Video: Jay Leno puts the 2011 BMW M3 through its paces

Jay Leno has about as big a car collection as anybody we’ve known so it seems a little off that the man known for his taste in classics and exotics would actually have something that’s a little on the contemporary side sitting in his garage.

That ’contemporary’ ride - at least as far as his standards are concerned - is the 2011 BMW M3. Granted, for a lot of us, owning a 2011 BMW M3 is a one-way ticket to the land of awesomeness, but for Jay Leno, the very same man who owns one of three Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita, a BMW M3 does seem a little mainstream.

Nevertheless, Leno doesn’t seem to mind being seen in a 2011 M3. As a matter of fact, in the latest episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, the comedian even had some flattering remarks to say about the car and after heading over to the 2010 Long Beach Grand Prix where he talked with Martin Birkmann, BMW’s motorsports chief and Bill Auberlen, a driver for the BMW/Rahal Letterman Racing Team, Leno discovered a new-found appreciation for the M3, proving that even if the car is ordinary by comparison, Jay Leno can still spot an awesome car when he sees one.