Jay Leno has a close call when brakes fail driving a $24,000 car from 1938 that defied every convention

When Jay Leno took this 1938 car out for a spin, he didn’t have the brakes failing on his bingo card.

It’s one of the scariest things that can happen to a driver, and it just happened to the chief car aficionado himself.

The 1938 Phantom Corsair is a distinctive concept car, which cost $24,000 to build back in the day.

But how would it handle in 2026? Jay Leno was about to find out for himself.

Jay Leno tests the ‘original concept car’

The 1938 Phantom Corsair is a beautiful car in the sense that it looks like it drove straight out of a vintage comic book.

At the time it was made, it was intended to be sold for $15,000 – which was a whole lot of dough at the time.

The brains behind the car was Rust Heinz, the second son of the H.J. Heinz family.

Yes, that Heinz family – the one who make ketchup.

Not interested in following in the family business, he opted to map out a career as an independent industrial designer.

In 1936, he purchased a Cord 810 sedan to make it into his dream vehicle.

At the end of the design process the Phantom Corsair was complete, adorning an aerodynamic aluminum body, and with a modified Lycoming V8 producing 190hp at the heart of it.

It was capable of reaching 115mph, but problems with its design led to severe overheating and poor visibility.

At any rate, Heinz’s death in 1939 ended plans for a limited production run.

Fast forward to the present day and it was Jay Leno’s turn to get behind the wheel of this car.

As a permanent exhibit at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada, this car is a certified piece of automotive history.

But how would it handle out on the road?

Well, not too well, to tell you the truth.

While driving the car at Burbank Airport, the car suddenly lost all braking power.

Fortunately, choosing to drive at an airport saved both him and the car from a worse fate, as they weren’t out on a public road.

As seen in the video below, being on an open runway gave him enough time to let the car coast and gear down to a full stop.

Brake failures don’t just affect cars this old

It’s not a situation any driver wants to find themselves in.

But it can happen – as one Pennsylvania driver found out for himself recently while driving on the highway.

Another driver to run into trouble was a truck driver, whose brakes went bust on him as he was going down a mountain road.

It’s always important to make sure your brakes are in good condition – these are the sounds you need to pay attention to.