Leno star of ‘Classic’ DVD

He has just beaten out two U.S. presidents and George Clooney as the man Esquire readers would most like to invite to a dinner party.

But if you want to get Jay Leno to join you for chow, your chances are best if you show up in a Depression-era Ford pickup – and skip the fries for some grease of a different sort.

Get him under the hood, and Leno is happier than a souped-up Mustang GT with nothing but open road ahead.

“I work on something every night,” he said of his car passion, moments before a “Tonight Show” taping. “It’s all I do when I’m not doing this.”

Leno is the subject of Dennis Gage’s “My Classic Car” show on the new DVD “Jay Leno: Certified Car Nut” (Questar Home Video, $14.99).

A Popular Mechanics contributor and the owner of more than 80 cars – and about as many motorcycles, including a jet-powered model – Leno traces his love of vehicles to his childhood.

“I’ve always liked anything that rolls and explodes and makes noise,” he said. “I have a pretty good car memory. I was brought home from the hospital in a 1949 Plymouth, and to this day, when I get in one of those cars and I smell the wet mohair, it brings back memories of being a kid.”

The 100-minute video offers viewers a look inside Leno’s personal collection, which includes a 1909 Stanley Steamer, a 1930 Duesenberg and a 1955 Buick Roadmaster. These are not museum pieces, mind you; Leno keeps them in tip-top shape and drives them all.

“I think the guys of my generation, there was much more of an appeal because you could get more intrinsically involved in the car,” Leno said. “You could bond with it.

“I think with modern cars, most people don’t know how to change a tire. But back then, you could buy a junky car and get it to work.”

Leno – who describes himself as “a member in good standing of the ‘More Money Than Brains Club’ ” – paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000 for his jet bike, powered by a

C 18 Allison engine plucked from a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter.

He can own pretty much any vehicle he wants. Still, there’s the one that got away and causes him to sigh.

“I still wish I had my ‘34 Ford,” said Leno, referring to the pickup he bought as a 14-year-old for $350. It was his first car, and he spent hours tinkering with it – he put a flathead V8 292 engine in it – and practicing his driving moves, limited as they were.

“I spent two years backing up and down the driveway in that car,” he recalled. “I had a permanent crick in my neck.”

And what became of it?

“I traded it for new tires and parts, and then I went off to college.”