Full Forum: Jay Leno & Donald Osborne at the 2017 Pebble Beach Classic Car Forum

well good morning everybody I'm very excited to have you all here I hope you're enjoying your your Pebble Beach Monterey weekend it's been fantastic so far between the weather and the cars and and everything else but it's really truly all about the people and today TDC risk management which is my company we insure ultra successful people all over the country for their homes their their cars their car collections we do that primarily through AIG Private Client Group between the two of us we've been able to sponsor these forms for the last two years and these are the ones we really really get excited about so without further ado I'd like to introduce Donald Osborne and this guy named Jay Leno that will see just how much risk he can manage right now I think really unmanageable the two of us are okay I'm not sure I have no Adana let's put together something I have no idea what it is it's supposed to surprise me so but can I just one person you certainly can you know as you know our hobby is getting older we need to get younger people involved and there's a gentleman here who's probably responsible more young people being involved in cars than anybody else I can think of in the world he's a director a producer he's the director of the cars movies which of course have got more young people involved in cars john lasseter john where's John right there there you go and he's been meeting with designers all day yesterday getting ideas for the cars films and you know interesting cars that he can and he really takes real cars and adapt them to the movie and that's what makes it that's what makes it so much fun so John thank you very much for all you do get young people involved okay Donald go ahead all righty so off we go [Music] if you love classic cars [Music] your check please crying this is some sort of huge well the interesting thing you're here obviously for assessing caress with Donald Osborne and Jay Leno of course he's assess I'm correct exactly and tipping is encouraged so the the point of today's presentation which isn't a presentation actually it's more of a discussion I really wanted to have a different set up here I wanted to have a nice big high back leather wingback chair and a couch because I'm going to analyze today Jay Leno as a collector so you know what is collecting mean you know there are people that have lots of things everybody watches you know the program hoarders on TV and not that a comparing Jay to a hoarder in any way shape or form oh that would be fine I still have clothes from the eighth grade I do and they're in my closet they might come back okay at any moment because one of the things that people think that a collection has to have a theme or a focus otherwise it's just accumulating objects and anybody who has watched Jay Leno's Garage anyone who has been following Jay Leno's Garage on YouTube anyone who has had the great blessing to visit the garage knows that Jays tastes run a very wide range so the point is Gallup viously indeed sometimes he actually evidence is no taste at all but so I'm gonna start with a couple of examples gonna be a very loose and relaxed discussion of some of the cars that Jay has he doesn't know what I'm gonna put up here I went around my last visit the garage and took pictures of cars and I'm gonna ask him about what drew him to a particular car what it is what rooms a particular car I have actually broken the code and we're going to see at the end of this presentation if I'm correct which of course if you watched the segment or if Jay has other secrets yet to be known so first is the lovely Duesenberg one of your mini Duesenbergs what story about this car dates model X that's a Model X to Z that is the last Duesenberg built by the Duesenberg brothers before L cord bought the company the old cord bought the company walked in said finish this car this is it now we're gonna build the model J I want you to build what he didn't call the model J he just build the most extravagant fastest best most luxurious American car that you could I found this car a guy bought it named Howard Johnson who lived six miles from me he bought it in relation no no relations bought in 1945 and he drove from Chicago to Burbank and it had a spun bearing or something and he locked it in his garage and the garage was not opened until 2005 when I got the car and engineering thing his daughter who was born in the house had never even seen the car he was one of these guys the garage door was locked there was an earthquake and the garage shifted so you couldn't open the door so the car was pretty much sealed in there and I knew there was something in his garage and every day I Drive by and maybe I go buying a Stanley Steamer and he would you know the next I'd go by in a Model T and finally he just got curious and although I never got in the garage on his deathbed he said let say in the garage you know I got more in the garage and when we open we finally got the door open oh I found I mean all sorts of memorabilia from 1945 there was a six-pack of orange crush soda there was a bunch of newspapers you know Japanese strike again you know this kind of stuff so it was just it was fascinating time capsule and the car was was 20 years old when he parked it in his garage so it was well-worn but it was too nice to restore so we just sort of cleaned it up that did the engine did the brakes you know made it road worthy but wanted to keep it exactly as it was because it was a Sullivan it's a real gangster looking car it has a much lower roof than most of the cars of the period and is it Holbrook I can't remember who did the body on this one but it was just sort of racy looking and it's it's it's a single cam the straight eight and it's just a fun car to tool around in because the interior and everything is exactly as it was so I just wanted to preserve it and drive the case excellent is the story on that one the next one is rather different we know that's a 1937 fiat topolino in fact john lasseter fell in love with this car and we sent it up to him and he used it in the cars movie for the uncle uncle Topolino character so that was kind of cool so it has a little bit of a story and whenever you see these they were always made into hot rods by Southern California guys and maybe the gas or isn't it because they are so lightweight it's a fascinating vehicle it is the most the best packaging of any car you can be six feet seven feet tall and drive this thing the Headroom in it people are astounded it's 13 and a half horsepower it goes about 55 miles an hour and that was the first people's car Volkswagen always gets the credit of being the first people's car but that didn't come out until after the war they had a hundred thousand of these built before the war really even got going in Italy this is Italy's Model T Lily's Model T and it's so beautifully styled I look at that there's no Chrome there's nothing shiny really on the car and yet it has a real presence you know it's just a wonderful honor what it was designed by what's-his-name Vantage it goes via Kazakh yeah and the engine isn't the radiators in back of the engine I mean it's just a really unique automobile rear-wheel drive and a lot of fun to drive a lot of fun to drive keep that in mind there there will be a pop quiz by the way at the end but just keep these clues in mind if you want to take notes fun to drive interesting story something again slightly different okay that's a 1906 advanced tractor Petaling weighs 13 tons I we put rubber on it so you can drive it on the street because originally just has the middle wheel has the metal wheels which would break up the street but if you put rubber on it and since it's a farm implement I can drive it on the street because I'm driving from one coil to my tail yeah that's true I mean when the cops have pulled me over in this I would go it's a farm implement they always your farm up north believe me five miles an hour in this is hilarious