Petersen's Automotive Museum

What’s up everyone?

A long time ago in the not too distant past, my father bought a white 1975 Corvette.  I was about 5 years old at the time, but there was something about that car.  I don’t know if it was the flow of the lines, the pop out lights or maybe the t-top roof.  I don’t know but there was something about that car that made me fall in love with it.  This is where my love affair for Vettes and appreciation for cars in general started.  Cars have always been part of my life growing up.  Autoramas and new car shows were an annual tradition for us.  When I was younger I really didn’t like working on cars, even though my dad tried to teach me.  Come to find out it was just my learning style that made me that not interested in learning.  I’m a hands on learner.  I don’t like to be told how to do.  It wasn’t until I got my first car and I had to work on it get it the way I wanted it.  Looking back I wish I had paid a little more attention to what my dad was teaching me.  Needless to say I still have a love of cars.  New and old.

Whether you consider yourself a car person or not, as long as you have a love for cars I have a place for you.  The Petersen’s Automotive Museum is located in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile on Museum Row.  The museum was founded in 1994 by the magazine publisher Robert E. and Margie Petersen.  It’s currently owned and operated by the Petersen’s Automotive Museum Foundation.  It was originally housed in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.  Later it would move to its current location within an old Ohrbach’s Department Store.  This location was chosen by the Petersens mostly do to the buildings lack of windows.  As many of us can attest, over exposer of sunlight can have damaging effects, so having a building that was virtually windowless made for an ideal museum location.

The museum stayed relatively the same until 2015 when it underwent a $125 million overhaul.  The most striking feature of the remodel was on the exterior.  Kohn Pedersen Fox was commissioned to design a new facade for the building.  What he came up with was a striking and bold.  The building became a deep vibrant red and was overlaid with 14 gauge stainless steel that was cut to resemble ribbons blowing in the wind.  It is truly an awe inspiring to behold.  Its gotta suck to keep it clean though.

The interior of the building was designed by The Scenic Route.  It was design to ease the ever changing exhibits.  On any given day, there are over 100 cars and motorcycles on display in the 25 different galleries.  The museum is separated by its three floors.  Each floor has its own concept.

When you go there the staff suggest that you start on the third floor and work your way down.  The history of the automobile is the concept for the third floor.  I have to say this was my favorite part of the museum.  The other floor were still awesome though.  Here you can find all kinds really cool cars.  Every display has a plaque that gives you a load of information about the car.  The usual make, model, and year but it gives you more then that.  It also includes whether it was production or custom one of a kind and price point (original off the lot and current value).

You might be thinking to yourself; If Petersen’s is located so close to Hollywood, do they have any famous movie cars?  We’ll you would be in luck.  The have a whole gallery dedicate to some of Hollywood favorite cars.  This section is hands down my favorite part of the whole museum.  Some of them you might recognize: Magnum P.I. Ferrari, Thelma and Louise Thunderbird and let’s not forget Herbie the Love Bug.  It also has two of my all time favorites: Doc Brown’s Delorean from Back to the Future, with working flux capacitor, and my favorite incarnation of the Batmobile, from Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film.

The second floor is dedicated to racing and automotive engineering.  In this area there are several interactive displays demonstrating the different aspect of what makes a car work.  There are even some for the kiddies to play with.  As you would suspect there are a lot of high performance sports cars on display.  Even our friendly racer Lightning McQueen, from Disney Pixar’s Cars franchise, makes an appearance.  As we continued on we came across the electric car exhibit.  I never really put much time or thought into it but, for the most part, I figured that gas-electric hybrids were more of a recent development.  To my surprise they actually date back to the early1900’s.  On display is a gas-electric hybrid that was built in 1914.  I guess they have always been trying to get that electric car right from the beginning.

The star of the second floor, at least during the time we were there, was the Seeing Red exhibit.  In this gallery sat cars from Ferrari racing history.  Over a 100 million dollars alone sitting in this one section of the museum.  What i wouldn’t do for just one hour in one of these red beauties.

The first floor is dedicated to the artistic side of automobiles.  Usually focusing on extravagant and over the top designs.  While we were there, there were only two exhibits on tap.  The first focused on the low-rider culture.  To be honest, I have never been to fond of low-riders but I will have to say that the owners usually take great care when it comes to their vehicles.  Most were painted with immaculate patterns and decked out in chrome.  Each and everyone was beautiful done and very pleasing to behold.

The second exhibit focused on the Bugatti.  I have heard the name but never really new too much about them so I found this exhibit intriguing.  Ettore Bugatti, the designer and founder of the Bugatti, came from a long family line of artists, sculptures and jewelers.  He definitely had an eye for design.  In 1898 he built his first concept car, the Bugatti Type 1.  This started Bugattis history of luxurious design, advanced tech, and blinding speed.  Each one that we walk by seemed like they were new than what the plaques told us.  Very impressive for the time and age.  Made me want to get one.  Maybe in my dreams.

There is a top secret basement and for those that are willing to pay for the extra tour and meet the age requirement, physical not mental, will have access to it.  We did not take this tour, even though I would have loved to.  From my understanding, the basement is where they keep all the rest of the museums collection of car that are not currently on display.  One day I will see it…..one day.

The Petersen’s Automotive Museum is any car persons dream.  It was fun to be able to get up close to cars that in most cases I would only see in magazines or on T.V.  With their vast collection and rotating exhibits, you’ll definitely want to be a repeat museum goer.

I hope that you enjoyed this small glimpse into Petersen’s and I have inspired you to go see it.  If you would like to see more pictures of the cars or any of our other adventures be sure to checkout us out on our Facebook page.

Until next time.  Thanks for stopping by.

Josh