[DeTomaso] Mike Drew on Jay Leno's Garage?????
Larry - Ohio Time
Larry at ohiotimecorp.com
Mon Jun 23 16:22:55 EDT 2014
Outstanding work as always Mike!
Jay did say one thing wrong, "I am now a member of the club". Jay you are a
member of the family now.
Larry - Cleveland
-----Original Message-----
From: DeTomaso [mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com] On Behalf Of Mike Drew via
DeTomaso
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 3:06 PM
To: michael at michaelshortt.com
Cc: detomaso at poca.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Mike Drew on Jay Leno's Garage?????
In a message dated 6/23/14 7 48 13, michael at michaelshortt.com writes:
Great job Mike, so now tell us all what happens next, did you get a private
tour of the place, did Jay let you sit in any of his toys?
>>>It was a fantastic day. I'd been there before; he gave Lori and me a
private 2.5 hour tour of his collection back in December.
On the day of the shoot (last month, on the way to the Fun Rally) I got
there early and he was a bit late, so I got to spend another hour or so
wandering around the shop by myself. The shoot took about two hours, but
then he
invited me to stay and play cars some more. He did two more shoots with
other people, so I just sort of wandered around and watched the process.
After they left, the crew, mechanics, Jay and I had lunch in the shop, and
then
he took me for a ride in his 1925 Doble steam car.
That turned into an adventure and a half over the space of the next several
hours. I had already Drewsastered his Pantera during the shoot (A/C
system let go), and then when we were many miles from the shop in the Doble,
it
conked out due to a mega water leak. We were able to fill the tank at a
convenient fire station (!) and then limped slowly back towards the shop,
stopping again in the barrio at a used tire store for more water. Once
back in
the shop I helped them get it up on the lift to evaluate the problem.
A water transfer pump that sends water from the storage tank to the boiler
had let go, and water was cascading out of it. While they were under the
car checking it out, I backed away to take in the whole scene. My next
words
were, "Fire fire no shit this car is on fire!" It was completely ablaze
under the hood! After a mad scramble, Jay got an air hose, a mechanic got
a
blow gun for it, the car was lowered (still burning), I popped the hood and
they got after it with the air hose, literally blowing the fire out (a
process that took longer than you'd expect).
Surprisingly it did no damage; it was apparently caused by gasoline fumes
spontaneously combusting due to contact with the hot boiler. With steam
cars, things like this happen apparently (he told me he has several videos
on
Youtube of him blowing himself up with steam cars).
Eventually we got cleaned up and called it a day--I was there at the shop
for about ten hours.
One of the best days of my life, and even though he set a record for the
first-ever TRIPLE Drewsaster, Jay invited me to come back sometime, as I had
mentioned to him that my late father loved Duesenbergs, so he wants to take
me for a ride in his SJ as a tribute to him.
What a terrific guy! He loves his Pantera, too. If you're in So Cal at
a car show, you may well see him with it. He told me yesterday that he
bumped into Leon Rower this weekend (whose immaculate, bone-stock blue
Pantera
wowed the crowd at the Fun Rally at the Saturday car show) and really was
impressed with his Pantera too!
Oh, and the Doble problem was caused by the water pump failing and
hydro-locking. Doble water pumps don't grow on trees (they only made 46
cars and
no two were the same) but fortunately he has so much machining capability
within his shop that he was able to have a new one made from scratch, and
the
car is back on the road already..
Mike
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