Max Balchowsky's 1959 Old Yeller II - Jay Leno's Garage

for years and years or what was this no it was a period of about a year where it was the guy who had it posted it for sale for a lot of money beyond my budget but he was kind enough to keep calling me to tell me that he knew that he knew Max and that he had the files. He said you were sure you should buy this car and he saved me by making a call to I said that guy came with a trailer and I said that's it, yeah, yeah, now it was so hard to explain to the wife why you bought this, which I think most people don't know, consider just an old ugly car, how much did it cost?

Did you tell your wife exactly what you paid? Not really, because luckily we had Max over for dinner and, oh, and we got to know Max really well, we took care of him pretty well, so it was all part of the family and so was his wife. worked on the car she welded and she did all that well, I know, I know with that, yeah, she welded the chassis and pete brock, the famous designer of r.p brock, you know, he worked at hollywood motors for max and I know I'm still thinking that pete brock must be 150 years old. old because he's involved in all the big cars, I mean the stingray, I mean the cars, it was 60 70 years ago and he looks younger than me so I don't understand how that works, but he's an amazing guy, yeah, He's an amazing guy.

I know, and he was involved in this as well, which, well, gave me a nice little sculpture, yeah, of this car, and this is actually a pretty famous car in American road racing. You know, I always used to think the '60s were the golden age, but I realized. The '50s were really, if not the same, maybe even a better golden age because there were so many homemade cars, uh, Lance Revlo and the explorer, all those kinds of cars, competing against jaguars and exotic cars from Europe, and this one just come out from the back taking up the whole row with those ridiculous white wall tires or what I mean imagine you're in Italy and you're reading about Ferrari, let's say the Ferrari has gone to what's that again in front of the Ferrari here, this Big, ridiculous car, yellow with a white wall tower, that's funny, I don't know what those wheels are, those wheels, Buick rims, what are they?

They look horrible, yes they are actually standard rims, they are not racing, it's just fun. to see an era where you could build your own car, you could drive it to the track race, beat everyone and drive home again, yeah he never had a trailer and we really enjoyed taking him because people treat him like a car popular. Come and touch the fenders, of course, they don't touch the fenders or Ferraris on Maseratis, of course, but they will come and check if it is aluminum and they have wonderful comments. A lady in England said, "Oh, that's as pretty as a box of toads." of toads why is the bomb yeah, okay, I'll give you that, we can, we can take this hood off and see the engine, let's see, I got, I know you, you got some guys with this, where are our guys going, oh, let's see if ?

I can help here ladies and gentlemen, the famous Jimmy Shine, thank you, look at that, thank you, sir, thank you, thank you, now see, I thought I would have done that although they made a custom costume kit for the 401. Remember I had the fins . but that was not functional so there is no reason to have it so good, this is standard, yes this is a color, in other words if you don't see this green color it is a vomit green and if you don't see it then no it is. the color of the buick are these webers here uh no the stromberg oh strombo stromberg okay that's true yeah max designed one i have the one he designed oh often Houser made this intake manifold yeah I didn't know they made it for the skin.

It won't be running, yeah, oh, very good, so you can see it's set back, way back here, so it's actually a pretty balanced car. You will find it easy to drive. Dan Gurney said it's as easy as driving or pushing a baby stroller. Well, there you have it and what would you say? Horsepower is about three and a quarter three thirty at least that, but yeah, when you've got 6.6 behind you, that's a lot of wind in your sails. Yeah, well, I mean, it's like they say horsepower sells. cars torque wins races, that's true, yeah, yeah, and Max always said there's no substitute for horsepower, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's a modern thing, that's a little later , an extra large panorama, yes, it really is something, it really is something, yes, and I think there are little fragments that still belong to that period because that door that he made and the handle, the turning mechanism that he made, but they never fit together in all the photos and it still doesn't fit, the door has a big gap and um, and this is a This is an airplane filler cap and that's what Max had, so it's kind of a tribute to Max on the inside.

When you open it up, we have the safety fuel tank, the correct racing tank, but it's kind of a tribute to Max. I got you, there are a lot of dents, but we. I left it as is and haven't changed anything. I'm very impressed. Can I take you for a ride? Yes you're welcome. It has a lot of power. Jesus, you know the genius of this car is that the brakes are excellent. The direction is very good. the light feels like Ernie was saying amazing, what a thrill, this is a car I read about for years and years.

