Most Classic Cars live tragically short lives. They get flipped, crashed, modified beyond recognition, or slowly forgotten under a tarp in someone's garage. The lucky ones end up in museums. The unlucky ones end up on an auction site. But, every once in a while a car finds its person. And it just stays there. For 46 years.That's the wild, wonderful story behind the rare 1980 Porsche 924 Turbo that showed up on Jay Leno's Garage recently, still owned by the man who drove it off the lot when Jimmy Carter was president. That man? Actor Kent McCord, best known as Officer Jim Reed from the iconic cop drama Adam-12 — and apparently, one of the most loyal car owners in Hollywood history.What followed was part automotive history lesson, part Hollywood confessional, and a full-on love letter to a car most people forgot existed. This Porsche Has Lived More Lives Than Most People Jay Leno's Garage / YouTubeMcCord's Dolomite Gray 924 Turbo is almost offensively original. No restomod nonsense. No "updated for modern times." This thing is a time capsule with a turbocharger. He bought it new after swearing off his gas-guzzling big-block Corvettes during the fuel crisis of the 1970s. He wanted performance and efficiency — and the little Porsche delivered. Then it just… never left.Over the decades, the car racked up more than 128,000 miles while remaining largely untouched. But don't mistake "untouched" for "trouble-free." Early turbo technology was, to put it tastefully, a work in progress. The oil-cooled turbo in the 924 demanded a specific cooldown ritual after hard driving — skip it, and you'd fry the turbo like a carnival snack. In fact, McCord fried roughly ten of them before cracking the code.Jay Leno's Garage / YouTubeHe got so deep into turbo-babysitting that he started leaving handwritten notes for mechanics, basically begging them not to shut the engine off too quickly. Jay Leno's Garage / YouTubeDespite all that, the car still absolutely rips. At roughly 2,800 lbs with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder, the 924 Turbo is a lightweight little gremlin that rewards drivers willing to work with it. Analog steering, a proper manual gearbox, and that glorious old-school turbo lag that builds and then launches you — it's everything modern performance cars have surgically removed in the name of refinement. Jay Leno's Says Everyone Was Wrong About This Car Out on the California roads, Leno climbed onto his soapbox — and honestly, he wasn't wrong. The 924 Turbo got absolutely roasted when it debuted. Porsche loyalists took one look at its Volkswagen and Audi DNA, saw the front-engine water-cooled layout, and collectively clutched their pearls. This wasn't a real Porsche, they said. Where's the flat-six? Where's the rear engine? Where's the drama?Decades later, those same people look a little silly. Leno pointed out that the 924's design has aged like fine wine — and that Porsche's current lineup still borrows styling cues that started right here. He also dropped the spicy suggestion that Porsche deliberately hobbled the car's performance to keep it from cannibalizing 911 sales. Whether that's true or not, it's the kind of conspiracy theory that makes Porsche history genuinely fun.McCord didn't just bring the Porsche — he brought the receipts on his Hollywood career, too. Adam-12 creator Jack Webb once handed him the keys to a 1971 Corvette as part of a contract negotiation. As you do. He also revealed that police departments across the country used Adam-12 episodes as actual training material, because the show was that committed to realistic procedure. Somehow, that makes the whole thing even cooler.By the time the video wrapped, Leno admitted the old Porsche had completely reignited McCord's love for the car. Which raises the question — did it ever really fade? HotCars Take Jay Leno's Garage / YouTubeWhile collectors are out here spending six figures chasing the next limited-production supercar, Kent McCord has spent nearly half a century simply enjoying the same turbocharged Porsche he bought new in 1980. Ten turbos. 128,000 miles. Forty-six years. In a world that's constantly telling you to upgrade, trade up, and move on — that's not just a car story. That's a philosophy.
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