TOP 5 CELEBRITY CAR NUTS

[samantha1170]

As always, I can't post this article about Jay being the No.1 Celebrity Car Nut - to see the article go to...

http://www.testdrivenau.co.cc/?p=168

SAMANTHA

[caroli]

WOAH! Niiiice! He is indeed...he sees something from a car and answers "pronto" about the history and stuff...
*he knew more about cars than about denise*

[Tiffinypie]

WOAH! Niiiice! He is indeed...he sees something from a car and answers "pronto" about the history and stuff...
*he knew more about cars than about denise*

True

[samantha1170]

Hi guys, I'm just testing to see if I can post articles now (we've had troubles in the past on the forum), so here's the whole article...

Top 5 Celebrity Car Nuts

Posted on 18th May 2009 by admin in TestED - Tags: cars, celebrity, eric bana, jay kay, jay leno, patrick dempsey, rowan atkinson, test driven
Who are the really car obsessed celebs out there?
To make our list, a celebrity needs to not only own cars, but know all about them and have a passion for them.
Obviously a lot of celebrities possess the dough to purchase fancy vehicles, but we’re only interested in those that love to DRIVE, not just pose.
Those that have become celebrities BECAUSE of their driving (e.g. Racing Drivers), are excluded here.

5. Patrick Dempsey

The Greys Anatomy star is the co-owner of the Vision Racing team in IRL(Indy Racing League).

Patrick also competes in races of his own, having finished the Rolex 24 Daytona Sports Car and Baja 1000 off-road races. He has driven in many motorsport events, both track and tarmac based, in several different classes over the years. Patrick drove the pace car for the Indy 500 in 2007 and is this year expected to make his Le Mans debut driving a Team Seattle Advanced Engineering Ferrari F430.

He also has a massive vintage car collection including a 1954 Jaguar XK120, a 1973 Jaguar E-type and a 1969 Merc. 280SE.

Dempsey is regularly seen driving his new Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Lotus Exige S, and Panoz Esperante GT - all focused driver’s cars.

Patrick is definitely a car nut.

4. Eric Bana

Aussie Hulk star, Eric Bana is a man with a love for cars.

Anyone who wonders at Eric Bana’s inclusion here need only watch his documentary movie “Love the Beast” to realise just what cars, and one car in particular, mean to this bloke.

It tells the story of Eric’s first car and how he’s kept it all these years. He and his mates working on it for hour on end to turn it into something special. Near the end of the film, Eric races it in Targa Tasmania and, well, we won’t give away the ending.

Throughout the film, Eric speaks to every expert he can find about his car and his passion for it. These include Jeremy Clarkson, Jay Leno, Rick Kelly and Dr Phil himself.

The movie is a celebration of all things automotive and Bana’s own car passion shines through.

For simply telling this story, in an age where movie documentaries about cars and auto passion are incredibly rare, Eric Bana gains his spot in our list.

3. Rowan Atkinson

British funny man, Rowan Atkinson, is a renowned car nut and has been for years.

When he first made it big in comedy, he celebrated by buying an Aston Martin V8 Zagato.

When “Bean : The Movie” made him megabucks, he famously bought (and later crashed) a McLaren F1, one of the world’s fastest production cars.

In 1991, he starred in ”The Driven Man”, a series of sketches he wrote himself which showed Atkinson driving around London trying to solve his car-fetish, and discussing it with taxi drivers, policemen, used-car salesmen and psychotherapists.

He has a huge collection of both classic and modern cars including an Aston Martin DB7, which he is seen driving regularly. Rowan has also competed in motorsport with his Zagato, competed in 2 full seasons of the Renault 5 Turbo One Make series and holds a HGV (Truck) licence.

The comedian’s car passion and expertise has been recognised by car journalists to such an extent, that he has also been employed to write car reviews for both CAR and EVO magazines in the U.K.

2. Jay Leno

Jay Leno never sells a vehicle. He collects them all and now has over 160 of them, which he keeps in a 17,000 square foot sized garage. His collection spans more than 100 years of automotive history and is truly diverse. From a 1906 Stanley Steamer to a 2009 Mini E and just about anything in between. Classic, Race, Hybrid, Electric. It’s all there.

Most importantly, Jay still drives them all. They aren’t left sitting as display pieces only, like some museum. He actually gets them out and enjoys them.

Leno’s garage also contains a CNC Mill, a water jet cutter, sheet metal equipment, a lathe, a regular mill, and welding equipment from Tig and Mig to allow for easy fabrication of car parts on-site.

Jay’s garage has now become a net entity of it’s own and can be found at http://www.jaylenosgarage.com. We’re as guilty as anyone of spending hours pouring through the massive amount of content on Leno’s site.

1. Jay Kay

Jay’s encyclopaedic knowledge of vehicles, and his passion for the same, leads to a hand picked car collection that reads like the dream garage of any car nut.

Selected Gems include :

Aston Martin DB5
Original Mercedes Benz 300SL Roadster
BMW 1602 (his first car)
BMW 2002 Turbo
Mercedes Benz G Wagon G500
Fiat Arbarth 1000
Lamborghini Miura SV
Ferrari Enzo
Ferrari 550 Maranello
Maserati A6G
Audi RS6 Avant
Rolls Royce Phantom VII
Bentley S1 Continental Drop Head Coupe

And JK isn’t afraid to use them either. He famously clocked up over 5000 miles in his Enzo(a car sold only to those Ferrari believed worthy) within 3 months of ownership.

JK can spot a car from a single detail and in that instant, describe all it’s features, specifications and history.

He enters tarmac events, does long distance driving trips for the fun of it, and is always seen at the Goodwood speed festival where he arrives early and leaves as late as they’ll let him.

Some believe Jay Kay missed his calling and should have been in an auto related field of some kind, and there’s plenty of evidence to support this notion. We just wish there were more celebs like him out there with the kind of car passion he displays. Which is why he tops our list.

SAMANTHA

[Sandriche]

thanks for that article..i never really knew exactly how many and what kind of cars he collected over the years..here they are all listed .. sounds pretty good to me and i don´t really know a lot about cars

[caroli]

I'm envying a lot more than healthy that Maserati....