Jay Leno can find the humor in almost everything, including zealous animal rights activists and even the fuel-sipping Toyota Prius, but when it comes to the environment, he's not joking around. Or so said the lantern-jawed comic and TV host, with a momentarily straight face as he helped pull the wraps off his new EcoJet supercar on Monday night.
Developed and built largely at Leno's Burbank "garage," as part of an unusual collaboration with General Motors, the ultra-light two-seater houses a biodiesel-powered turbojet engine.
"I wanted to build a modern car that didn't run on fossil fuel," explained Leno, "but (also) didn't drive like a Prius."
The project got underway last Spring, when Leno approached Ed Welburn, GM's global design director, with a sketch he'd developed on the back of a napkin. Working with Frank Saucedo, the head of the automaker's advanced West Coast design studio, a series of preliminary sketches followed, with the eventual design heavily influenced by the turbine-powered Firebird concept vehicle that highlighted GM's Autorama displays back in the 1960s.
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