you need two men to run it it takes 300 gallons of water to fire it it is so powerful this act in a tractor pull this beat a guy with a twin diesel turbocharged and supercharged this actually pulled it backwards it's one cylinder and all it's only it's only it's only 16 horsepower I mean they're Clydesdale they're huge horses I mean it's amazing how powerful this thing is and it's six miles an hour you just gave yourself to death it rattles and bangs in it and we run it on propane so we're not polluting or it's not running on coal or anything like that but it's a fascinating piece of Americana yeah the guy who had it buried it during the war he buried the whole tractor because they were looking for these things to melt down you know to make battleships and whatnot so I don't know how he got it out of the hole but that's what he did and I he came out to Victorville California that's where I got it but it's fascinating looking for an advanced tractor it's just something I was looking for a big steam engine you know the English do this wonderfully well they have these these show tractors and these you know they did just they call them showman's and they're you know they're just fantastic the road locomotives they call them too and and that's sort of what this is but believe me when you're in traffic in this thing that's coming behind you I mean people just get out of the way fastening and you got three whistles on it that are ear piercing and it literally it stomps down the road come cookin to come I mean you know maybe five six miles an hour's as fast as it goes but it's frightening at six miles an hour because you have to go like this to stop it and it essentially has no brakes you have to reverse the engine to stop so it's like an ocean life oh yeah it's hilarious it's hilarious but it's again a lot of fun to drive a lot of work to drive but and this at six miles per hour terrifying something very different at a very vast rate of knots 132 miles per hour this vehicle other yeah that was Howard Hughes's doable steam car if you never heard of Abner Doble he was interesting his grandfather invented the Pelton water wheel if you go to we were just up at William Mulholland's first plant in 1917 to generate electricity the Los Angeles because Los Angeles growing so quickly when you go into that sort of it's not Art Deco it's 1917 but looks that sort of Art Deco the original plant is using all the original equipment from 1917 to make electricity to this day exactly the same nothing's even change not computerized not updated it's making electricity exactly the same way water comes down it's the wheel big giant generator and it says doable on all the equipment so doable supplied that equipment and and his his grandson Abner Doble decided to build the Doble steam car and to this day nobody's built a better steam cars the only scene car we turn a key and you go within 30 seconds most thing you have to light a match and heat water and duel if I didn't have breakfast yeah yeah this this does it all automatically and it's a fascinating piece of Americana he only built 40 cars and like Preston Tucker and like a lot of these guys each one was different he would build one invest into a command he go I want to challenge the next one this way and then finally they just got frustrated with him plus by this time the self-starter had come along so there's no need for real steam automobile the advantage of it is there's no transmission it's dead silent you get a thousand foot-pounds of torque from rest and you can cruise down the freeway 70 80 miles an hour the trouble is you need three fuels oil water and gasoline or kerosene to heat but again it's just fascinating because it's the complete absence of noise it just just sort of goes down the road I always call it the hand of God when you open the throttle because the torque just pushes you you have a four cylinder compound engine and unlike a internal combustion engine where you go one two three four bang one two three four bang when the steam engine steam pushes the piston up steam pushes the piston down so you have the same power impulses this a 16 cylinder engine that's what gives you a thousand for the pounds of torque from zero so you just open the throttle a crack and the thing leaps forward this is the only car that Howard Hughes has it was fastened as Duesenberg because there's no transmission you just open the throttle it just keeps pulling you have to stop double clutch you know so that's what makes it fun to drive I'm to drive not that that may be a clue of any sort but do you think Nene feels this is always the point which usually is lost on the editing room floor where Jay thinks I absolutely have this I absolutely have this what do you mean I'm wrong but that's okay do you think steam could ever make it come back no I don't think steam will ever make a comeback because well that being said every Navy sub is the steam vehicle it doesn't really cause it's not as efficient as it could be it used a lot of water and in California waters obviously a precious resource now so you can't like the big advance that's 300 gallons of water to fire it back in the day I mean you just and it was fine but you know because it just the fun thing about this car is it comes with a manual and the manual says things for your man to do on a daily basis on a daily basis on a daily basis cards this car was $25,000 in 1925 so you you had a man your chauffeur or several yeah who would who would undertake these various things you know check this check the only disadvantage of the car is everything has to be hospital clean because it's it's it's superheated steam one drop of water expands 2,500 times in 850 degrees so you literally spit and it's like combustion that's why it makes steam so quickly you have 600 feet of coil with a quarter of water in it the the the fire I put a probe in this with a gauge and I was going down the road and it's own 2,500 Wow 2500 degrees is pretty hot oh now okay now so 1,500 and settle the probe it melted it was a 3500 degree fire so one drop of water when it's hit with 3,500 Gries boom literally expands and makes theme and pushes the car forward the cool thing about it is it's a closed system so it would meet emission regulations up to about the year 2000 because it uses the same water over and over again so I mean it was kind of cool but no I don't think steam would ever make a comeback because well here's a prayer exactly you know the biggest problem with electric cars you got a plug-in in that's people big they've got home and ago people don't want to do anything I mean the Wankel engine failed because the manual says check oil every second gasps Philip I mean people want trouble-free nothing they don't want to be involved it's what probably why a lot of people don't really bond with an automobile anymore because you can't do anything to make it better it that's it's pretty foolproof when you get it now but something I guess requires so much effort and just pages of things for your man to do I mean he's through driving you around oh now he has to go in the garage and work on this thing for an hour a day every day so well you gave me a great segue because you were talking about things that had to be checked and so we have a Czech car with tatra oh yes groan come on groan thank you now you see why I am a professional to me haha this is a joke I have chosen not to do it every every point in my career just to the obvious nature of the jokes but I McDonald once again being a neophyte this would be that is a fantastic car any day 37 37 1938 actually yeah it is designed by Hans Lincoln and the only goddesu Porsche and when actually he was a contemporary of Porsche and he he sued Porsche because he invented the swing axle with Porsche and he actually won interesting guy he was not Czechoslovakian his Austrian he didn't speak Czech he built these cars it's a v8 engine in the rear magnesium block overhead cam it was guaranteed to get 20 miles per gallon at 60 miles an hour and because