5 Rarest Production Cars in Jay Leno's Collection (2024)

Born on April 28, 1950, in New Rochelle, New York, James Douglas Muir Leno, better known as Jay Leno, started as a stand-up comedian but became known worldwide for hosting The Tonight Show on NBC from 1992 until 2009 and again from 2010 to 2014.

Thanks to his successful career, Leno, who's also a diehard car enthusiasts, had the opportunity to amass one of the most famous car colections in the US.

Since his retirement from The Tonight Show, Jay has been treating gearheads around the world with his fascinating car series dubbed Jay Leno's Garage, which started out as a TV show and is currently a YouTube series.

His collection includes aproximately 300 vehicles, including some fascinating one-offs that are quite famous, but in this article, we're going to focus on Jay's five rarest production cars, taking into account each model's original production figure.

1966 Chevrolet Yenko Stinger Stage II

If you're a fan of muscle cars, particularly those with Chevy badges, Don Yenko is a familiar name.

During the 1960s, Yenko's shop in Pennsylvania rose to nationwide fame for producing 427-ci (7.0-liter) L72-powered Camaros, Novas, and Chevelles.

However, only diehard Yenko fans remember that Yenko's first Chevy-based production car was the Stinger.

The Stinger was created in 1965 to hom*ologate a modified racing version of the Chevy Corvair for the SCCA B Production class.

The Stinger was available in four performance versions, ranging from the 160-hp, street-legal Stange I to the race-ready, 240-hp Stange IV.

Jay Leno owns a Stage II Stinger, which features a highly modified 190-hp version of the Chevrolet flat-six.

To gain SCCA hom*ologation, Yenko modified 100 Corvairs into Stingers in just one month and built another 14 from 1966 to 1969, bringing the total production to 114 examples.

1963 Chrysler Turbine Car

Since the 1950s, the Chrysler Corporation has been researching the feasibility of turbine engines in road cars.

The project lasted for over a decade and produced the 1963 Chrysler Turbine Car, a Ghia-bodied two-door hardtop coupe.

Under the hood, the car featured the experimental Chrysler A-831 gas turbine engine mated to a three-speed TorqueFlite automatic.

Able to produce 130 hp at a mind-blowing 36,000 rpm, the turbine engine could be fueled with conventional gasoline, diesel, perfume, or even tequila.

Chrysler produced 55 units, of which five were prototypes. The other 50 were leased to people for three months at no charge, but each individual had to keep a diary and provide feedback when turning the car in.

The experiment ultimately proved unsuccessful due to reliability issues, and most of the Turbine Cars were scrapped. Nine survived, one of which is part of Jay Leno's collection.

1953 Cunningham C-3

In 1950, Briggs Cunningham, a racer and team owner, made history by entering two Cadillacs in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, marking the first time an all-American crew took part in the legendary race.

But Cunningham didn't stop there. Shortly after the race concluded, he began building race and road cars under the B. S. Cunningham brand.

Introduced in 1952 as a prototype, the C-3 was, as the name implied, the company's third hom*ologation special.

A two-door grand tourer, the C-3's road version featured a beautiful body designed in Italy by the famed Giovanni Michelotti.

But while the body was Italian, the car's underpinnings were sourced from American manufacturers.

The C-3 was powered by a 5.4-liter Chrysler FirePower Hemi modified to produce 220hp.

With the exception of a couple of prototypes, all C-3s were produced in 1953. Five cabriolets and twenty coupes were built, and one of the latter currently resides in Jay Leno's garage.

1927 Duesenberg Model X

Duesenberg was an American manufacturer of luxury automobiles rooted in motorsports.

The company only produced cars for about 17 years, but they were some of the most advanced of the era.

Examples include the lavish Twenty Grand of the famous SSJ, which made no less than 400 hp in 1935.

Of its few production cars, the Model X was the rarest. A sportier version of the Model A, the very first production Duesenberg, the X was heavier and sat on a longer-wheelbase chassis.

Powered by a 260-cubic-inch (4.3-liter) straight-eight that made 100 hp, the X was produced in only 13 examples from 1927 to 1928. Of those, five are still around, and one belongs to Jay Leno.

1989 Ford Festiva Shogun

The Ford Festiva was a subcompact that few still remember. Released in 1989, it was designed by Mazda, and it was sold in various markets as the Mazda 121, Kia Pride, or Ford Festiva.

The model made it to US shores with the latter name for the 1988 model year with an attractive price, which made it reasonably popular for those who were looking for a cheap city car.

In 1989, racer and journalist Rick Titus, along with his engineer friend, Chuck Beck, founded Special Editions, Inc., with the goal of turning the Festiva into an American Renault 5 Turbo.

Like the French hot hatch, the Special Editions-built Festiva, dubbed Shogun, was thoroughly modified.

It received a widebody, larger wheels, and, last but not least, a mid-mounted engine. Sourced from the first-gen Taurus SHO, the Yamaha-designed 3.0-liter DOHC V6 produced 220 hp, enabling the tiny hatchback to hit 60 mph (97 kph) in 4.6 seconds and run the quarter mile in less than 13 seconds at 100 mph (161 kph).

After striking an official partnership with Ford, Special Editions planned to build 250 Shoguns, but in the end, only seven were completed, and one of them is now part of Jay Leno's impressive collection.