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Time to catch up with Jay Leno's Garage, including his Lamborghini Espada restoration

If you're already jealous of the time, effort and money that Jay Leno can devote to his massive car collection, prepare to get a little greener with envy with this latest video from Jay Leno's Garage. Instead of the usual format of discussing a model for about ten minutes and then taking it out for a test drive, this week Leno gives viewers on a tour of over a dozen projects concurrently happening in his stable. The breadth of the vehicles shown and the things being done to them run the entire span of the automotive hobby. At the same time, Jay's shop is working on just a simple restoration of his 1969 Lamborghini Espada (pictured), and at the other side of the building, the team is rebuilding a wood-bodied 1914 Detroit Electric from scratch. He eventually plans to slot a more modern electric drivetrain into it. If bikes are more your interest, there's a freshly completed Brough Superior just waiting for a ride, and if American models are your thing, a Ford Bronco is getting a Coyote V8 installed into it. You have some very specific tastes if you can't watch this clip and start wishing at least one of these vehicles could be in your own garage. Other than the personal projects his mechanics are working on in the shop, Jay gets to have them all, plus plenty more.

Leno stretches Lamborghini Diablo's legs for latest Garage installment

While posters of the Lamborghini Countach decorated the walls of many boys' walls in the 1980s, the Diablo filled that spot for young men in the early 1990s thanks to its extreme styling. In its latest video, Jay Leno's Garage welcomes a beautiful, white 1991 Diablo into his garage for a look back on what is now a classic supercar.
Unlike some of the vehicles Leno shows off, this one doesn't belong to him. Instead, veteran Italian car mechanic Franco Barbuscia owns it. He has been maintaining Jay's Countach for years. A '91 Diablo is an archaic supercar by today's standards. It doesn't have power steering, anti-lock brakes or obviously anything like traction control. It's just a big V12 hanging behind the driver with a wonderfully meaty roar that emanates from the exhaust.
Franco's Diablo might actually be better than new. It has a few upgrades to aid in drivability, like re-spaced pedals, a carbon-Kevlar clutch and more. Apparently all of the tweaks help a lot because, "it rides smoother than my Carrera GT," Leno enthuses about the car. Scroll down to reminisce about this Italian classic and get an ear full of its wonderful sound.

Maserati and Lamborghini pull out of Iran

Daimler is out, Toyota is out, Porsche is out, Hyundai, PSA Peugeot-Citroën are out and when it comes to selling cars in Iran, now Maserati and Lamborghini are out, too. The definitive pullouts of those last two automakers are said to be reactions to a press conference held by a group called United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). The group highlights businesses that sell in both the US market and Iran, and works to get those businesses to choose one market or the other.
UANI said it had sent letters to Maserati and Lamborghini about their dealings in Iran, but that the letters went unanswered. Mark Wallace, head of UANI and a former US ambassador to the United Nations, held a press conference in October of last year that referenced the two companies. Apparently Lamborghini contacted Wallace just after the press conference and told him "they were out, they weren't doing any business in Iran anymore."
Discussions with Maserati then took place, and the Italian automaker said it had been out of Iran ever since Fiat announced it was leaving the country in May 2011. UANI said Maserati had been in talks with an Iranian distributor, however, and that distributor was continuing to use the Maserati name. The carmaker has since cut all ties with Iranian interests and has prevented its name from being used, adding that its new models will not be able to be sold there because they won't pass regulations the country's regulations.