Jay Leno's Room of the Giants

You just have to use what we call technology to avoid accidents. Does it even have reverse gear? Oh, of course it does, of course it doesn't have brakes, but it does have reverse gear. Hello, I'm Dennis Gage and welcome to my classic car, well, once again. I'm in California with my good friend Jay Leno Jay, you remember me. I am right. I don't know why it's my classic car because none of these cars are yours every time I watch this show, in my mind they belong to someone else. I should call your classic cars Welcome, that's what I think, they're mine, okay, let's take a look, this is what I call this kind of

room

of the Giants, the

room

of the Giants, because everything here is an engine big one, Arrow Engine, you.

I know, before World War II, even after World War II, when you wanted to go fast, it was the best ride, like now you put a Hemi engine in a little Dart, whatever it is or a duster, but before and Worldwide. World War II airplane engines very similar to automotive engines, they were just a larger version of the automotive engine, it was the biggest you could get, basically you get two ignitions. You have a lot more displacement in cubic inches. A standard built airplane, so what people would do, they would put airplane. engines in passenger cars or build a passenger car around a huge airplane engine.

One of the first cars that Dennis and I made almost 20 years ago was this, this is my hispanos sua, it now has a Hispano suer Arrow 1915 18 1 12 L engine in It has a 1915 hispanos suasa chassis. This is a car that never It was produced, but it's all Hispanic Suasa and it's a V8 engine, but it's like a 90°, almost, isn't it? It's the first Arrow. The V8 engine was designed by Mark Burkett, a Swiss engineer, it was aluminum, with iron liners, obviously, it has a Zenith AOC carburetor, so if you go off the rails and you're upside down, the engine won't stop, so which is good to know.

Yes, it's nice to have, yes, but this is the engine that won the war in the First World War. It was produced in the United States under the name Wright Martin. It was produced in England under Wle and in France and Spain it was Hispanic and 50,000 of them were made. These wow and a lot of times you'll see sprint cars with one side locked and they'll run it like a big four cylinder, really a big 700 cubic on 4 cylinder and sprint cars, yeah, but very reliable, very reliable and generally the engine that beat this one. engine was this engine here this is World War I now this is a car called Rabbit one that raced in Brooklyn in 1921 wow and what it has is wow this is from one of the big Zeppelin airships it's a uh 18.8 L Ben, not Mercedes , just Benz, this is what they call Ben's Mercedes.

What it is is a Ben's Zeppelin engine in a 1908 Mercedes chassis, which is why it says Ben's Mercedes and the logo is different. Yeah, the logo was created by a very famous artist named Peter HK, he's probably the greatest American automotive artist, but as you can see, it's four valves per cylinder and you and you could see everything that was happening, oh, everything. What was happening with a huge Zenith carburetor, now it's these oilers. I mean they look like cups, but these little cups of oil come drips in there, you can see how much more advanced it's very rare for someone to advance the Germans at any time, but they were still running these big sixes and with the top valves and that was . an overhead camshaft 2 valve and that made about 300 horsepower this made about 265 275 so this is your push rod basically push rod here and then you see the Opa valves you see everything moving , yes, the type of oil goes everywhere, yes, and that's aluminum, yes, oh, light weight has always been desirable, obviously, and these engines are not as heavy as you think now and this was a chain drive car, a chain drive car, yeah, here you go, here you go, it looks good. and sure, you don't want to put your hand down, yeah, you don't want to do that, no, this is it, but this car raced in Brooklyn and it runs right now, the only reason I won't take it out, it literally has no brakes at all, It has a transmission brake and it's just that we have another axle, we're going to put brakes on it, that's probably smart, yeah, it was this, I mean, this is the brake that's there or not, this is a brake. and then you have a transmission brake that grabs the driveshaft and you just know SM when it catches fire oh take your foot off the shaft it's the thought that counts and that's the shifter is on the side of the car yeah outside the car yeah that was pretty common that was pretty common uh the hiso has it outside the car too oh yeah yeah now this one had a fancier Dash I mean you had the brass R this is a car built although it uses all components from 1915 or that era, it is never a car that was built in the past, well this really is the real deal, yes this ran in Brooklyn and the same austere, just some kind of aluminum plate .