I've had swing axles and the engine was way back here kind of inching story when Hitler invaded checkles of aten Czechoslovakia he took these the German High Command took these as as staff cars and they were deceptively fast and the first week seven Nazi officers were killed because they came off exits too quickly and rolled the car this car actually killed more Nazis in the Czech army so it was so at some point what happened was Hitler Hitler told no more Tatars just leave them there and leave that's why they all stayed in chuckles of akhiya just leave them there walk away from not anybody driving these things and that's but they're wonderful cars to drive just need to put 40 pounds of pressure in the rear tires and you'll be fine but it's a fascinating vehicle you have the engine here v8 a firewall lug at your department another firewall rear seat front seat so you go down the road it's it's silent it really was a Tucker before there was a Tucker all right Tucker gets all the credit for this car they developed but this was a finished on a bill that was actually quite quite sophisticated and again fun to drive and the aerodynamics are very interesting yes this is a the CD on this car a coefficient of drag is 0.27 the interesting thing in 1970s well you know it's a little unfair because cars don't have a good coefficient of drag more because you have to have downforce because the car can go 200 miles an hour this car was meant to cruise at 60 or 70 so downforce was not something that played so consequently the underside of the car and has a big fin in the back you can't see and it would go down the road you take your foot off the gas at 60 and just you coast there's no there's no bad dry slowdown so yeah it's a fascinating car you got the three headlights in front it's really a case of original thinking they were on the other side of the Tatra mountains and obviously no internet and then you didn't really know what people were doing in America or even in Germany so he just built these cars on his own when we took the transmission apart it's completely different everything is the opposite of what you would think and it's like the back of a watch it's such a beautiful piece of engineering it's really a fascinating car meanwhile what people in America were thinking was this right that's the Chrysler airflow now one thing here's something maybe you don't know the guy named Breer who worked for chrysler he had a cousin who's Czechoslovakian and the wheels are exactly the same the other wheel City apparently they communicated this was the Chrysler airflow this car was a huge failure in America because nobody wanted aerodynamics they wanted that you know the I kind of laugh when I hear Chevy has a truck ad where their trucks they're made of steel as opposed to the Ford which is made of aluminum which will Bend and fold it with the steel curve and that's going to drive a beer can yeah when they used to try and sell these you know the the regular cars had the big radiator like this it would push its way through the wind Bruce I need aerodynamics and that that's where they sold it but that that was the 34 Chrysler airflow with the waterfall grill it was the only year they did that very aerodynamic if you google this car you will see a piece of footage of a guy in 1934 driving it and then he rolls it off a class and then he drives away because it was the first car to have a completely steel roof most cars had wood at the period camilli steel wolfing roof it didn't crush had all kinds of innovative features on it it just that was a classic case of something being ahead of its time you know did you ever wonder how many takes they did of the cars driving off you know it looked like one - I mean the guys driving the car it's an endless piece of footage he drives along and the car rolls down the hill and they drives off I mean hilarious I knew I meant to make a left rather than a right right it's actually exactly and speaking of powerful this is a very powerful car yeah that's a model 66 pierce-arrow that was and it still is to this day the biggest engine ever put in an automobile its 826 cubic inch 6 it's 14 liters this engine was later put in fire trucks and everything else it's a wonderful motor it moves so slowly in terms of with the long stroke 1,800 be the end of the world's revolution when you go down the road at 70 your turn and 600 700 rpm the truck what this was Packard had a v12 a Cadillac had a v8 and this seemed stodgy and old-fashioned but it's so bulletproof it's a cast aluminum body that's a 1918 you know it has so much tour I pulled away from a light ones and went what's wrong with it a woman fourth year that's how poor kit is I mean it's amazing and this car has not been restored its but this is owned by the Governor of California at the time and it's really only had five owners and it's just a way it's a it's a wonderful car to drive it's it's really fascinating you've never been in a torque monster like this thing is it that's something it's really missing in modern cars the idea that you know you just let the clutch out there and touch the gas and the thing will will walk away so that's the yeah it's kind of a cool car and again for something slightly different which always happens in say lentils garage there's one my favorite vehicle that you are this car is really interesting it's the job well again I'll get that a guy named Bob Shotwell was 17 and 1931 and he wanted a car and it was in the middle of the depression and his father said if you want a car you're gonna have to build it yourself so he and his father went to the junkyard they bought a bunch of model a parts a bunch of Model T parts a bunch of sheet metal they bought an Indian for similar to motorcycle engine and he went home and he built this car and he was really quite a smart guy he went on to be a pilot for Pan Am when he finished his car he and his brother drove it from Minnesota to Alaska to San Diego and back they kept a diary of all the people who gave him free food and all those kind of stuff I mean it's a fascinating story and it's just a little homemade car and when he was well into his 80s they were taking them off to retirement home and he tracked me down I didn't know him but I still never met him and he he said if I give you this thing we promised historically I was afraid that some motorcycle guys would take the four-cylinder engine and put it in a motorcycle because those are value now and and jump the rest okay it was in pretty rough shape when I got it so we went to Minnesota we picked it up I talked to him a lot on the phone his family still comes around to to see the car in fact his his great-granddaughter was Michele Williams you know the actress Academy Award winner and category nominee and so yeah and his family comes and we have his picture on the wall that's it behind it and the story about how we met and the pictures of him build in the car when he was Sam I mean this is what people did before Netflix you know they I mean he actually built the whole car and he drove it to Alaska San Diego you know and you know with what $5 yeah I mean just just crazy but it was really it's really fascinating so we tried to honor your spirit and keep the whole thing going and of course it's fun to drive it's always great to see vehicles with with personal connections and I know that this next car has some slight personal connection with you okay well that's my 55 Buick Roadmaster that's kind of had that car what that car in 1972 met my wife in that car my wife when I dated in that car I mean it's it's just a fun thing I parked it in my mother-in-law's driveway where it's sad for 16 years when younger prettier cars came along you know and what she never sold it and I never sold it and it was sat there outside you know and then the tires went flat and then one day I went over to see my mother-in-law and there was a note on it someone obviously doesn't care about this card like I felt so awful but we took it back to the shop and it's got now is it's