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Leno recalls '90s showdown with Tim Allen and his mullet

Not many of us have buddies with garages full of classic cars, but that isn't the case for Jay Leno and Tim Allen. Of course, one of the advantages for two guys with such vast collections is occasionally getting to pit their cars against each other. The two comedians did just that in the mid-'90s with a burnout battle on The Tonight Show between Allen in a race-prepped Mustang and Leno in a drag racer. After some time away from regular television, Leno is returning to the airwaves with a Jay Leno's Garage series premiering on Oct. 7 (tonight) at 10:00 p.m. ET on CNBC. Let this clip serve as another taste of what to expect for the new TV show's mix of comedy and cars. After reminiscing about the old days in a gorgeous garage, the comedians get into two modern machines to reprise the classic challenge – after a little trash talk anyway. Don't worry because the YouTube series isn't going anywhere, though.

Jay Leno gets his denim mitts on Dodge's new Challenger Hellcat

The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is definitely the performance car of the moment. The fact that in the near future, people will be able to buy a 707-horsepower muscle machine straight from a major automaker for $59,995 and with a factory warranty almost seems absurd. We drove it recently and found the Hellcat to be just as much of a beast as its numbers would suggest. Now, it's a certain comedian's turn behind the wheel in the latest episode of Jay Leno's Garage.
This week's guest is Dodge President and CEO Tim Kuniskis, and he's there to drop all sorts of interesting factoids about the Hellcat. For example, its Pirelli P Zero tires retail at around $300 each, he says. That makes its smoky burnouts a rather expensive proposition. Kuniskis, who recently hinted at a mystery Woodward Dream Cruise debut, also talks about the genesis of the 2015 SRT project with a goal to get over some of the standard Challenger's weight and size disadvantages. The fix is a supercharged V8, massive brakes and other goodies to smooth over the platform's more glaring shortcomings.
Leno appears to get a big kick out of the Hellcat. However, he can't seem to stop bringing up his desire to drive one with a six-speed manual. They obviously exist, but Kuniskis has an eight-speed automatic for the retired Tonight Show host to try out. Of course, as with any Hellcat video, there has to be at least one burnout. Despite the expensive tires, it seems like enthusiast's law at this point - and dear ol' Jay wouldn't want to break any rules, would he?

Only in Japan: Dodge van one-make racing series is a thing

Japan seems willing to embrace a level of automotive insanity that many other places lack. Whether it's 1,200-horsepower Nissan GT-Rs blasting through tight, tree-lined mountain roads or advertisements with dances for the Toyota Prius Plug-in, the country definitely has a unique way of expressing a love for autos. The D-Van Grand Prix might be one of our favorite examples yet of crazy Japanese car culture, because the annual, one-make race at the Ebisu Circuit is exclusively for heavily customized Dodge vans. Like many great things, this wonderfully crazy idea came from a little rule breaking. D-Van Grand Prix organizer Takuro Abe was at a track event for a motorcycle racing school, and vans were used to haul the bikes around. During lunch someone came up with the idea for a race. Ignoring that the big machines weren't actually allowed on the circuit, the drivers headed out. The popularity has just grown since then. These days, the racing vans absolutely aren't the stock machines from the event's inspiration. In addition to stripped interiors and track rubber that you might expect, the list of mods for them is a mile long. For every possible advantage, the racers fit them with things like Brembo brakes, cross-drilled rotors, heavy-duty transmissions, and much more. Seeing vans lumbering around the track is very weird at first, but the racers take the competition very seriously. These folks even employ all sorts of little tricks to coax the most from the machines. This is a fascinating motorsports story, but be sure to turn on the subtitles to understand the interviews with the competitors.