Jay Leno’s passion for automotive history has taken him on some remarkable journeys, but his latest find might be one of his most fascinating yet. The legendary comedian and car collector recently reunited with a vehicle that had been missing for half a century—a one-of-a-kind 1968 Oldsmobile 442.
Leno first learned about the car more than 50 years ago, back when it appeared briefly in the automotive press before seemingly vanishing from public view. “I remember reading about it and being very intrigued,” Leno recalled on his Jay Leno’s Garage YouTube series. “And then it just sort of disappeared.”
Determined to locate the elusive car, Leno enlisted Donald Osborne, an automotive historian and founder of the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, Rhode Island. Osborne managed not only to find the car but also to connect Leno with its current owner, Fred Frederick, who appeared on the show to share its story.
Unlike most 442s of its era, this particular example was engineered as a front-wheel-drive prototype—a radical departure from the muscle car norm. “Rear-wheel drive is the way to go,” Leno joked, but this Oldsmobile challenged that belief. Built as an engineering experiment in just 45 days, the car represented an early attempt by Oldsmobile to explore front-wheel-drive performance.
Frederick explained that the car handles remarkably well. “The front-wheel drive car drives entirely differently,” he told Leno. “It’s much more comfortable and just lays on the road very nice.”
The car’s first owner bought it in Woodland Hills, California, for about $2,900 and drove it for over 100,000 miles before parking it in 1986. It remained untouched until Frederick acquired it in 2012.
Now, after decades in hiding, the rare Oldsmobile 442 has finally resurfaced—thanks to Leno’s persistence and Osborne’s detective work—offering a fresh chapter in the ongoing saga of America’s automotive past.