Jay Leno made a fortune on the strength of his comedy as the host of The Tonight Show. He made some more money when he had to come back and rescue the slumping show from Conan O'Brien. As a consummate car gay, Leno used some of his well-earned riches on building one of the most amazing collection of automobiles, motorcycles, and steam-powered whatchamacallits ever assembled.

In his "retirement," the comedian started Jay Leno's Garage, which was basically an excuse for him to pal around with celebrity friends and drive really cool and unusual vehicles. Starting out as a special and web series, it was picked up by CNBC as part of their primetime lineup. Following a pair of serious accidents involving Leno, the network canceled the series after seven awesome seasons. Though the show went dark in January, the Jay Leno's Garage YouTube channel is still active, posting fresh content every week.

Picking the best episodes of Jay Leno's Garage is kind of like picking the best cars in Jay Leno's garage, there are so many to choose from. Obviously the greatness of the featured ride factors in, but there have also been some memorable guests that shape the list. In reality, any "best of" list is pure opinion and in the case of Jay Leno's Garage an argument can be made for all the episodes to occupy the top ten, but there have definitely been some standout moments over the years.

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10 S1 E1: American Muscle

The best place to start with the top Jay Leno's Garage episodes is at the beginning with frequent guest, Tim Allen. Originally aired on October 7, 2015 the legend began with Erica Enders, the first female Pro Stock drag racer, a spin in NASCAR chap Jimmy Johnson's souped-up classic 'Vette, and a burnout rematch between Leno and Allen.

Back in 1995, Allen came on The Tonight Show and mopped the parking lot with Leno in a burnout contest. Naturally, Leno wanted some payback with his new show, so the two comedians line-ed up in identical 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcats. After some mostly-friendly trash talk, it was on and the two rivals lit up the tries. Unfortunately, the cops showed up, so no winner could be declared.

9 S5 E2: Cult Classics

As the title would indicate season five, episode two of Jay Leno's Garage was dedicated to classic cult cars. Superstar musician Billy Joel shared his collection of vintage motorcycles, Jay attempted to drive the Landmaster 12-wheeled amphibious articulated vehicle, and there was an epic supercharged AMC Pacer versus AMC Gremlin drag race.

The highlight of the show was Charlie Sheen showing up in a Dodge M4S from his cult movie The Wraith. The space age prototype was built by Dodge in the early 80's and managed to squeeze 440 horsepower out of a 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine, with a confirmed top speed 194.8 mph. For whatever reason, Dodge never took the car into production and since the one Sheen was in didn't actually run, he and Jay went for a joyride in a Chrysler Laser.

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8 S4 E7: One Of A Kind

According to IMDb, "One of a Kind" from season four is one of the highest rated episodes of Jay Leno's Garage. Jay drove around with Jalopnik writer Jason Torchinsky in "the world's most dangerous car" and took a spin in comedian Jeff Dunham's "Hard Hat" car, plus he made professional nerd, Chris Hardwick's dreams come true with a ride in the Back to the Future DeLorean.

Though not an actual 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 from the film, it was an exact replica, that featured some original pieces of the movie car. Jay gave Chris a quick history of John DeLorean's rise and fall, and then they took the stainless steel car for a spin, both agreeing it wasn't that good of a vehicle. They ended by going to the actual mall from the film and recreated the 88 mph jump to time travel.

7 S3 E14: More Power

In the season three "More Power" episode of Jay Leno's Garage, the host explored some of the more extreme and powerful rides out there. He drove a two-story tall truck at the biggest borax mine in North America, checked out a hyper-fast a $2.9 million Bugatti Chiron, and discussed electric sports cars with the late great Jesse Combs.

When it came for pure demonstration of power, Jay put Twisted Sister frontman, Dee Snider, behind the wheel of a 2018 Dodge SRT Demon. With an 808 horsepower 6.2L supercharged V-8, Jay warned Dee that it was, "the most powerful engine in the world" but the rocker still wanted to give it a go. Once on the road, Dee admitted the sheer power was a little scary, but that didn't stop him from pressing the pedal to the floor and pinning him and Jay to the backs of their seats.

6 S7 E3 Elon Musk: Mars Legacy

Eposide #3 of Jay Leno's Garage's seventh season didn't see anyone bringing anything by the comedian's shop. Instead, Jay visited Tesla CEO Elon Musk's garage, A.K.A the Space X Star Base facility in Boca Chica Texas. Leno, who has driven and even owns, rocket-powered cars, got a chance to see, first hand, some rocket-powered rockets. Actually, skateboarder Tony Hawk brought his electric resto-mod Sting Ray 'Vette by, but mostly the 'sode was about space exploration.

