you know because a lot people in my country cannot see the Kazakh car every day so I was wondering any chance you would open your garage to public maybe only once a month the work well if I open your garage to the public well now you can't open them they won't let me because California you have to drain all fluids before the public comes through disconnect all batteries have the not drink contents of battery sign you have to all of thing so what we do is people might give the nation to a charity then we do it that way actually before tomorrow you will have an opportunity to donate to a charity and get a visit to the garage raise a million for last year we guess and 100 percent goes to the charity but you know I was in China and I met with some Bentley brought me in to talk to some Chinese design students and it was fascinated because everybody here has a history with the car you design a car and oh that looks like a 57 Corvette and that kind of looks like an early Thunderbird but in China these kids were designing cars without wheels one looked like a flying aid one looked like because they don't have a back history of growing up with cars so it's interesting to see what a completely blank slate would do without Eddie without having all the all the influences you know the car I drove him when I was a kid or my dad had a link in so I got a little bit of Lincoln in it most of these kids their parents never had an automobile so the idea that they would design future transportation pods almost a lot of them were I mean a lot of them looked like traditional cars but most were sort of a futuristic version and it was it was fascinating it was really fascinating yes yes now what is that the month the dental muscle p72 is being showcased today right uh is it among is it a Pantera in other words should they bring back the Pantera well I don't know that they're not calling it a Pantera no get a p72 I mean I it's a I suppose they could it's a name that resonates with people so I think it might have some value I don't know whether they will do it or not that's that's pretty much up to them I think is I've got a Pantera it's fascinating car I don't know you got me on that one I don't know what they're gonna do with their no no yes you know I collect cars the way of a sell car get out get out IIIi have to III have to add to that that the very first the very first one of these seminars to Jay and I did together I I said him we're talking about why he collects and and how he collects and I said you know you're collecting method it's sort of like a roach motel everything comes in nothing goes out and everyone loud now you got out and everyone laughing I thought what did I say is afraid to look you today I thought well it was really nice doing the show with him for a season so you know no wait we we auctioned cars off for you know I had a Fiat won that first Fiat 500 is a new one and we brought it up here to auction off and I brought in Panetta and a couple of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and we auction it off and we made these rich guys feel so guilty you know you're driving all these cars because of these guys you know you got the generals go away he got six hundred thousand dollars somebody gave for that Fiat and it all went to the wounded warriors and us Eleanor cosa I mean they were all good spy make it fun but but it was really fun and that's kind of fun so we do that when we have a car a lot of times the manufacturers would give us a car we got the first Corvette the first was the zr1 last generation and we and and the the thing was moving kind of slow at barrett-jackson we got up to about 500 grand and I said what do I have to do to have to bring out the president the United States - all right come on out then George Bush comes down because the whole place goes crazy and we got a million - I wouldn't do that today yes sir yes President Bush is probably busy yes you know I love the new I was I was I was one of the first people to drive it and like everybody else I thought oh here's the marketing plan they'll continue to make this c7 that'll be the base Corvette and this thing will be 180 or two and a quarter like the NSX or anyway and it's $60,000 brilliant III you know I love the fact you know General Motors never used to take chances they did it once with the Corvair the most European American car ever built and they got their ass kicked on it I thought it's a brilliant car I still think it is when I Drive my my Corvair zone kids goes out of karma gears I don't know if this Chevy what Chevy was radiant no it's Eric what I mean I don't know what it is and it's it's a fascinating car but they got so stung by that because the Mustang outsold them for two one even though they sold one point eight million Corvairs I mean you do that now that make you president of the company but back then you know Ford and sold 4 million Mustang so that was nothing so the Corvair they said that's it no more crazy engine in the back let's just Builder the usual Penarth system engine transmission rear end everything will be that you know so well then they did the Toronado and of course in Eldorado but they took a real chance here because that you read all the form that's not a real Corvette I bought my first one in 53 you know so you get all those guys so the fact that it's completely different I I think it's great and it immediately makes the c7 all of a sudden look kind of old-fashioned because the base car with is 6 it's under its belly under but it is $60,000 and fully equipped it's with the z51 package is everything else is maybe 78 or 80 whatever unless the dealer stick something on there but I thought it was I thought it was brilliant I mean they've done a wonderful job it's got a real trunk you know you can actually carry stuff in and I've got an NSX and maybe you can get a Hershey bar or something and it's it's a third of the price the nsx out the door was 205 you know and it's and it's a v8 and it's 500 horsepower and it's faster to 60 than the zr1 right now the top of the hill Corvette so I I am so proud of American manufacturing and the fact that American engineers can compete with Lamborghini and Ferrari and a third of the price no I think it's I think it's I think it's brilliant I think it's really yes I'm sorry this is the very last question wait attractive person yes okay my daughter okay yes what started my fascination with cars ah well I grew up in New England and it's you had to be somewhat mechanical there was always broken snowmobiles or you know lawnmowers and my mom did nothing about cars but you knew when the valiant wouldn't start he would took off the round thing stuck a screwdriver down the little round thing and then turned the key it would start so everybody had a basic knowledge plus it to my generation the car was the iPhones of the day you know guys said home and they say the girlfriend uh text me a naked picture okay here you go anyway we had to get in the car drive to the girl's house make sure the parents weren't home somehow convince the girl to take her clothes off then you took the picture then you had to find a drugstore three towns over the dealer they didn't know your parents they would then take the picture you'd wait a week the picture be back and there would be like black bars remember you get the black bars here here and then it was like so it was a whole different I mean it it was the iPhone of the day it was a horrible experience but kids are lazy and said I'm something they can picture out get five years ago anywhere but but yeah that's pretty much why well thank you very much all for Kelly I know that no you guys and and by popular than any populism at if you love classic cars then we both love you know Donald actually Donnell Ashley is a trained opera singer and you performed all over the world correct fall in love with Seoul yeah yeah so that's pretty gave up my singing career just to be with Jim that's right that's right so thanks everybody thanks you guys thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

Views: 45,088

Rating: 4.8087649 out of 5

Keywords: Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Pebble Beach Concours, Concours, Concours d'Elegance, Pebble Beach, Pebble Beach Resorts, Classic Cars, Collector Cars, Car Show, Automobiles, Jay Leno, Donald Osborne, Pebble Beach Forum

Id: 7w02Xw19psE

Length: 68min 50sec (4130 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 28 2019