Jay Leno drove the iconic snail car around Lake Merritt during weekend TV show filming

Jay Leno took to Oakland to visit Form & Reform, home to the snail art car, Golden Mean. Jay Leno took to Oakland to visit Form & Reform, home to the snail art car, Golden Mean. Photo: Courtesy Jon Sarriugarte / Form & Reform Photo: Courtesy Jon Sarriugarte / Form & Reform Image 1 of / 48 Caption Close Jay Leno drove the iconic snail car around Lake Merritt during weekend TV show filming 1 / 48 Back to Gallery

Jay Leno is a hard guy to miss.

So when Leno, with one of television's most recognizable faces, was spotted driving around Oakland over the last few days in a few attention-grabbing vehicles, locals started wondering what was up.

Since 2014 — the same year he stepped back from "The Tonight Show" — Leno has starred in and executive produced "Jay Leno's Garage," a television show on CNBC wherein Leno reviews rare and vintage cars and motorcycles.

And last week, Leno headed to Oakland to film a few segments for the show. In addition to filming with the East Bay Dragons and reportedly, a few new Teslas, the celebrity auto enthusiast made good on a longtime plan to check out the famed Golden Mean art car.

RELATED: How Oakland's first African-American motorcycle club helped inspire a new TV show

Locals will immediately recognize the Golden Mean. In recent years, the mobile art piece, which looks like a large metallic snail and can shoot fire, has rolled along with parade caravans celebrating the Warriors' Championship wins, often ferrying Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and on occasion, rapper MC Hammer. It has, of course, also visited Burning Man.

According to Jon Sarriugarte, who, with his wife Kyrsten Mate created the car, Leno has been keen on driving the vehicle for a few years now. There was just one problem: The production wanted Sarriugarte and Mate to bring the car from Oakland to Los Angeles, which became impossible when its trailer was stolen.

This month, however, the production worked out a solution. Leno instead came to Oakland to film a few scenes for the show, one of which involved a visit to Form and Reform on Sunday, the workshop run by Sarriugarte and Mate. Leno and his crew came by to see their vehicle pieces, collectively called "Empire of Dirt."

"We invited the [project's] original crew and main crew to come to the [filming]," Sarriugarte says. "It was fun. We got to show [Leno] around the shop, show him what we do — blacksmithing, lighting design and [work I do for] Restoration Hardware.

After touring the studio and jumping into the Golden Mean car to "shoot off a bunch of fireballs in the parking lot," Leno, Mate and Sarriugarte hopped inside the mobile snail for a tour around Lake Merritt.

"It was just a nice chat," he says. "We drove through Oakland, talking about the lake and Children's Fairyland — the inspiration for Disneyland — the new gates Shawn Lovell put in and Autumn Lights. He kept saying, 'Wow this is a beautiful town.'"

RELATED: Children's Fairyland nears 60-year mark

It wasn't, however, just a nice chat or a short drive. Sarriugarte says all in all, Leno and his crew spent about seven hours or so filming with them, with the production setting up lots of multiple shots with a handful of cameras, plus fly rigs and a drone. The drive through Lake Merritt, which lasted 45 minutes or so, was escorted by a couple police officers, too.

"It was a very long day," Sarriugarte adds, "but very fun and pleasant. It was really nice when Jay started out and said, 'We're here to make you guys look good.'"

The Oakland episodes of "Jay Leno's Garage" will air on CNBC in mid-2020.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGate digital editor. Email: alyssa.pereira@sfgate.com | Twitter: @alyspereira