Musk has been a frequent guest on Jay's show, but in this episode, he played host, revealing his plans to not just visit Mars, but to colonize the Red Planet. The ride of the day was the Space X Starship, which is a reusable rocket, which Jay speculated was about the size of the Empire State Building. Sadly, Jay didn't get to take it or any Falcon rocket-powered vehicles for a spin.

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5 S4 E10: Hard Work Pays Off

The tenth episode of Jay Leno's Garage features a really cool segment with Medea creator Tyler Perry and race team owner Roger Penske tearing it up in a Rod Emory Outlaw Porsche, but what ranks this one high on the list is the M. Night Shyamalan-esque twist. Jay had on Richard Carpenter of the 70s wuss-rock duo The Carpenters, who actually owns a wicked muscle car collection.

As one half of The Carpenters, with his sister Karen, Richard was responsible for some of the most sugary light sounds to rival elevator music ever, and yet he owns the death metal equivalent of automobiles. In the episode, Richard shared his 1970 Plymouth Barracuda Shaker Hood 440+6, which he bought new. Richard explained that he got the car before he was a musical success and couldn't afford the Hemi version.

4 S4 E8: Size Matters

Size really does matter in the season four, episode eight of Jay Leno's Garage. On the small end of things, Jay got his tallest friend in actor Brad Garret and squeezed him into a micro replica of a 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air. On the large end of the scale, Jay drove a monster Hennessey truck and then crushed things in a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Jay went to meet his action star buddy, driving an Armored Personnel Carrier, hoping to impress, but Arnold had an honest to goodness military tank. It turns out that when Schwarzenegger did his mandatory military service in Austria, he was a tank driver. Once he became a huge box office draw, he bought the same kind of tank he used to drive, which was a M47 Patton.

3 S2 E2: Crime Fighters

The second episode of season two of Jay Leno's Garage was all about fighting crime, from reality to fantasy. Jay practiced PIT maneuvers with the LAPD, took a spin in a military MRAP, and talked Ghostbusters and Blues Brothers with actor/comedian Dan Aykroyd, who has become an actual law enforcement officer. Jay then took the biggest bite out of crime in the episode by piloting the Batmobile.

This wasn't the Batmobile from the campy 60s TV show, or even the Tim Burton films, but rather "The Tumbler" from The Dark Knight trilogy and the DC Extended Universe. Jay got behind the wheel of the impressive movie prop and was shocked to learn that it actually drives. With Justice League director Zack Snyder as his side-kick, Jay pushed the Batmobile to the limit, making the streets safe again.

2 S4 E1: Movie Cars

Jay Leno's Garage kicked off season four with movie car spectacular. Singer James Taylor was reunited with the '55 Chevy from Two-Lane Blacktop, which was the same car Harrison Ford drove in American Graffiti, stunt driver Ben Collins recreated the chase scene from The Spy Who Loved Me, and Jay rode in horror as actor Jamie Fox did doughnuts in a Dodge Challenger.

Coolest of all, Jay got to drive a pair of Bullitt Mustangs. First, Jay got behind the wheel of the actual Highland Green GT390 from the Steve McQueen classic film. The car was unrestored and Jay said it was a little rough, but the history of the car was not lost on him. Next, Jay had a chance to drive a 480 horsepower 2019 Bullitt Mustang, built to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film.

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1 S2 E3: Anything But Four Wheels

A good argument can be made for the greatness and entertainment value of any episode of Jay Leno's Garage but the time he was involved in a crash in season two is indisputably the most memorable moment of the series. As the title would suggest, the theme was anything but four wheels on the ground, so Jay drove some snowmobiles and three-wheeled vehicles. It's when he took a ride in the famous wheelie car, Hemi Under Glass, that things went awry.

Hurst created a few exhibition drag race cars in which a 426 Hemi engine was moved to the rear of a Plymouth Barracuda, so the vehicle would do a wicked wheelie when the gas was punched. Bob Riggle drove one of those "wheelstand" cars back in the day and was a personal hero to Jay Leno. With a newly built Hemi Under Glass, Riggle took Leno for the ride of his life, when he flipped the car several times attempting a two-wheel stunt. While the crash looked brutal, thankfully both men were unhurt. The car however was pretty thrashed.