Jay Leno is well known as an actor, comedian and the star of his own talk-show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The personality also owns an impressive number of vehicles.
Jay Leno owns approximately 181 cars. He also owns around 160 motorbikes. Leno has been an enthusiastic car collector for years and even has his own show on the topic, Jay Leno’s Garage.
Let’s take a look at how Jay Leno got into car and motorbike collecting and learn more about his huge assortment of vehicles.
How much is Jay Leno’s car collection worth?
Well let’s take stock of just a few of Leno’s most valuable cars. In 1999, he bought the McLaren F1 for $800,000. The rare car, of which only 64 exist in the world, has more recently been valued at a staggering $22 million.
A snapshot of only a tiny portion of the star’s collection.
In 2014, he acquired the first privately owned McLaren P1, which with only 375 ever leaving the factory, is a rare and valuable car. A recent estimation puts the value at around $1.35 million.
Leno bought a 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing Coupe, which had been left to rot in a cargo container in the desert, back in the 1970s. He lovingly restored the car, which is now valued at around $1.8 million.
He owns the historic and attention-grabbing 1939 Lagonda V12. The same model of the open-top car sold at an auction back in 2012, for an eye-watering $2.56 million.
He also has a bright-yellow 1967 Lamborghini Miura P400, of which only 474 have ever been made—estimated to be worth around $3.5 million.
Jay Leno owns scores more of rare and valuable cars and motorbikes. His collection has been estimated to be worth at least $50 million, although it’s probably much higher than this, since many of the cars are worth over a million dollars each.
Has he ever sold any of his cars?
Jay reports that he has never sold any of his cars, which helps to explain why he owns such an exorbitant number of them. However, he has donated several vehicles to be auctioned off for charities.
In particular, Jay Leno has donated several vehicles to raise funds for Wounded Warrior and Fisher House, which aim to help veteran soldiers.
What got Jay Leno into cars?
Leno grew up in rural Andover, Massachusetts. As a child, he would help to fix tractors, lawn mowers and other vehicles.
Leno told an MSN interviewer that people would abandon vehicles fairly regularly too, and one day, when he was 11 or 12, somebody left an old Renault in a nearby field.
Jay and his friends fixed it up and would drive it around his backyard while his mom watched through the window.
The star remarked, “Of course now they’d call child services, and the parents would be taken away. Back then, it was seen as not a bad thing—it taught you how to fix cars and get things running.”
Jay Leno never intended to become a car collector, he simply bought the vehicles he liked.
He has three considerations when it comes to adding another vehicle to his fleet—it should have “technical and historical significance [and] it should be fun to drive. And it should be attractive to look at.”
What is Jay Leno’s Garage?
The retired talk-show host started the motor vehicle program back in 2014 with an online special. The show was then adapted into a prime-time TV show the following year.
On the show, Jay reviews and tests various cars and motorbikes. He also lets viewers get a look into his own garage, based in Burbank, California, where he stores his prized collection.
Jay has invited reams of celebrity guest stars to join him on the show, including Elon Musk, Bruce Willis, Avril Lavigne, Billy Joel, Kevin Hart, George W. Bush, Tim Allen, Joe Biden and others.
Watch Jay and Elon take “The Cybertruck” for a spin.