Jay Leno drew a wild sketch of a car on a napkin and before he knew it GM had created a real life working version for him
Published on Feb 18, 2026 at 1:25 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Feb 18, 2026 at 1:25 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
Jay Leno has a vast car collection, which also includes a one-off that GM created especially for him.
It’s called the EcoJet, and if you’re a hardcore car fan, you probably know what it looks like.
It’s famously powered by biodiesel, which is another fact people might be familiar with.
However, most people may not know how this vehicle actually came to be.
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It all started with a napkin sketch
In the automotive world, Jay Leno has two things: a nearly unlimited amount of cash, and a huge car collection.
This means that whenever he talks, even automakers tend to listen.
At some point, Leno apparently began dreaming about owning a car made just for him.
And it all started with Leno’s lifelong passion for turbine technology (he even owns a rare Chrysler Turbine Car), combined with his talent as a car designer.
One day, legend has it, there was a collaborative ‘doodle session’ between Jay Leno and GM’s then-Vice President of Global Design, Ed Welburn.
The doodle session eventually evolved into a formal engineering project.
GM’s design studio in North Hollywood stepped in and turned those napkin scribbles into 3D renders and clay models.
The project only grew from there.
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Jay Leno’s GM is a ‘franken-car’
Jay Leno’s EcoJet is a ‘franken-car’ – a Frankenstein’s monster of automotive and aerospace parts.
GM used a modified Corvette Z06 chassis, a custom shell made of carbon fiber and kevlar, and it was styled to look like a Cadillac.
The ‘engine’ is a Honeywell LTS101 turbine, which is the sort of thing you’d find in Bell 222 helicopters.
It produces 650 horsepower and, more importantly, it can run on biodiesel, like, for example, refined soybean oil.
We’re using the present tense here because the car still exists.
It’s still part of Jay Leno’s collection, even though it hasn’t featured on his channel for almost a decade at this point.
Although he probably doesn’t drive it that often, this creation definitely doesn’t deserve to fade into obscurity.
After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.
