Jay Leno’s “Room Of The Giants,” Massive Cars With Massive Engines
While there are plenty of car collectors out there with massive collections, it’s simply hard to compete with the likes of the diversity that you’ll find in Jay Leno’s garage. Not only does this massive car nut provide a home to one of the biggest and most diverse collections of cars in the world but some of these items are vehicles that most enthusiasts might have never seen or even heard of before. It seems like there’s almost always a learning experience to explore when Jay tells all about the cars that he has chosen to make his own. The stories behind each and every one of the cars really fills the mind with all sorts of different ideas as to what people were thinking while engineering all those years ago.
This time, we dive into one segment of the collection that’s particularly interesting. The room, known as the “Room of Giants” features, well, lots of obscurely oversized vehicles for lack of better descriptor. Why are they so big? The answer to that question lies under the hood. At one point in time, aircraft engines looked a lot like automotive engines and therefore, would even be used in some automotive applications. However, the catch was that these power sources would be a lot bigger and therefore, would make the vehicles that housed them more massive as well. This could create quite the interesting physical appearance to be able to absorb, especially when compared to today’s cars.
By following along with the video below, there is a lot to be learned as we’re taken on a guided tour of this room filled with giants, seeing exactly how vehicles that house aircraft engines came to life in such a way as to appease the consumer of the time. Just imagine if manufacturers still held concepts like this in place, taking aircraft engines and tossing them into mom’s minivan. While I think it’s safe to say that this is probably a concept that’s going to stay back in that era, it’s still a lot of fun to dig into and dissect, seeing just how much times have changed.
