Hey guys Sean Evans with The Drive. We are here in Burbank, at the mecca for any
gearhead. This is Jay Leno's Garage. We've gotten an invite to come down and
Jay's gonna show us his favorite pieces of American Muscle.
I mean there's always been what we call "muscle cars," but the term really came in
in the early 60s with the GTO with the 389 in it. This is one of Chrysler's early
examples. This is 66 Coronet. It's green, it does have bucket seats, but it's got
the 426 Hemi. And that's the key to these cars.
This is gorgeous. Yes they don't stop they don't go around corners, but in a
straight line they were really fast. These came with a 90-day warranty --
three months you got, that was it. You're on your own. You know? I've had it about
30 years but even -- single master cylinder. I mean this is really primitive I mean
there's no traction control there's no ABS I mean I was going up Coldwater
Canyon once and it was it wasn't raining but it was damn for the guy behind me so
I just nailed it and the car went --errrrrt. and they guy's like "beeep" I'm facing the guy. I go "sorry
sorry." It shows you how far cars have gone. That's a 70 Dodge
Challenger that also has a Hemi. And the "wanted, men" who can handle a real...
the sexism of the early ads like... and look it's not even staying on the road
and their own ad. It's over the double line and it's sliding around,
but this too had the incredible Hemi engine. Whereas the early one, the 66,
just looked like a taxicab, this one really went all out with the hood pins
and the wheels and the styling and you know the the hood scoops and the whole
deal. You know it's got the big gear shifter in it. They really wanted it to
look like a sporty racing car you know. --You have the new
Hellcat over right next to it right between
the two. Which you find yourself gravitating towards more? -- Well
these seemed incredibly fast back in the day, but compared to modern
stuff. I mean when I was a kid anything zero to sixty under seven seconds was
blindingly fast. This was low sixes now it's like walking around with a big
rolled-up sock in your pants it looks impressive but it doesn't really do
anything? You know you're not gonna win any races with this this will eat this
thing alive. I mean oh yeah if you want pure power but what gives you more of an
enjoyment when you're driving? -- Ah, that because this doesn't really... you
know when you read the road test of these cars they were only good for
going in a straight line. The 440 was actually a better street engine but the
Hemi would breathe better high rpm -- So do you take this out at all? -- Oh sure I
take it out a lot. I mean it's you know I think in the future these cars will
become what like snowmobiles and recreational vehicles are. You go out on
a weekend you go to the local car cars and coffee or you know the Dairy Queen
you do McDonald's you hang out with other guys, you bench race and talk
cars and maybe go for a little drive. The idea of driving something like this to
San Francisco I don't think anybody really would do that anymore ---
But you'd road trip in that? -- Yeah and that's no problem, but this you couldn't
get air conditioning, no power brakes
-- Just go faster! -- Yeah it was just you had to be a true enthusiast to own one of
these
The thing that's kind of fun is resto modding where you take an older car and
you make it a muscle car. I mean this car over here
I bought in 1972 for 350 dollars out of the Pennysaver when I came from Boston.
I didn't have a place to live but I bought a car first because you're in California
and that's more important better have something to drive than a place to live
and with the Buick it was actually big enough so you could sleep in it it's at
and my mother my mother-in-law's driveway for about 16 years while
younger prettier cars came along and then one day it was sitting there I had
flat tires and somebody put a note on the windshield obviously no one cares
about this car I'd like to buy I said so we dragged it back here who decided to
rest them out it we put a 572 big block in it we put Corvette and that's the
very first 572 crate motor that GM built and they put my name on the valve covers
is kind of a joke I didn't put my name in there but it's got disc brakes and it
actually stops and handles there's nothing funnier than blowing off
Porsches and Corvettes it it stoplights with this thing because it just looks
like a big old tank you know these weren't meant to be particularly fast
cars back in the day so the fact that it does it at all it's really funny but
it's what's the horsepower that you're getting out of this about 650 650
somewhere equal pound foot of torque yeah well you were over 500 foot-pounds
what we did on this was we put bigger wheels and to get the disc brakes and we
spun our own hubcaps to make it look stock that's so cool yeah so that's not
really what the original hubcap looked like that's as close as we could get
this is a one year only car this is a galaxy maybe had the galaxy then the
galaxy 500 the galaxy found her to excel well this was called the seven liter the
idea was to build a full-size car with muscle car power and when it came from
the factory I had 420 Aidan I made my dad buy one of
these in 1966 I actually tricked my dad into buying it
right we went into the dealership to look at cars and I didn't have any
