 Jay Leno and his 1916 Simplex. Click image to enlarge |
By Peter Bleakney
1. Jay Leno – Probably the world’s most famous car nut, Leno keeps his eclectic collection of nearly 200 cars and motorcycles in a sprawling warehouse complex in Burbank, California. He possesses a thorough historical and mechanical knowledge of each one. There’s no real rhyme or reason to this collection. He buys what ever strikes his fancy – be it a priceless pre-war Bugatti, a Stanley Steamer or a turbo jet-powered motorcycle.
A few years ago I had the good fortune of spending a few hours with the comedian/talk show host in his magical playground. He took me for a spin in a 1909 Baker electric car, an elegant and whisper quiet 1924 Doble steam car, and then we tore up the freeways in a dead stock (looking) 1955 Buick Roadmaster sitting on a Corvette chassis with a Chevy 572 crate motor kicking out 620 healthy ponies. Leno has a full time staff of four mechanics/fabricators and a complete workshop. He’ll call ahead to have his boys ready one of the vehicles which he picks up on his way to the TV studio. If he had to pick a fave, it would be his 1995 McLaren F1. “I believe we don’t really own these cars,” he says. “We just keep them for the next owners.”
  Jay Leno driving his 1925 Doble (top); Jerry Seinfeld in a 1970 Porsche 908 (photo courtesy Porsche). Click image to enlarge |
2. Jerry Seinfeld – Still making gazillions of dollars from his TV show “about nothing” that ran from 1989 to 1998, Seinfeld certainly has his priorities straight. A Porsche collector extraordinaire, his assemblage of Zuffenhausen’s finest, with a value of over $10 million, is said to be the world’s largest outside of the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.
Notable residents include a 1955 550 Spyder (similar to the one in which James Dean met his fate), a 917 Le Mans racer, the “ahead of its time” 959 (one of only 337 built), a 1970 908/03 and a Carrera GT. His first Porsche was a 911 Carrera, bought new in 1988. While much of this collection resides in California, he built a $1.5 million garage in Manhattan to house a handful of his faves.
3. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, who is a fixture at the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed, has a penchant for exclusive vintage racing cars and, not surprisingly, the wherewithall to pursue this passion. Selling over 200 million records will do that. He keeps his collection of about 50 vehicles in a hangar in the Cotswolds. They are of the very highest quality and span all eras from the turn of the century to almost the present day.
An accomplished vintage racer in his own right (he’s raced at Le Mans five times), perhaps his most well-known possession is a priceless 1967 Ferrari 250 GTO. Other jaw droppers include a 1927 Type 35 Bugatti, 1955 D-type Jaguar, Maserati 250F and Birdcage, 1990 Porsche 962, McLaren F1 GTR, Gilles Villeneuve’s 1978 Ferrari 312T3, a 1931 Alpha Romeo 8C 2300, and the requisite Ferrari Enzo.
Mason says, “These cars only achieve their true beauty being driven near the limit of their potential.”
A few years ago, Mason decided his cars should earn their upkeep, so to speak, making them available for hire for videos, movies or promotional work through his company Ten Tenths. Not all are priceless icons – he also has a Trabant and an original Model T Ford gag car owned by Coco the Clown.
4. Ralph Lauren – Style magnate Ralph Lauren has arguably one the most precious auto collections on earth. While not expansive, every one of his 39 cars is an irreplacable gem, with the crown jewel being a 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Coupe – one of only three models ever built (and two left in existence). This swooping black coupe with its exposed seams and button head rivets running down the spine would set a record for price if Ralph ever decided to sell. And he’s got a Bugatti Veyron to go with it.
Lauren also owns a 1929 Blower Bentley, a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Mille Miglia, a 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, a McLaren F1 and a 1930 Mercedes-Benz “Count Trossi” SSK which was designed by its flamboyant owner, the aristocratic Italian race-car driver Count Carlo Felice Trossi. The Discovery Channel recently produced a one-hour special on his collection entitled Speed, Style and Beauty.
5. Jeff Beck – British rock guitar hero Jeff Beck carries the rare distinction of being inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame twice – once as a member of The Yardbirds (1992), and once as a solo artist (2009). He is also a serious hot rod afficionado.
On his bucolic country estate outside London, he built an oak frame stable (using medieval construction methods) to house a collection that’s heavily weighted with classic Deuce Coupes and Roadsters (1932 Fords). Beck is connected with the top builders in southern California, and while he has a few rods from those folks, most he has built himself from the ground up. Not only does Beck play a mean Strat, he can also weld up a storm. “I can’t describe the feeling of turning the key on your first built hot rod.”
One of his prized rods is an exact copy of the yellow 1932 three-window Ford Coupe from American Grafitti – a car he built after losing a bid on the original. He also owns a 1963 split-window Corvette Stingray bought when he was in the Yardbirds some 40 years ago. Almost every car he owns is American. “They got the cars right and they got the music right.”
6. Rowan Atkinson – While we all know British comedian Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean, and will forever equate this bumbling mute with a ratty old yellow Mini, many might be surprised to learn Atkinson is a dedicated car enthusiast and collector. He has also contributed columns to British auto magazines Car and Evo.
