Jay Leno is probably the most popular celebrity car collector in the world.
His garage is like an art museum for car lovers, and there’s one car in particular that, amazingly, he got for free.
READ MORE: ‘World’s cheapest supercar’ is delivered in parts and needs to be built by hand
Leno owns a vast collection of cars, including some truly rare ones, and even one that he co-designed.
He also owns a lot of Lamborghinis, including a 1967 Lamborghini Miura in yellow.
For an unusual and crazy combination of reasons, Jay Leno actually got his car for free.
In an episode of Jay Leno’s garage, the 73-year-old collector said the car was bought by legendary singer, Dean Martin.
According to Leno, Martin’s kid blew it out and Martin couldn’t really be bothered to fix it so he sold it on.
The guy who bought it for peanuts thought it would be relatively easy to fix.
But, as Leno explains, in the 1970s this wasn’t so easy.
“Back in the late 70s, there was no internet. Where are you going to get Lamborghini parts?” Leno said.
“Just to call Italy [with] the old system, it would cost $100 just the first five minutes.”
The owner, who just so happens to be a friend of Leno’s, left it in his garage for years and eventually asked Leno if he wanted it.
Leno bought it and had it fixed and restored.
The irony is that Leno himself pointed out that these cars used to be cheap.
And that’s also part of the reason why he decided to focus on this rather than on a different Ferrari he had his eyes on in the same period.
It’s safe to say that’s no longer the case.
Any supercar from the 1970s and 1980s, and even the 1990s, is worth a lot of cash today.
Jay Leno calls it the ‘gazillion dollar’ car and he’s not wrong.
These days, on average, a Lamborghini Miura in good condition will set you back at least $2 million.