I never thought I'd get the chance to drive it, so it's cool, this car was born six and seven miles from the shop, that was kind. It's cool, there's so much history in this part of Burbank because after the war, all the engineers, all the airplane guides, they went out and worked at Lockheed, all the other airplane factories, they bought expensive cars or they bought cheap cars and they put them together. in hot rods like max did and this thing is boy, it's really brilliant, you see why it could beat maserati and a lamborghini, that lamborghini, but ferrari and alfa romeo had this huge 401 cubic inch engine where they ran 2.5 liter 3.5 at most even the jag was what 3.4 So you can see why this had a bit of an edge, but it's cool to sit in the same seat as Stan Gurney Carol Shelby Paul Bondurant Oh guys, I was lucky enough to meet you.

You know I was 10 years old when those guys were driving. This and the car matter what door you're in, you're okay, there's so much torque it just pushes you through, you know, this is a lot like Briggs' cunningham car, you know, I have that cunningham and that one has the 331 chrysler v8 in it. Obviously, it's a more expensive car than the maximum, with a better finish, but it's basically the same idea: a big-torque American engine with horsepower that beats everything else. Any other problem. It's funny to have just one piece of priced race car equipment on this car.

Standard Buick wheels. Standard Buick engine. I've got the Stromberg carburetors, okay, I'll give you that Muncie four-speed, uh, all American parts. Well, we have those jaguar arms. It's a four-speed, four-speed, four-speed Muncie out of a corvette. I love this mistake when a regular guy with no money but a lot of ingenuity and skill built a race car and took on the best the world had to offer. Amazing like this, I guess it's kind of an inside joke. This farmer only reaches 100 because he is certainly capable of much more. which was at home in third gear, a monster that no one bothered to fix, I can never imagine a Ferrari, oh my god, sold, I'll buy it great, but you know it's one of the best cars I've ever driven, right?

I'm surprised at how good the steering is and I was hoping to think it would be doing this, I mean it's a finger, it feels almost like 1950's Chrysler power steering, so it's very light and the torque, the torque , yes this has more torque than a hemi, for some reason it seems oh yeah what is this weight? 2400 no, about 22 20. 22 boy, he really is agile, he's agile, he's fast and he moves like butter, he just clicks the gears, he runs at 160. It's so funny you think about it. It looks rough, so you think it would be rough, yeah, but it's not.

I mean, I think this handles better than probably any Corvette of the era, yeah, you know, certainly, 59 to 60. But actually, the weight helps a lot too, it's a balanced car, yeah. I'm, I'm surprised, what a pleasure, I mean, I'm a bit of a big fart, so my feet are like in my face, I mean, obviously, it was the seat, I'd be a little further back, the brakes are fine, uh, the torque is. excellent the steering is what it did i mean you could drive these 24 hours no joke exhausted yeah i mean it really is impressive well you are a wonderful butler for this ernie thank you for saving this piece well , just no, it's really important because you know some guys would take something like this and put it in the museum and it would never work again, but yeah, you take it out and let comedians drive it, which doesn't make any sense, but in It's actually just an impressive piece. machinery now I want to go back and read more about it and read more about the history and stuff.

I'm going to check it out and see how amazing it is that it's like it's talking to you, yeah, you know, while you're driving, you realize it. It's a responsibility It's not just a journey Yes, you know, I agree with all that it just has so much personality Yes, you know, it really has soul, you can really tell I always like one I say a man's vision because men build cars in those days, women build cars now too, but it's a man's vision of what he thinks a car should be and it does exactly what he wants it to do, you know, I laughed when I said, oh spinal, it comes a hundred and eight right, it's not even connected because this thing is over 100 all day long, so yeah, I'd just be ripping that wire out every other day, but Ernie, thank you, I can't thank you enough, what a thrill, it's great to have it.

Thank you, thank you for being a great administrator, so what I'll do is I'll put your name with Mark a lot underneath, yeah, that's perfect, yeah, 100 a year, you put me with crayon underneath, uh, Shelby and those guys, well, it's fun. you sat where they sat, I'm telling you and that also adds to that, you're sitting where the giants sat, you know, and it really is, it really is a good thing, congratulations my friend, you have a real and thank you for take care of so well, it starts on a button it doesn't stop it doesn't wobble with the clutch I mean everything is just perfect except its appearance congratulations friend thanks you're welcome hey, see you next week thanks for watching this piece of history huh