got c5 Corvette suspension it's got a 572 big block in it and and it's air-conditioning and it's fascinating cards it's a great car and I just because I sort of lived in that car when I first came you know when you come to LA where she get a car then you find a place to live and with that car was big enough you could sleep in the backseat oh it's fabulous Mogar so so yeah that was a suspension one and speaking of crying cars crying kindly this is probably one of the most spectacular cars in your entire collection and well you know a lady gave me that it was sitting in a yard she was gonna send it to the crusher and she said you want it and I said yeah sure so with the idea with this women will probably put a Mazda drivetrain in it and then just make it a nice little run around car my wife's always like these so the idea was the surpriser which has been ruined now that you're here thank you darling for any trouble in my marriage well the idea was we're gonna finish it make a nice guy on surprise her but of course Donald now ruin that and effectively this is also one of my favorite cars of yours it's really incredibly dramatic another Duesenberg that's the only Duesenberg ever designed in a wind tunnel this is Bill four Josiah Lily Eli Lilly's grandson this was just just meant to run over poor people with that was the Daddy Warbucks yeah you would just go down the street and just run over people selling apples or whatever would be if 1934 you 1934 got no place to live but I've got you're driving this stupid ridiculous car well the engine thing is there's less room inside it than an mg Josiah does not drive you had a chauffeur so the two of them would sit like this it's truly aerodynamic I mean those headlights look like implants on a bad stripper but your dad will explain that to you later but they're actually more aerodynamic it's actually more aerodynamic and if the fender was actually cut you know if it was smooth so it's the first aerodynamic Duesenberg ever built I got it when did I get when I got it it was a tow truck it had a rig in the back of it because it was just an old car the guy I bought it from was going to restore it it was a really funny story the guy invented he held the patents to Lex on plastic it's had a gazillion dollars but I didn't like to spend any money so when I bought the car he knew what it was and it was half a million bucks it wasn't finished and needed everything okay so I'll buy it goes now I don't want to take the money because I'm not paying a capital gains I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pay a twenty percent capital gain goddamn the government I'm like he just goes on and on you know because I take the car you pay me later okay so I got the car okay he's now like 86 years old I have the car I should we start restoring it you know and I would call him every couple of months no no god damn the government just it would just go in these rants about taxes uh okay now the cars finished I take it to Pebble Beach and we wanted a war and I still don't own it he's now 88 so I called the wine let me try the wife she goes well let me put him on the phone now God he starts again you know so calm thinking he's gonna be 89 years old man I don't own it and I know this is gonna be awful and then what happened was that capital gains dropped to 15 percent well I know where that is Clinton or whatever was but anyway and you just dropped 50% he goes oh okay you can pay me now and then he died two weeks later so it worked out okay [Laughter] now as opposed to your Pebble Beach winning Duesenberg this is the car that most people would recognize is not a show car now not a show car but all was a race car I bought this six years ago in Orange County I paid $80,000 for it it was it was in a container no engine no drivetrain okay so I bought it and then the guy I bought it from said well I got the engine stuff if you want oh yeah yeah I'd like to go okay fine okay and he said to me oh the engine was rebuilt in Germany you know you know No okay yeah whatever fine you know so he took it back to my garage and the engine the crate and we opened the crate and there's assembly Lube on everything and we put the engine on our dyno it made 235 horsepower so was rebuilt in Germany he just never lost interest never put it in the car and so we put together and mechanically it's fine I mean it's it's the only goal wing you can sit on the fender you can take it to a cars and coffee you know kids want to sit in it you put them in it's fine they sit it really doesn't drive any better or any worse than a 100-point car you know and I can see through the America cause I don't have stupid fitted luggage back there you know and that's another thing I know guys when you do these cars you get the fitted luggage your wife's not gonna put her stuff and your stupid fitted luggage okay okay they they don't they just they don't the things don't fit the luggage smells like gasoline there's always a reason so don't get the fitted luggage then I'm not gonna use it you're gonna have a big fight and it's fine so anyway that's that's pretty much where that is but it's just a wonderful it's a wonderful driving car it looks better without the bumpers on it and you know people love it the way it is it just has such a patina and the fact that you could just Park it on the street without somebody coming up and doing this or but you know we scraped it on one of the videos that's okay I mean it's a car you use it as a car you know I don't think it's I think it's worth anymore restored than it is now it would cost you probably 350 400 thousand to restore this car and it wouldn't drive any better you know brakes are done transmissions done engines fine it's fine I mean maybe weather stripping and a few little things like that you drive it in the rain but yeah I Drive it all the time you're being true to the cars history because it was a race car and it still looks like an honor has never been damaged which is the important thing had never been hit which is the important thing so yeah that's what makes it kind of cool Tony Nancy did the interior he was a famous hotrod guy most at some of the California guys know him and juniors House of Kolor that was candy apple red originally it just sort of deteriorated to just the red but yeah that's just their Apple floss the candy and just a wonderful car to join you know I always had a prejudice against these cars because when I was a kid they all said that skinny little gearshift knob you know how it's a kid I used to the big her snob you know or the giant pistol-grip flea and I always thought yeah look at little thing it must break it is that is the first mirror is gets the thing is the first supercar that is the first supercar it is just unbelievable to drive I mean right up to 135 whatever it is it's just rock steady it's a lot of fun it's built like a tank it's really an amazing car it's really the first supercar I think and you've got a a commitment to finding new technologies and off the performance so talk about this well that's a car called the echoed yet we built that for a SEMA one year it uses a Honeywell LT 101 jet engine either one of the big attack helicopters one's going by now [Laughter] we use a GM design studio to design the cars all those things were i know white napkins are always used by designers you know it was designed on a napkin ef-1 Karen designed on a napkin but somehow designer only three napkins around with them all the time and they write down but that's really drew he sketches on a napkin and a restaurant and then we gave with the francs Osito and those guys at GM and and and you know we work with them i I'm not a designer but we use their input and it's all carbon fiber and we built the whole thing at the shop we don't have an autoclave where we sent that part out but it's mostly Corvette transmission and brakes Alcoa gave us the aluminum for those wheels which is really interesting because that's an alumina doesn't dull it doesn't polish and it doesn't get dirty