Photo: Jay Leno's Garage | YouTube
Comedian Gabriel Iglesias brought his 1988 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS to Jay Leno to brag about. In fact, he brought two twin cars to the show and has quite the story to tell. He’s come a long way from his days as a Volkswagen guy…
The 38-year-old Chevy he and Jay Leno take for a spin in the California hills is a classic by any measure, but Gabriel says it feels like a new car. It has power steering and power windows, doesn’t even make any strange noises, has good air conditioning, and offers the comforts that newer car owners crave.
The car feels heavy, the suspension bounces up and down and the shocks may be a little worn because the Chevy has been sitting for so long. Everything on the vehicle works fine. The dash lights up, the gauges show the right information.
Jay Leno tells how, in the 1980s, Gabriel, 12, had his nose pressed against the window of the dealership. He would just stare at examples of the Monte Carlo SS. He was so in love with the model that he ended up buying not one, but two when he grew up.
He was actually planning to buy one. But he got a call from someone who said they had a car with a story. The guy on the other end of the phone was selling two cars belonging to twin brothers from Ohio. They were kind of like twins who bought the same things, including cars. Gabriel mentions money laundering. So at some point, they bought two Monte Carlo SS units to hide some illegal business. The story got to him and he had to have them.
Photo: Jay Leno's Garage | YouTube
But neither twin has had much time to drive the cars. One has only 36 miles on the odometer, while the other has about 200 miles on it since new. The protective plastic is still inside the cabin. Gabriel hasn't touched it because he wanted to do it in Jay Leno's Garage.I feel like I'm at border customs,” says the show host as he removes the plastic. It's probably the first time it's happened on his show.
Gabriel says he feels like the person these cars were saved for. He knows how to appreciate them for what they are worth. When he removes the protective mats, he finds stains.It could be dried cocaine,” he jokes. But it still leaves us perplexed.
One of the two Chevies still has the original window sticker. It says the car sold for $17,384 in 1988, which is about $45,000 at this time. The brothers never got a chance to drive the SS. Shortly after buying it, they got into a shootout and lost.Their loss is my victory,” says Gabriel happily.
The family started selling their possessions. That's how the twin brothers' twin cars ended up in Gabriel's garage. All he did to the cars was change the tires for safety reasons, because he plans to drive them. His mechanic also changed the batteries and fluids. And that was all the work done on the cars.
Gabriel Iglesias cares so much about cars that he uses the sleeve of his sweatshirt to wipe Jay Leno's fingerprints off the hood.
