People tend to remember celebrities for different reasons. When it comes to Jay Leno, most fans would admire him for his wit, cutting-edge as it is, and for his enviable car collection that we can only look at with awe.
Other celebrities have superb cars as well, and many others, like Paul Walker, have been known to be car crazy for their time. But we doubt Jay Leno’s collection can be rivaled by another, considering the kind of unique cars he has.
For example, there’s the EcoJet, a concept vehicle, so made by a collaboration between Leno and General Motors, and a completely road-legal vehicle at that. And yes, you read that right, a collaboration between Leno, a person with a penchant for cars and enough money to afford any, and General Motors, one of Detroit’s finest.
But we digress, as awesome as the thought of a Leno-GM collab is, the EcoJet is simply the kind of vehicle that makes your jaw drop and takes the wind out of your car’s sails. Here’s what we could dig up about it, and why we are so crazy about it.
The ‘Eco’ Part Of EcoJet
We understand the Jet part is an ode to its speed, but if it is called EcoJet, there has to be an ecological connection as well. Apparently, Leno is quite an environmentalist and he wanted this car to be as friendly to the Earth as possible. So not only is the paint of the car a non-polluting variety, even the interiors are not leather or suede based. While the seats have been done in suede from Alcantara, the suede is artificial and only looks like the real thing.
The one thing that the EcoJet is not, is electric. It’s a car that needs fuel to run and here too, Leno tried to make it as environmentally friendly as possible. While the EcoJet can run on gas, gasoline is a fossil fuel and something the Earth is running out of at a rate far greater than it can be produced. So the EcoJet was made in a way that it could also run on biodiesel, a fuel that can be made anywhere, in a jiffy and at less harm to the environment.
To achieve this, the EcoJet has two tanks. One carries biodiesel while the other carries kerosene, as in Jet-A fuel. The car is actually started with kerosene and end with it as well. Biodiesel burns great but can clog the fuel line, so running it on kerosene before parking flushes the line and purifies it. Starting it on kerosene warms the engine up, readying it for the biodiesel as well. Interestingly, the car can run on even left-over French Fry grease!
This and many more such reasons is why it took two and a half years for the car to be built.
And This Is the ‘Jet’ Part
The engine that powers the EcoJet is the same one used in smaller aircraft, the Honeywell LTS101 that makes 650 horses and a whopping 583 ft-lb of torque, back when it was built in 2006.
The revs are amazing on this one, which is why manual transmission remained an inconceivable option. Instead, the EcoJet was mated to a four-speed automatic transmission with a torque convertor, made by the same team that worked on the C5 Corvette at the time. The EcoJet also runs on a modified C5 Corvette chassis and has a carbon-fiber body.
The top speed? A cool 165 mph, even if the EcoJet did manage to lose a window when it reached 130 mph, not that Leno batted an eye!
The EcoJet is also one expensive car, considering the engine alone cost more than $160,000 back in the day, although according to an interview in NY Times, Leno did not divulge how much he ended up spending on the car. Knowing Leno and considering the EcoJet was a backyard project that went way out of hand, we are pretty sure it was a bomb.
The Coolest Bit About The Design
Despite the gorgeous, if Batmobile-like design of the car, getting in and out is a bit of a hassle, and an undignified scramble as well. Getting it to be fast meant the design of the car had to eschew space so the steering wheel has to be detached before ingress and egress. The seatbelts are also racing harnesses, considering the door-falling temperament of this supercar.
The coolest thing about its design, of course, is the fact that first, it was the engine that was designed. Everything else in the car was designed engine outward and upward. The size of the engine meant the car’s cockpit was positioned forward and the seats were right on top of the front-axle middle. The nose became rather flat as a result.
But say what you may, the EcoJet is the crowning glory of Jay Leno’s car collection.
Sources: Motor1, TheNewYorkTimes