mmm it's fascinating there's nothing you can do them other than hose them off it doesn't doesn't water spot I mean it's amazing alloy I still haven't figured out what it is yet but it works fine and we took Neil deGrasse Tyson out in it we won 165 with him and him and the window blew out need some reason he seemed concerned so we yeah I actually took the picture of the car from this side because there's actually the door is off right now we're fixing the window yeah yeah but also now it tell us a little bit about what this vehicle runs on well it was meant to run on biofuel which was popular like 10 years ago until people realized taco shells would be 10 bucks apiece with you so the idea of using corn see you know you know you think the world's Matt is now now we're turning food into gasoline never but it runs on diesel it runs on jp-8 you know you know any any sort of a kerosene thing like that and speaking of visions of alternate fuels and propulsion units what am i well this is one of my favorite cars of all time when I was a kid you know every couple of weeks he'll be some gray haired guy looking through the room looking through the fence you know I was at the World's Fair in 1964 me too come on in I'll show you the car I went with my dad to see this at the World's Fair and it was in a pit going in a circle and my father for Christ's sake we look at him dead my father I was there for hours of Christ's sake let's get the hell out were you watching a car going around there my father did didn't get a dog watch this thing go around in circles in circles but when Chrysler went bankrupt I tried to show up with a bag of money and went to the banks and they said no no well Christ he's got to come up with some dough other guy said good faith why to sell okay fine so I bought it and I'm the original owner I'm the first owner of the car which is cool I think you leave the warranty is null and void but but it's okay because you've got it's a very a sanae ting automobile what it was was in 1963 when the rest of the world barely had piston powered cars americans are gonna have jet cars every magazine is this the future coming in two years you know all that kind of stuff you know and it's not particularly faster than anything else it's about the same as a 318 Chrysler v8 the idea was it was a personal luxury car it had one spark plug had no cooling systems no fluid other than some engine oil and and the turbine is hooked up directly to a TorqueFlite transmission without the torque converter it runs directly off the input shaft there's no warmup time and what they did with these was they let Americans do the testing on it you oughta let Chrysler had a contest 209 Americans were given one of these for three months each each got it for 90 days and they gave you a diary and what do you like what don't you like it ran on anything other than leaded fuel but when gasoline was twenty six cents a gallon there was really no reason they ran on diesel 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 and drove around that the idea was any fuel that burns with oxygen you could use in that and it's it's it's pretty cool the thing that killed it was emissions it's almost impossible to make a clean jet you just it just doesn't work it just you know you eat when you stand behind it you smell it but it runs cool it runs at less temperature than you know that I would always read these articles how they set the grass on fire and all this kind of stuff when people would never experience there but it ran if the temperature coming out the exhaust was 120 240 degrees which was less than less than an internal combustion engine so it's it was really a fastening to this day it still feels like the future when you go down the road it makes just enough noise you know so it sounds kind of kind of like the Jetsons it's quiet it's comfortable I mean it's a great car and they built 55 of them and wound up crushing most of them because when the program ended Chrysler offered to donate them to museums but museums wouldn't take it because it's a new car once the look of a new car in a museum you know so most were crushed the bodies were done in Italy and giya divot I think your end goal is the the guy who designed the Thunderbird designed this know where they go hey Alvin eagle you can see from the you can see some Thunderbird styling in it but I think it's the greatest post-war American car it's just so fascinating to drive and so different and it still feels like the future when he get it's 1963 and I was absolutely devastated as a young boy in New York City that my family who didn't own a car wasn't chosen to be one of the yeah yeah did you write a letter absolutely yeah yeah yeah well oh well this is also very interesting story of a hybrid that's a very early Harvard that's a 1916 Owens magnetic hybrid cars have always had the same problem that they have today battery technology so the idea was this is a this engine this the gas engine the flywheel works as a magnet and it there's no mechanical connection between the engine and quote the transmission or the electric engine it's an electric car but the gas engine spins turns a generator which drives the electric motor which drives the rear wheels and they call to the car of a thousand speeds because she could move the lever any which way to get what it was good for people who couldn't I have a stick or if you were disabled in some way and you couldn't push a clutch whatever might be so Caruso had one of these and a couple of other people had them and the idea go down the road just go but much like the transformer on a Lionel Train you would just click it through the various quadrants and and you would sort of go along and it still works fine it's pretty amazing you know these early electrics I've got a 1909 Baker electric which I restored but I never touched the motor beautifully hand-wound copper wire like this maybe my next slide I'm saying although they got almost yeah that's another one that's like my wife's favorite car because the only car we have with the deer come up to the window and look in you know and it's because it doesn't make any noise it's fantastic it goes 80 to 100 miles on a charge you know because batteries really haven't changed a whole lot this had electric lights when this is 1989 was really 1906 they just built the same car but most people had acetylene but these were these were a lot of rich guys bought these for their wives that's what killed the electric car first time around because it was a woman's car and you can't sell a guy woman's car you know that kind of nonsense like even the ad says buy your wife an electric you know they show her like a beaming with pride to see you know and she can't go too far you know I mean that was it I mean that's what it was it's 1906 so you can you can see your wife go down you can kind of go running off and the batteries are going to die but times you get it yeah that's that's what it was but the charging unit for it looks like a Frankenstein movie it's got a big bulb and he comes out hilarious frightened but it it's like driving a phone booth it's a wonderful car I mean you sit up high on it and like I said it does go 80 200 miles on a charge and for looking at Christmas lights it's the greatest car in the world we have a 1914 Detroit electric that we're putting Tesla power in which is going to be so when you're when you're on the freeway in Southern California and you see this you can make detail our team telephone booth coming by you yeah and the fast lane is exact and speaking of going fast you've always been a lover of supercars and performance cars and this is a very early one that's a 1913 Mercer race about I think most people probably familiar with that car I think it's the first true American sports car I mean what they used to do back in there they put the biggest heaviest engine they could in a lightweight car and they went fast but they plowed in the corners and they couldn't stop because it was so heavy Marissa was the first one to