Jay Leno Drives a Lost-and-Found 1969 Camaro Z/28

There should be an asterisk following things that are “meant to be” that reads “eventually.” Some people find the other person they’re meant to be with after years of failed relationships, bad dates, and periods of loneliness. Others don’t discover what they’re supposed to do professionally until they’ve bounced through several awful jobs and gone back to college.

Glenn Stearns founded the mortgage company Stearns Lending LLC and was the star of the first season of Discovery’s “Undercover Billionaire.” But when he was a teenager, he was just a boy who needed a car. His dad told him he knew of one that would get the job done, but it needed some engine work. The two of them ended up getting a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 RS back on the road. Maybe they did too good a job with the 302 under the hood because Stearns got a lot of tickets in his high school car. He was already the father of a young child and had his license taken away by the state of Maryland for all of his V8-powered antics, so his girlfriend at the time (the early 1980s) convinced him to sell the Camaro.

It didn’t take long for Stearns to realize what he had let go. But he would have to wait decades to get it back. Stearns began looking for the one that got away in 1984. Flash forward to 2019. His friend John Elway (yes, that John Elway) is going to be the celebrity auctioneer for one of his own cars at a Barrett-Jackson auction and asks Stearns to come along. They go into a tent to view Elway’s car before it crosses the block and lo and behold, next to it is Stearns’ long-lost Camaro, already restored and certified by Camaro expert Jerry MacNeish. Stearns buys the 290-horsepower classic back – at a significant interest rate. He sold his Z/28 in the ’80s for $2,500 and purchased it again for 60 times that amount.

Riding next to Leno as he lets out the 302’s throaty mechanical growl and shifts through the four-speed manual’s gears, Stearns says, “I searched for it for so long and to finally get it back is a dream come true.” What can we say? It was meant to be.”