Business F1 Top 20 Petrolheads: Jerry Seinfeld, A Desire For Comedy And Cars
20 April 2024 3 min read 4 images
Photo credit: Business F1, Crakle, Gooding, NBC, Porsche
Among the Top 20 Petrolheads chosen by Business F1 for its collection of characters who combine their profession with collecting is Jerry Seinfeld, arguably America's most famous comedian. Seinfeld is now considered a comedic genius: Producing and starring in the show that has been highly successful for years now has made Jerry Seinfeld a very wealthy man: According to Business F1, he earned $100,000 per episode for the first series of Seinfeld and for the last one he made up to $1 million per episode.
He is so beloved that it is possible to rewatch the series every five years to the point that many Americans have seen each episode as many as four or five times. This makes it so popular that Netflix paid a lump sum of $500 million to be able to air all nine series, about 180 episodes, from September 2019 to September 2024.
Today, in his late 70s, he earns about $25 million a year from his touring and television performances. His stand-up tours sell out. There is also great success for his Netflix specials, including his car series titled "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," which is effectively a televised classic car trip in which Seinfeld invites fellow comedians and actors and takes them around coffee shops in Los Angeles and New York in a classic car borrowed, in most cases, from his own collection.
The relentless flow of money has given Jerry Seinfeld a chance to indulge his car-collecting fantasy and buy anything that suits his fancy. And he buys a lot. He now has a collection said to exceed 150 cars and is able to indulge his Porsche fantasies. Most of them are stored in a spacious building in California and some in a large garage on his 12-acre oceanfront estate in the Hamptons. Seinfeld's collection is totally dominated by one car. A car that every serious collector dreams of owning: the Porsche 917. Seinfeld owns one and that makes his Porsche collection perhaps the most important in the world.
Seinfeld's car is the 917/022, one of the cars Steve McQueen drove in the 1971 film Le Mans. It used to be a car sold new by Porsche to McQueen's Solar Productions in late 1970 and painted in Gulf livery. After the Le Mans movie was made, the 917 was sold to Porsche gentleman driver named Reinhold Joest, who raced in the Interserie championship in Europe and then sold to Brian Redman for $15,000. Redman, however, had to deal with his wife, who was against the purchase.
The then 34-year-old Redman must have loved her dearly because he resold it to Richard Attwood, who, in a 917 of all cars, had won the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans with Hans Herrmann. Attwood repainted the car in the colors of his winning car and intended to keep it as a memento of his victory. The car's valuation increased greatly and it ended up being sold. Repainted in its original colors, when it appeared at Symbolic International, a Los Angeles dealer with a showroom on La Cienega Boulevard, it was noticed by a friend of Seinfeld's.
After a test drive on the Willow Springs circuit, Seinfeld bought it for a rumored $3 million. Initially Seinfeld hesitated and did not believe he deserved to own such an iconic car that had been Steve McQueen's. Although the 917 costs a lot of money each year to maintain in good running condition, it turned out to be a spectacular purchase and could be worth as much as $30 million today if auctioned.
His collection includes multiple versions of some models. There are many Porsche 911s and rarer models such as the Carrera GT V8 and the Porsche 959, a rare gem for its advanced technology, which was ahead of its time when it debuted in the 1980s. Jerry Seinfeld also has other automobiles that he enjoys, such as Chevrolet Corvettes from the 1950s and Volkswagen Campervans.
Today, Jerry Seinfeld is known for cleverly incorporating his passion for cars into his work with "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" which began 11 years ago and has become a Netflix regular with 84 episodes aired. Car enthusiasts love the idea of each episode featuring Seinfeld riding in a different car, engaging in candid conversations with other actors and comedians. A perfect mix.
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