NOT IN THE SCRIPT! Watch Jay Leno Survive Dramatic Unintentional Car Crash In A 2,500 horsepower Hemi Under Glass While Filming His Show (Video)

Jay Leno retired from late night, but then moved on to hosting his own show about the things he loves the most: Cars.  Little did he know that he would be risking his life.

The show is called Jay Leno’s Garage and it airs on CNBC.  It started off as a web series before being picked up as a full blown show.  Each episode features Leno reviewing classic cars, super cars, sports cars….just about any type of car that is hard to get your hands on.

For a cable show, it’s pretty successful; it brings in about a half a million viewers per episode.

In the episode that involves the crash, Jay is test driving a 2500 horsepower Hemi Under Glass.  The car is named after the Chrysler Hemi engine which is moved to the rear of the car and covered in Plexiglass.  The Plymouth Barracuda was used because of its huge rear window, giving visibility to much of the engine.  All the weight in the back results in the car doing wheelies down the drag strip.

The original car was driven by Bob Riggle who is now 80 years old.  He is the man that Leno recruited to get the car on two wheels and also the man that flipped the car.

This was one of Leno’s favorite cars growing up and getting the car up on two wheels was something on his bucket list.  However I’m guessing that flipping the car over at high speed and needing a change of shorts afterward is not an item on his bucket list.

As  a professional stuntman Riggle knows the value and safety of the harness and roll cage and those two things were critical in keeping both men from serious injury.

Interesting enough, we found the unedited version and the version that will be shown on air.  Before I comment on either, I will let you watch the “on air” version.

It appears the car might have flipped 7 times.  Ok, maybe 5.  But someone on Reddit posted the unedited version and the entire thing looks a lot less dramatic.  You have to love “reality” TV.  Quite frankly, even the unedited version is still pretty dramatic.  We are both just glad they are ok.