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Comedian Gabriel Iglesias just showed off two 1988 Monte Carlo SS coupes on Jay Leno’s Garage, and one of them still has the factory plastic on its seats. Chevrolet built just 16,204 before retiring the G-body platform for good. Here’s why a 180-horsepower cruiser from 1988 still makes grown men weak in the knees.
Dan Hallisey brought his numbers-matching 1971 Plymouth GTX onto Jay Leno’s Garage — then handed his passenger seat to the high school auto shop teacher who taught him everything he knows about engines. The 440-powered GTX, one of the last built before Plymouth retired the nameplate for 1972, still has enough torque to catch a first-timer off guard. It’s a rare episode where the teacher, not the car, ends up stealing the show.
One of just 302 four-speed 428 SJs out of 112,486 Grand Prix built in 1969, this survivor sat on jack stands for 27 years with about 13,000 miles before Jay Leno got behind the wheel. Here is why the SJ is the rarest and most rewarding form of Pontiac’s personal luxury muscle car, and what to check before you buy one.
Jay Leno takes his time with this 1966 Oldsmobile 442, and for good reason — only 54 buyers in the entire model year ordered the exact combination of options hiding under its hood. Original-owner documentation confirms what most surviving 442s can only claim, and a comment thread packed with firsthand family history adds even more depth to the story. One detail even traces back to the engineer who helped design the car’s air conditioning compressor. Watch to see why Jay calls this car a crown jewel.
Jay Leno sits down with AMC historian Mark Fletcher and his 1970 Javelin Mark Donohue Edition — a homologation special AMC built exactly 2,501 of, one more than the racing rules required. Fletcher’s own philosophy on car ownership, ‘I’m not collecting trophies, I’m collecting smiles,’ has become one of the most quoted lines in the show’s history. Watch the full conversation above.
Jay Leno gets a look at a car that shouldn’t exist by any normal logic: a brand-new 1968 Mustang GT 2+2 Fastback with Cobra Jet badging, built from freshly manufactured tooling rather than a restored donor car, and packing a modern Coyote V8 underneath period-correct steel. Watch to see how a Florida manufacturer is legally building Mustangs Ford stopped making decades ago.
Craig Jackson has watched more Hemi ‘Cudas cross the auction block than almost anyone alive as Chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson — and out of all of them, this 1970 example is the one he kept for himself, calling it ‘the quintessential muscle car.’ Jay Leno joins him for a drive through the canyons and hears the full story behind how Jackson acquired it. When the industry’s top authority on muscle car values picks a favorite, it’s worth paying attention. Watch to hear why this one made the cut.