have a light car with a small engine five litres which is very tiny but you know you had 14 litre Fiat and 12 litres thing with so it's a tea head engine it's the most satisfying car to drive I remember Ken Purdy said it tries about this about as fast as a 65 mg be about in terms of speed and it'll do 100 it will do 100 miles an hour at least we've had 100 miles an hour on the speed on and believe me 100 miles an hour and that really feels like nothing but it's a it's just the most wonderful car to drive you call it the race about cos the headlights just lift off and the fenders unbolt and then you weren't racing I mean the completely stock one came in second in the very first Indianapolis 500 the Marmon won that but the guy bought it drove it to the race entered it came in second car can you do that good I was a dealership give me that one they have another race tomorrow I mean what beats that it means it's wonderfully involving up the hand pump the fuel pressure to keep it going and you have to your hand pump the oil way I mean it's just a lot of stuff to do but again it's really fun to drive it's a big four speed transmission but you have big giant gears like this so there's no need for synchromesh because you're not the energy is not turning that fast so consequently you can speed shift it you go through the gears with a fantastic wonderful car and fun to drive well I'll bet these may I wonder what's the thing that hold on but these next two cars aren't at all fun to drive because you know who would want to have a pair of mirrors okay I talked about this in an article there are some things you do that you don't talk about when I back my orange mirror into my yellow mirror okay you're not gonna get any sympathy that's one of those people go good you can't so you don't even tell people that you just just oughta let it go because you just look like a idiot you've got yeah you're too lazy to go you know we get conditioned to look at that screen so you just back up now anyway but the but the cool thing is the yellow one was bought new by Dean Martin and Dino's kid hit a berm in the road and cracked the pan and the engine see so but a mine was a schoolteacher he bought it the dealer said it's gonna cost more to fix and it's worth might as well junk it and even want to junk it there was a time sat in his garage for you this is 280 and it's why I said just give it to Leno he likes all thinking of course now he's hung himself but in an 82 83 it wasn't worth it's hard to believe but it wasn't worth anything it was just an old sports car you know and so that was the story on that one yes sir that was kind of cool and having that you had to get an S yeah I mean I saw that one up in Canada it was $80,000 in 88 and that seemed high at the time cuz there was 60 to 65 but I said let me grab it and so I did so I mean that's you know buy-ins too soon is good you know exactly now of course performance as we saw in the mercer race about and in these murals is very important to you and sometimes you take performance to a extremes well that's the tank car that's the do I have sexual problems car this enormous ridiculous engine you just looking over compensating this it's a m47 Patton tank engine when I got it had two Stromberg carburetors on it at 800 horsepower and they've got two miles per gallon we went to our friend Gail banks we put twin turbo charges on it we put an allison 6-speed double overdrive transmission now it has between tweedle eleven and thirteen hundred horsepower and it gets five to six miles per gallon so we've doubled the mileage so so ready for the total black we run yeah we know we're doing things to the economy so that's good it weighs 5 tons this just watson Eggers favorite car when I wash wants it comes to grouchy good I love this guy he's fantastic didn't he just like teach the grill looks like his face fantastic I used to go down the road and see such a thing as this is he just stands it was fantastic I love these guys he wants eight months he wants to buy one I go there aren't any around but but he loves that kind the other ones an Ariel Atom which is all about power to weight ratio are those actually the Ariel Atom race twice what the Gordon already rocket ways but that one has the Ecotec engine we built a little v8 using two Hayabusa motorcycle heads they were putting on that we've dyno'd that engine at 488 horsepower and normally aspirated so once we get it an addled I live in a hilly area so doesn't get over the hills more quicker than that but it's got so much body on it though that's the other thing is that and this of course is a car that everybody acknowledges as one of the only certainly certified modern absolute collectible blue chip cars and I know that you are very sad this weekend to see oneself were not much money yeah Herb Chambers car sold for 15 and a half million dollars you know the East I don't know anything about stocks are bondin with about that stuff but if you're a little bit car-centric you can actually make money on some of this stuff I bought this car in 98 it was $800,000 it seemed ridiculous I mean I called MacLaren's any car we have on a black one here how much 800 thousand I said that's about what it costs new yeah I says the used car I said I said you know something I'll tell you what I'll call you back in two weeks if it's still there Oh cow bye so to ease that call back it's still there I go Zach alright I'll buy it so I bought it was the best investment I ever made and it's hilarious because it has that classic but it comes with air conditioning but if you want good air conditioning it's twenty-five thousand extra I mean it's just that classic British it comes with this like the Norton had the assist self-starter you hit you but they're not you hit the starter button ago alright and now you have to kick it okay you only got like one iron and this it had it just did just the idea that he's explaining to me well in Britain we don't really need that much air conditioning so we put a cross I just put a crappy unit I mean it's an $800,000 so it's 25,000 to get the good air so while I was in England I upgraded to the good air conditioning but it was one of those things where his where your government comes in it was a use remember they had the five percent luxury tax on car except on used car so I get it and it gets the doc like I got my favorite discards 800,000 no used car cost that much you gotta pay the five percent I go no it's a used car here's a been pawned that was a guy he's the original owner here's the paperwork yeah we don't believe that he said no we can hold it for six months in our lockup or you can place our okay but what am I gonna do so you good yeah I'm turning into the old guy I want to sell my McLaren but don't pay me now pay me not now the clarinet one is certainly the pinnacle of engineering and performance and there are other cars that other people think of I'm gonna because I'm not sure why I buy these cars yet all right go ahead oh we're getting there because how many people own McLaren f1 and Corvairs actually there's one Corvair in this picture and one Yenko stinger right right the yankles stinger for those who don't know Don Yenko was thought of the Carroll Shelby of Chevrolet he didn't like what Carroll Shelby used in with Cobras give me getting all these Ford products out there he was a Chevrolet dealer and the Corvair too i stiii really call it the poor man's Porsche I mean it's a flat 6 with 180 horsepower had four carburetors he did a little bit of bodywork he bought a JC Whitney grant steering wheel for 1499 he put it on the car did some suspension and they in 1966 they actually won the what the SCCA championship being Porsche it's the most European car to this day Millenial supposed to go what is that a Carmen gear and what kind of car is that that's the Chevy no come on with classy I mean because it doesn't look like a modern car there's no grille in the front I mean it's a very European it's probably the most radical American car every bill and