And it's real hard work required, if you aim for being a professional! 
Racing is so hard I can't believe what these guys are capable of, especially F1 drivers racing on ~350 kms per hour. Very demanding discipline indeed!
But one should mention the fact that he has a fair bit of knowledge, for example when he talks about the 3-litre straight eight Merc, and so on.
Therefore I'd like to deduct, that he has a certain passion for these cars and 'the olden days' of racing. So these cars have been used an abused instead of treating them like an investment.
Yeah, just like he treats his guitar collection, even the ridiculous stuff like Monteleone guitars find their way on his records, which is amazing. I love Mark's discussion about racing being so different as opposed to songwriting, where you have a lot of choices. I think the pure skill required to be a good driver is as impressive as being a good songwriter or a guitar player, or good anything. I love car guys like Jay Leno, they can buy any car they want and drive it, and are willing to share their collection. If that's not passion I don't know what is.
Off theme a bit, but why do you think Monteleone guitars are “ridiculoue”? Do you think they are bad? Just curious.
I presume that "ridiculous stuff" refers to the song not the guitar itself.
Most ridiculous has been recording the song with the Monteleone on it and then perform it live with another brand guitar 
Ridiculous just in the sense that Monteleone is a guitar for the best jazz guitar players out there, in the sense that it's like an F1 car for a casual user, obviously Mark isn't an "F1" racer when it comes to playing Monteleone guitar, he also speaks about it openly that he won't be able to bring the most out of it as a jazz guitar player. But he owns the guitar, and he did write a song on it, I bet there's no any jazz guitar player who can write a song of this magnitude about their instrument. So it's all balanced out I guess
Of course he wouldn't bring it on tour, I remember reading about Mark's Gibson Super 400 CES, that it was so precious they stored it in the case and only brought it out for one song (Your Latest Trick) and then took it back into the case, it was treated like a museum piece, which it is. Bringing a Monteleone guitar just for one song is of course something a rational human being like Mark can't do. I think he was so happy about his signature Gibson Les Paul, it's a 10 grand instrument, but at least it's not a 1 million $ instrument he should carry in 80 countries with him on tour.
