WHAT DOES JAY LENO THINK OF CORVETTES?

Check out these excerpts from an interview with Jay Leno posted on motorsport.com after driving the new Z06 Pace Car for the Daytona 500- (thanks Steve S)

JAY LENO PRESS CONFERENCE - DRIVER OF THE CORVETTE Z06 PACE CAR FOR THE DAYTONA 500

JAY LENO: "I love the Corvette Z06 with its 505 horsepower. Actually, I believe this is the first time in history of the race when the pace car has more horsepower than the actual race cars. So I could theoretically blow them into the weeds.

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE YESTERDAY IN PRACTICING TO PACE THE FIELD? "It was a lot of fun. I think we got up to about 145 - 150 mph. It is kind of cool to be lapping at those speeds with the air conditioning on and the satellite radio playing. I don't think the real guys get to do that.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL CAR COLLECTION UP TO NOW? "You sound like my wife. I have about 80 cars. It is getting a little silly. Some are extremely valuable and some are silly cars that I like. I have a bunch of Corvettes; I am a big fan of those. I am a big fan of the American stuff. That is what I like. I mean, I live here. There aren't a lot of Chinese people or Korean people that laugh at my jokes. I tend to buy the cars of the people who watch my show. It works out pretty good actually.

"I am a huge fan of the Z06. I think it is the greatest performance sports car really in the world. There is no other car, there is no other super car, at least sold in America that has this kind of power that doesn't pay gas-guzzler tax. Corvette is the only car there is no gas-guzzler tax on it. Lamborghini can't do it; Ferrari can't do it, MG, Porsche. None of them can put out this kind of performance and this kind of mileage. I don't see them getting any credit for that and that is too bad because I think that is a real step forward.

"You know the first time they asked me if I wanted to drive the pace car, they asked me what it would cost to get me there. And I said 'Huh, a plane ticket?'. I don't have an agent or a manager either and I am not good at negotiating these things. To me, it is just the excitement of being able to do this. It is a lot of fun, it is great."

DO YOU OWN A NEW Z06? "I have a new Z06 coming, I like the new one. I have a 2002 Z06 that we have upgraded a bit. It has about 600 horsepower. It goes pretty good. That is another thing that is kind of cool about the Corvette that you can't do with a lot of the other super cars. It is interesting, whenever you watch these tuner shows, like the Car and Driver thing. The cars that show up and win are the Corvettes and the Porsches. Lamborghini, Ferrari, they break. This is a Chevy, you fix it with a hammer. You take it, beat the hell out of it, when it breaks, you can fix it. In the truest sense of a backyard mechanic kind of way there is a relationship with these cars that you don't really get with a lot of the other super cars. I always hear the Ferrari guys brag about how few miles they have on their cars - it is a '95 and it only has 800 miles. Well, good for you, I guess that is great, I don't quite get the point of that. "