<VV> My visit to Leno's "Big Dog Garage"

[Frank F Parker]

I was in Ca last week for the Long Beach Grand Prix with the Corvette C6R 
team and had a chance to visit Leno's shop, see all the cars and have him 
made dinner for all of us. He has a shop with hoists and some great 
tooling including a water jet cutter for flanges and a stereo lithlography 
(sp) machine for making most anything in thin layers. Leno showed me a 
timing chain and a small crescent wrench both made by the machine. Shop
also has a great stainless kitchen for food prep.
Room for a few cars in shop and one was the Corvair 95 rampside almost
done. It was painted red top and bottom with a cream color center stripe.
All trim was done but the ramp was not installed yet. The interior looked 
good but radio and center horn button not installed. Shop forman said he
wanted to put in a 911S engine but Leno wanted a stock motor.

Ecojet turbine car was there and we put it on hoist and had a look 
underneath. Very nicely done. To start it you need to spin it at 15%
turbine speed which takes a couple of big batteries. Because idle is
so high, at first, it developed 200 hp at "idle" and you needed to
hit the brakes pretty hard to hold it. They got it down to 50 hp.
Car uses helicopter gear box and corvette auto trans.
First time they ran it, they tried to turn it off and it would NOT go off.
Apparently no fuel shut off and batteries were buried. Had to let it run 
till fuel ran out.

Several other buildings with cars, bikes of all kinds.
There is a Dusenberg room with 20 cars, 1/2 of the Bugotti.
Lots of steam engines and steam cars.

The turbo Toronado with 1100 hp and lots of boost. It can make more but
only 91 octane in CA. Frank B will LOVE that it uses LOTS of water 
injection. Has a 8 gal water  tank and uses electronic proportioal
controller for water injection.

The red Corsa 180 he recently bought from a Corsa member was VERY nice and 
being shown in a prime location. It was next to a #263 unrestored 
Gullwing.

Leno took a few guys for ride a Baker electric car from 1900. 100 mile 
range and 25 mph top speed. Used in NYC around turn of century.

Nice Audi R8, Ariel Atom roadster etc etc

BIG custom roadster built in 40's with Allison V12 and 3000 ft# of torque.

There is literature for almost all the cars that had been blown up to 8 x 
12 feet size and mounted on walls-almost as much fun as cars.

Saw a green Tatra V8, 30's Chrysler AirFlow, unrestored WWII sidecar bike 
and 50 others. Saw a Ford Shogun- like a R5 with midengined 3L 4 valve SHO
motor.

Had a Porsche Carrera GT that had been run at Talladega for a high speed 
run. Leno had run the car at 190 mph and lifted off the throttle and got
what we all know as " throttle lift oversteer" He spun MANY times, hit 
nothing but a yellow traffic cone, which is now in the garage AND 
autographed by all the people at the test.

Leno made dinner- he had a 20 lb block of ground beef, made 3/4 # paddies 
and cooked them, made a salad with pasta, also had chips etc. We sat 
around and ate and did the usual BS when car guys gather. I asked him if 
he was going to have salad. No, he said, " I do not do vegatables"

We were thre late and I had to go to john. Flush handle was a 4 speed 
shift knob.

I made notes but I am sure I missed lots. Hope everyone gets a taste of 
the place. His web site of "Big Dog Garage" has lots details.

regards,

Frank Parker

PS: going to another LeMans, they compacted the time this year.