here's a funny part about it it was deemed a failure because they only sold one point eight million Mustang had sold 3 million by this time so this car was considered a failure I mean now you said sell 40,000 they make you president of the company but I mean in the 60s 1.8 million was not very good you know but I mean it's the it's the best bargain starter car I can think of I I really think they will be collectible someday the the anko stingers are collectible because Don Yenko got his own serial numbers he got 100 of them that's Carnaby 54 that's the TV show and it's a wonderful handling car John Finch loved them and and and it's truly I mean it it moved America for but have moved to back to because the Corvair was such considered such a failure at the time that nobody ever took a chance again with air cooling or rear engine or mid-engine or anything else they to hedge in the front transmission the middle drives in the RAM let's just do it the way we always did it so it was a double-edged sword you always admired the the engineering and the Emmy and the invention that that winner yeah they're wonderful cars you know I remember the time they used to sell the driving gloves and all this kind of stuff but they truly were sporty cars and they were they were really the most European American cars were built well we're gonna get off of four wheels and get onto two this will go forward yeah there we go and this is just like you know your average everyday well that like you find that one probably the only piece I'd it's not registered to run that is not the very first brough superior but one of the first three it's the only 90 Bohr model they made it's very Edwardian look at the front brake it's a bicycle brake you know where you squeeze and the two blocks okay that's approximately 19 19 19 20 something like that the brough superior were the first super bikes the first bikes guaranteed to go a hundred miles an hour Lawrence of Arabia had them that's how they got quite famous Lawrence of Arabia when everywhere in the mini raced a biplane and he wrote about them quite eloquently and spoke about them as well so also the most beautiful gas tank in motorcycling and that one being the oldest in the world and the only one that that's sort of parked I don't really ride that one but the others the other brush that ran all the time and speaking of art objects and very much not the broth 8vy rods Union Cavalier yeah this is what I call Donald Osborne motors where it's just about the style you can just see Donald bowtie flapping in the wind driving this driving this through Palm Beach or some such place spewing out advice whether people wanted or not this this this would be this is your favorite bike right it is because it has what your dad called stylish stylish that's it like this is this is a two wheeler with styling and speaking of stylish explain this mr. Leno that is a really odd a lot of people not know this but Studebaker was the mercedes-benz distributor in the 50s mercedes-benz teamed up with Studebaker and that's basically a student Benz is what you'd call it there was a guy named Jack Ryan was similar to the mousy Polanski books this is really fascinating this guy invented the Barbie doll and he made a gazillion dollars and he decided to start his own car company so he took a Studebaker chassis put a mercedes-benz front end on it put a 413 Chrysler engine in it I mean it's really something from the like the TV show Mad Men there are twin holsters for guns on each side it has a bar where you can carry liquor I mean so you're driving with liquor and guns not hard okay I mean it was just a different era couples over you have two guns and liquor in the car I mean it is just the most oddball thing mercedes-benz saw this and said but he built six of them and I've yet to restore this one it was given to me by someone who who saved it it was built in the 60s and just Jack Ryan character was just a character you know that big house in Beverly Hills crazy parties you know all that kind of 60s swinging sixties stuff and then that that was his car so it's we it's it's and we're not in a real hurry to get that one done all right well we're going to wrap this up now with a view of very different vehicles and actually machines mm-hmm you've got we've got sixty-six old soren auto 58 launcher aralia the mercer race about we saw before and an 1830 steam engine 1832 yeah I think it's the oldest steam engine America running on steam and back in the day they don't forget this is before oil was discovered so these do was they would slaughter pigs and just rub the grease on everything because whale oil was too expensive so I mean obviously you ate a lot of bacon I guess what kind of disease just slaughtering pigs and rubber grease and coming home for honey I'm home honey wash this shirt would you believe this I mean I can't imagine what that and there's no osha on this thing there's no you're just you get near this sale just take your head off if you get too close to it yeah hilarious it's hilarious it was just personal responsibility that was the name of the day we reached the end of our journey we know and so can anybody find the common thread that holds all of these quite bizarre things together I'm guessing this young man well do you sound 10 years old okay you about the mentally the same age as Donald I'm guessing you have found the thread that holds all these together what do you think I think it's fun to draw yes thank you thank you son very good there are four a bright gun man down there are four components one has been identified fun can anybody think of another one what is that hit who said who's that the H word history is the other nostalgia what's that history interest and technology very good yeah and there's one other who rescues cars what about what about emotion Jay collects with heft history emotion fun and technology the key to elect how I thank you very hey hey thank you in the last few minutes we have actually we are but some questions unless yes Sarah hold on there's a microphone coming I can hear you hi Jay how are you doing good good thank you very much to both of you as well it's been great now I understand you have a three-wheeled Morgan that came from Ontario Canada right right I indirectly know the people who might be ill yes yeah yeah I remember they told me a story that they were sitting in their kitchen having lunch yeah and the dad answered the phone and he's hello yep mm-hmm oh no I think you have to call England then hung up and the two brothers looked at one another and looked at their dad and said this guy called and said of wheel had fallen off as Morgan and he was looking for a replacement right and they said do you remember who it was some some guy named Jay that was me yeah I don't know if he had ever heard the backstory behind it but they told me at an oh yeah wheel cuz you know we drive it through well Morgan that has a spare on the back and we drive their own people go hey you lost the wheel thank you you lost the wheel back though thank you very much good god is everybody gonna do this thing Donald Osborne joke you know and then finally I pulled I realize the wheel in full and it went down into the canyon I never I never got it but my favorite thing was was it's a 1946 Morgan three-wheeler I paid eighteen five for the car back in the 80s an artist named Klee worth you know that community comes he says I'm gonna do a painting I went through a painting of your Morgan fine he does the painting it's how much is the painting goes 25 grand I said so I have to sell the car and come up with another to pay for the baby to get a picture of the car is that what you tellin me so yeah so this is what this is stupid somebody else had a question yes sir yeah thank you when I get some time ago Jamie you uh you told me that back in the day you were a apprentice at Rose race can you talk about that well I'm really premise I would just worked at a foreign car dealership we had rolls-royce mercedes-benz Bentley Citroen Puzo simcha