Atkinson started his car collection in 1981 with an Aston Martin V8. He now owns several classic cars and once competed in a veteran car race across France driving a 1958 AC Ace. Atkinson has a penchant for British iron, owning a Bentley Mulsanne, MG X-Power SV, Jaguar XKE, Lotus Carlton, Aston Martin DB7, Morgan Aeromax, a rare Aston Martin V8 Zagato and ever rarer McLaren F1 supercar. Can’t forget the green Ferrari 456GT with raspberry leather and three Mercedes-Benz including a silver taxi Mercedes-Benz 500E with over 320 hp.
One car he won’t own is a Porsche. “I have a problem with Porsches,” he once said. “They’re wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people – and I wish them no ill – are not, I feel, my kind of people. I don’t go around saying that Porsches are a pile of dung, but I do know that psychologically I couldn’t handle owning one.”
Click here to see a shot of Atkinson beside his, er, compromised McLaren F1. We can only assume Mr. Bean was driving it at the time.
7. Tim Allen – Having grown up in Motor City, actor Tim Allen has a thing for Detroit iron. He played on his passion for hot rods during his long-running Home Improvement sitcom by building two cars on the show – a maroon 1946 Ford Convertible with a 292 ci flathead V8 and a blue 1933 Ford Roadster fitted with a Chevy 350 – both of which he still owns. He keeps his collection in a California warehouse. One of Allen’s more notorious rods is a chopped and channeled silver 1956 Ford F150 pickup sporting a supercharged 426 Hemi that fries the rear tires with 1,100 hp.
Other notables include a 1996 Chevy Impala SS with a Corvette ZR1 engine, a 1968 Shelby GT500 KR, and the Tim Allen Moal Roadster Special. Built by Steve Moal, this licorice-black, one-off street rod has a Ford Racing 351 with SVO GT40 aluminum heads and Edelbrock manifold. On the international side, Allen keeps a late 60s Ferrari 330 GTC and a Porsche Carrera GT, which he calls “a life-changing experience.”
8. Billy Gibbons – “There is a strange connection between rock n’ roll music and this passion for the automobile. I don’t think anyone has been able to truly pinpoint that mysterious bridge.” So sayeth Billy Gibbons, the ZZ Top guitarist who has forever aligned his timeless blues/rock trio with the red 1933 Ford three-window “Eliminator” coupe – arguably the world’s most famous hot rod.
Gibbons is a hot rod purist, owning many classic creations that adhere to the historical arc of the rodding culture, starting with a 1932 Ford Roadster with flathead V8 that could have dropped in from 1941. A mint 1961 black Cadillac Coupe de Ville with only 24,000 miles is his latest object of affection.
Many of Gibbon’s bizarre customs spring from his own mind (a 1962 Chevrolet nicknamed Slampala, a decked-out 1946 Ford sedan dubbed Big Mambo, a 1950 Ford coupe named Kopperhead) and are brought to fruition by some of the biggest names in restoration and custom work. The 1958 led-sled Cadzilla, built by the late Boyd Coddington, is a stunning piece of rolling art.
Gibbons has collected so many cars, he doesn’t even want to guess at how many he owns. “My accountant has wisely reminded me to forget about it.”
9. Two-time WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) champion Bill Goldberg starting collecting Mopar muscle cars when he was on the road and the money was pouring in. His love affair with Chrysler products started in high school after his first ride in a yellow Hemi-powered ’67 Plymouth GTX. “I’ll never forget the brute force that car possessed. It struck something in me that has blossomed into an addiction.”
His collection hovers around 20 cars, including a blue ’68 GTX convertible, a ’70 Barracuda 440 Six-Pack, a ’69 Hemi Charger R/T, a ’70 Hemi ‘Cuda Convertible and a ’67 Plymouth GTX like the one that started it all. He also drives a Shelby Cobra 427 and a Mustang Boss 429 “Lawman” – one of the two cars used in the Vietnam War to entertain the U.S. Army and to spike the servicemen’s interest in Ford’s pony car.
Goldberg currently hosts a garage makeover show on the DIY Network called Garage Mahal.
10. Actor Nicolas Cage is a bit of a legend when it comes to overspending. His ex-financial manager, Samuel Levin, claims in 2007 alone Cage bought $33 million in property, 22 automobiles and nearly 50 pieces of expensive jewellery, art and other exotic items. He keeps up to fifty vehicles in a warehouse at the Santa Monica airport, which has a rotating door as cars and motorcycles come and go.
Cage is a Lamborghini enthusiast, with his prize being a Lamborghini Miura SVJ that had been owned by the Shah of Iran and was confiscated from the Imperial Garage during the 1979 revolution. He paid half a million for it – about 200 grand over market value.
At his peak of spending, he was buying the latest from just about any luxury car maker when it hit the market, be it a Ferrari, Lambo, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce or Bentley. He’s been seen in a Ferrari Enzo, a priceless Ferrari California 250 Spyder, and kept a Jaguar D-Type on exhibit in the billiard room of his Bel Air mansion.
Recent years have seen Cage in serious hot water with the IRS, so it’s unclear how many cars he’s sold to help clear the bill. He could have also unloaded the Gulf Stream jet, the two islands, two yachts, his castle in England, the albino boa constrictors…