galaxies my dad won a full-size car so my dad would just buy what's on the show
give me that one you know miss hell so we don't have any on the floor miss I
will go to show video and I said Lesotho Oh long jet take you know the guys well
four to six weeks you have it all right and I said that cut the engines all
right yeah whether we gonna get maroon alright maroon smile
so I said Tom Lawrence it was the same phone I remember sure she loved it so I
sat down and we went over the whole thing
and I or the police pursuit package the 428 with the muffler delete option
I couldn't trick my dad into getting a stick he would never do that got the
automatic and he got him - brother police but yeah and then I checked off
the bucket seats you know he didn't see that then the car comes in my father
goes aw buck mop buckets what the hell is if I could see I said daddy can it
only comes a bug oh okay fine fine my father looks alright come on it's just a
car to my dad no so my dad gets in the car and he turns
the key they go he goes there's a hole in the muffler it's a brand new car with
a hole I'm not buying a cowl a hole the muffler he just starts screaming at Tom
the salesman you know and it sounds no missile ah no youyou checked muffler
delete why the hell would I check muffled early when you ordered the
police pursuit package my father says report and well now he knows he's been
having my dad he's really mad were you in
troubled over you in the doghouse I was when I wrapped it around the tree
you know these tended by the second year and messages you put your hand here and
go through the fender because it would rust out so quickly so we only had it
for a couple of years and then my dad gave it to me when he bought the Buick
Electra which is more his car with the tufted upholstery which my mother loved
you know that the big Tufts you know all that kind of stuff they like that much
better was quieter so they gave that to me and then I wrapped it around a tree
but I always loved it I searched high and low to find the seven elite it was
only 66 and then in 67 was an option he could an option package on my galaxy so
I wanted to recreate the car I had when I was a kid and we put a Roush 511 he
will take a look and we put a six-speed in it where'd you find this huh what did
you find the Canada Canada yeah okay it's hard to find mid-sixties cars
especially in cold weather to heaven rest it out I was just gonna say and it
was in good condition yeah we had to do quite a bit of work to it okay
Hotchkiss did the chassis for us so we have NASCAR suspension and there so it
handles but the ultimate restomod for me was a car we built 10 years ago and we
got a hot rod in the air of it with hot rod the or rather with hot rod magazine
come on I'll show you that one
this is a 1966 tornado when this came out it was the first front-wheel drive
American car in 30 years and they always used to say you couldn't put more than
200 horsepower through the front wheels of the car would wouldn't handle well GM
matters you get 375 horsepower I always like to look at this car it looked like
an American car you could take a guy from Albania show them this car you
don't it's gotta be America it just looks amazing it's big its powerful what
we did was it was we converted it to rear-wheel drive because we wanted to
get at least a thousand horsepower this is a 427 engine that one Lomov back in
2005 for Chevrolet we put twin turbochargers on it
each turbos got its own cooling system you know each see each turbo is cooled
here and here and the main cooling system here for the engine we made our
own Popoff valves because nothing was commercially available
it's got traction control it's got ABS it's that methanol water injection so it
drives and handles like a proper car what others do to 0 to 60 sprint
well it's two wheel drive and you don't have huge tires on the back so it's it's
plenty fast I mean I usually rollin start with it and then mail it and then
it's pretty good I'm not sure what the number is but it handles and drives
nicely all independent suspension we had to make our own chassis and then set the
body on it you know it's interesting when we put the body on we realize the
antenna went here so what we did is we pulled the water tank sleeves it and
have the antenna come up through the center of the water tank just to keep
everything looking a hundred percent stock the one thing I'm proudest over
those wheels cities are custom yeah we started with a 400 pound block of
aluminum and cut these wheels because I didn't want to put mags on it
22s I wanted to keep the integrity of the original design so normally this
without a 15 inch tire now it's got a 17 inch we made a 17 inch wheel so you can
get the big Corvette disc brakes in there so it drives and handles nice and
it's actually about 400 pounds lighter than the original car because the
chassis and the in the engine are lighter than the original engine it
within this but it runs and drives and handles nice so where do you take it
when you see I mean I just I Drive it I mean it's it's a car you know I use it
you know I mean I don't give it to the valet like that
anyway that's my idea of some classic American Muscle and some American Muscle
it's been that's demotic this is so cool thank you so much time thanks good to
see you again thanks for watching