we were just foreign cars and apprentice is to kind of word life's not lights on but that's what I did my favorite thing when we deliver a corniche convertible in 1970 was twenty nine thousand five hundred dollars the price of most expensive car you could buy yeah we drive it to the guy's house and we give them the key we leave it's in the driveway car burns to the ground some electrical short you know a guy calls up furious my boss said well you must have been smoking it cuz I don't smoke I didn't get into it was just parked there but since they have lien corporation that young man there you had a question yes sir I want to tell you first what did that sorry I want to tell you first off thank you for letting me visit your garage Oh summer sure it was absolutely fantastic oh you were much smaller than yeah we've grown a lot since that it's just that of the all the cars in your collection my two probably my favorite cars in there where your McLaren f1 right and your Bugatti type 57s the Atlantic oh oh thank you of the two cars they're both obviously from different eras but I have the supercar of their era there are obvious differences but what are the similarities do you think between the two oh the similarities like the most intelligent questions so far how old are you huh 11 11 okay well the similarities well they're both rare they're both the vision of one person I tend to like automobiles that are one man's vision and I say man because of women weren't designing cars back then but usually it's one person's idea I mean like we see Ferrari she got the long thing with the short leg so that's what Italians look like you know I mean that's sort of simian type of trying to say italiano know what I mean so that's what I mean Gordon Murray designed the f1 and he didn't want a radio in the car because it's distracting so you couldn't get one with the radio he couldn't get enough one with the radio is the conus when he designed the mini he said I don't want people listening the radios in my car so you couldn't get a radio so the dealers would go crazy because today people make a fortune putting the audio system often you know side road somewhere that kind of thing so so that's it probably the fact that they each you're probably most powerful cars of the day and close to the most powerful and one person is vision so that would be the thing that probably ties them together let's see who else you have agree and how old are you young lady but what is my wife drive my wife loves her electric Fiat 500 she thinks that's the greatest car in the world and you know and it is I mean go to the store go anywhere and you know and plugging in is not a huge deal she just plugs in every day she has a full tank of electricity so to speak and it's pretty bulletproof I mean you can lease them for $99 a month however yes because the range is longer than the Baker electric house you might get away from it's about the salary well that's sure that's true yeah but no that's what she likes she likes that because it's I mean I originally got a next big jag XJ but that was too big and too clunky where she likes is it's easy maneuver and her friends think it's secured his car ever and it didn't know it and they're really fantastic they're really good cause ya have a question over here yes speaking speaking of emotion mm-hmm I was very impressed as a car guy reading your book and you talked about you had this car that you restored and spent a whole weekend putting interior in but it was invertible you didn't have a top no that's not quite the stay it was a 34 Ford pickup truck see this is why innocent men go to prison when you have these kind of eyewitnesses it was a it was a 34 Ford pickup truck and one of my idiot friends we just put a you know the tuck-and-roll I was a high school kid so it was all you know naugahyde yeah we just put the new interior in and one of my idiot friends had slammed the truck door and being 1934 wasn't a safety glass and the glass just shattered well so I drive to school I park in the parking lot and it was one of those schools where the windows here in the parking lots there and I could see this car from from from math class weather class that was it and that starts the rain it's raining I know what I'm gonna do and then I actually broke down in tears I looked out I seen my mom and dad pull up they with a big tarp and my mother's out there slip another thing you know just hilarious trying to cover the car yeah yeah it was really they they were really wonderful folks they're really great great mom dad left the office to go good go to and cry a plastic tarp to pull over the car to pick up my mother yeah it was really funny it was really funny but I always remember that so that's the sneeze that's the thing you're talking about I think it's time for one more question sure I know well yeah yeah I mean that's I thought we had made that obvious I want to compare that question to the I'm sorry I'm such an easy setup I you know when you're calming you have to take this shot I'm sorry no yes I always like well I you know I grew up in rural New handing Glen which is right near new massachu and you just always had to know how to fix things lawn mowers my mother didn't know anything about cars but she knew her value when it wouldn't start if he took the round thing off and stuck a screwdriver to hold that little flap open the car would probably start so everybody every kid sort of it just in the way every kid knows computers now when I was a kid it was cars I mean the music little GTO little deuce coupe 409 I mean nobody sings about cars anymore it was just it was just another thing about computers yeah it was it was popular culture and it was just something it was the only way I mean now you can go places virtually I mean kids sit home now and come here yeah email me I'll make a picture fine in our day you had to drive to the girl's house make sure make sure the parents weren't there somehow convince her to take a club take the picture and then you had to find a drugstore three towns away that didn't know your parents that would develop the picture and then when you got to picture back remember to have these things remember it be of it so so that was sort of the dip that was sort of there that was the difference I mean you know so you needed a car to do stuff I mean everything was uptown uptown was seven miles and I'd be on my bike and I met my friend Louie who was six months old drove by with a girl who Aegon Agassi uptown okay Clell bad you know I got up tonneau cover and sweat everybody's left already I said I got to get a license so yeah it's always been interested in cars well I'd like to thank you all for coming today and well thanks everybody thanks you guys thanks thanks why thank you thank you thank you Donald thank you very much and I just have to pick one second to make a shameless commercial for myself oh yeah ever ever do this book it's a terrific book called steel a transatlantic Oh transatlantic style there are copies for sale in the retro auto in the coast bill press booth and an exhibition based on the book at the Blackhawk Museum running until September 30th look this gentleman is a come up here son come here come here look he's a young Donald Osborne at the same time he came up here okay you got it look at this look they're the same guy and one day I will learn to ask in questions as intelligent as he yes young people what is seen as there's The Hobbit answer future the hobby right there goes the two best questions do these guys so what was your name again my name is Demetrius Demetrius okay and that's good cool yeah well thanks guys well thank you very much well when we're all be nice to us hey you about this way but on this way thanga thanks everybody [Applause] you

Channel: Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

Views: 631,048

Rating: 4.7368422 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

Id: haB6jrro9a4

Length: 72min 56sec (4376 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2018