It was a race car, really, that's what it was. I had to go around the track. Now you remember the tank car. We made the tank car. How can someone forget about the tank car? But here's one that's pretty interesting. All these guys were fighting each other with their big motor. Dress the Swiss and the American and Hispanic, dress the German with the big Mercedes, this is the Italian contribution, this car is a 1917 Fiat with a 21.7 l six-cylinder engine. Each piston here has about the same displacement as a 327 Chevy, so you have, yes, you have an overhead cam chamfer.

Dy, four very sophisticated valves per cylinder and this is all brass, no, this is brass, it's brass, yes, that's like that, it's more difficult and this here, although it looks like plumbing and heating. an apartment building that should carbure large amounts of gasoline here, literally float. Bowl sized carburetors here. It's just amazing now that this car was raced in Argentina back in the day, uh, this one didn't have brakes either, but it used to. I have a big hook here, the idea is that when the guy ran off the road, the hook would catch the barbed wire to prevent it from ripping his head off and eventually dying.

It doesn't really work. It better have brakes. I'd prefer. That's a testament, but he crashed it pretty hard and I think in the mid '30s to late '30s this plate was put here to cover where the crankcase was damaged and then the car was rebuilt and here it is, literally. no brakes it had no brakes no now it has brakes it has rear brakes here this is another car we bought a bunch of front axles and we are going to put bushings and brakes on it but you have enough brakes to be able to get it out on the road you just have to use what we call technology to avoid accidents, but another chain transmission, true, another chain transmission.

I love the chain drive. To me the chain drive is just the epitome of this era, well it's just I mean it's a big honker. the chain is too and this would be this is your brake, like it's another sh and and it's a that's a three speed or uh, it's a four speed, it's a four speed, so does it even have reverse gear, oh? Of course it does, of course it doesn't have brakes, but it has reverse gear, it has reverse gear, yes, of course, but it goes pretty well, we can take it out, will you, take this one, okay, take this one out, well, let's get it ready, let me spin. in the oil, here's your fuel pump, this is your fuel pump, right here you want to increase the pressure a little bit, now what you do is you pump it manually and once the engine is running, there's a little bit, there's a small pump that comes out of the engine. that pushes the air into the tank and I'm looking at the steering wheel right there on that's the steering wheel your foot goes right between those teeth cool, okay, now we want, here we go, can you hear the fuel gurgling there?

There's a lot of things right, we've tickled it normally, I lubricate the valves, but I think they're pretty lubricated, but you'll see that everything works here. The oil is on. I'm not standing behind the exhaust. Actually, I don't think it's smart. not bad not bad ok set up the charger let's see what happens I guess that's it it's in contact the horn works this hasn't started in about a month or two it just turns on it goes off Give me another, uh, tickle. Wells up, yeah, I feel, I feel, fuel, I can, yes, I can, okay, is there a fit on this thing, yeah, right there, that's what spins here, right, ex, right there, 1500, the end of the world, the twin Magneto, oh, another tickle or you think, a little cold blood, let's see.

Here yeah, do another tickle, no, we have TR fuel pressure, that's great, although, eh, it's totally cool, it's not quiet, but it's not as loud as I expected, no, it's not that loud, not bad, compaction is not that high, let's scare Dennis. he always does it I want to check the TIR stay close Jay will take us in his 1917 Fiat Road rocket should be nice and toasty nice in a minute be careful with that you don't need a heater anymore perfect day for this Sounds like Marley's ghost with those chains ringing, but it is a perfect car to take out on a cold Sunday afternoon here, it reminds me of the Hispano, it is the same mistake, yes, how does that brake work for you?

Well, it's more of a psychological brake. than anything else, man, this baby flies, it's a plane, woo, he eats a lot, no, he's cool, nice and warm, yeah, so tell him about our next meeting, remember to honor the Timeless classic. I'm Gage tennis with J Leno, happy motorsports, woo.