At one point Jay Leno was a normal gearhead, just like the rest of us. He was working at a car dealership in Massachusetts when he met and befriended a master mechanic and drag racer Paul Annunziata. Jay went on to become a huge TV star and Paul continued on his racing dream.

In the 1970s Annunziata decided he wanted to build a Pro Stock dragster that was also 100 percent street legal. Annunziata succeeded in building his 1,000-horsepower Duster and it went on to win numerous awards.

Sadly, Annunziata was stricken with lung cancer, so he decided it was time to let his Duster go. Instead of selling it to some random collector, Annunziata chose to donate the car to his old-time friend, Jay Leno, under the gentleman?s agreement that Leno would not sell the car.

Jay agreed not to sell the car, but refused to allow Annunziata to just give it to him. In a mutual agreement, Leno paid Annunziata an undisclosed amount for the car and Annunziata did the noble thing and donated the money to a local auto restoration school as a four-year scholarship.[...]

Source: topspeed