Biden takes Corvette and electric Ford pickup for spins

President Joe Biden was behind the wheel of his beloved green convertible 1967 Corvette Stingray on Wednesday, this time pushing it over 100 mph in an episode of Jay Leno's car show.

The president also took an electrified 1978 Ford F-100 pickup for a spin in the episode of CNBC's "Jay Leno's Garage" that aired Wednesday night.

With his Secret Service on hand eyeing the events, Biden raced the late former Secretary of State Colin Powell's son, Michael Powell. Biden's car was no match for Powell's automatic 2015 Stingray, but the president did get his classic car up to 118 mph, according to various news media outlets.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 1967 Corvette is the car Biden, 79, says he loves to drive the most. He showed it off in 2020 during an 80-second campaign ad on Twitter. The car was a wedding gift from his father, who ran a Chevrolet dealership for years, to a young Biden in August 1967. It features a 327-cubic inch, L79 V8 engine rated at 350 horsepower with a four-speed manual transmission.

"I shouldn't say this, but I like speed," Biden told Jay Leno in a 2016 episode of "Jay Leno's Garage" when Biden got behind the wheel of his beloved 'Vette then.

On Wednesday, Biden, who wore a blue Ralph Lauren polo shirt, khaki pants and sunglasses, was beaten off the line by Powell at the James J. Rowley Secret Service training facility in Beltsville, Maryland, reports said. He could not catch Powell despite getting his Corvette up to 118 mph.

Powell was driving a 2015 Corvette with a 455-horsepower V8 engine and eight-speed automatic transmission, worth $55,000, according to dailymail.co.uk. Powell was reportedly avenging his father, who lost to Biden in a similar drag race that aired on the program in 2016.

Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and parts of Delaware, now keeps the 1967 Corvette at his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He drives it as often as he can, Ben Halle, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, told the Free Press in a previous interview.

The car is one of 14,436 convertibles produced that year, out of 22,940 Corvettes for the 1967 model, Jonathan Klinger, spokesman for specialty car insurance provider Hagerty, told the Free Press in a previous interview. The 1967 Corvette is consistently the top seller among Corvettes at auction, he said. In the car's current condition, which looks to be in mostly original condition, Klinger said, the market value for the car is $88,700.

On Leno's show, Biden also got behind the wheel of an electrified 1978 Ford F-100, which Leno called "the future of hot rodding." Biden burned rubber in it, too, which he said was "quiet as hell" with "instant torque" and he said everything had a "quicker response" than a gasoline-burning vehicle.

"This is the only time you get to drive," Leno, 72, said to Biden while riding next to him in the truck. "Yeah, it is," Biden said. "It's the God's truth, and I miss it."