The exterior of the Petersen Automotive Museum. Image copyright 2017 by Anna Boudinot
Whether you have a Mercury or a Maybach, one of the great joys of living in Los Angeles is driving a car underneath the palm trees with the windows open and the warm air rushing in. And Angelenos love their cars. Stoplights turn into opportunities to spot the most innovative and expensive vehicles in the world, from Bentleys to Ferraris to the latest Teslas. Classic cars also abound, painstakingly restored by owners who admire the unique styles of past generations and who appreciate a climate where rain and snow won’t cause rust. At the intersection of automobiles as art and automobiles as science lies the Petersen Automotive Museum, which anchors the west end of Miracle Mile.
Miracle Mile is no stranger to automotive innovation. The stretch of Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and Highland, it was conceived by a real estate developer in 1936 as a centralized destination for high-end shopping. Keeping in mind that wealthy customers would want to travel there in their own automobiles, the boulevard was specially updated to accommodate vehicle traffic. This included the country’s first dedicated left-turn lanes and the first timed stoplights. Merchants were required to provide parking behind their stores to allow for more free lanes on the boulevard.
The building that is now the Petersen has transformed over the past few decades. It was a department store from 1962 to 1986. In 1994 the building was reconceived as a museum by Robert E. Petersen and Margie Petersen, the former of whom was a lifelong car aficionado and the publisher of Hot Rod and Motor Trend, as well as, oddly enough, Teen, Tiger Beat, and Sassy magazines. The Petersens invested $5 million in the museum upfront and convinced the Natural History Museum to house its collection of vintage cars there. In 1999, the Petersens established a nonprofit organization to operate the museum and invested an additional $25 million. In 2015, the building got a $125 million facelift, which included a controversial façade that was called tasteless, obnoxious, and a “pile of string cheese.” Personally I find the 100 tons of silver and red steel that ripples across the building in an abstract pattern to beautifully resemble the winding roads in the Hollywood Hills.
A 1966 Ford Thunderbird driven in Thelma and Louise. Photo copyright 2018 by Anna Boudinot
Since its inception, the Petersen has continually expanded its collection by purchasing rare and valuable vehicles and by accepting vehicle donations and loans. Today the collection includes over 200 vehicles and spans three stories as well as the subterranean garage known as the Vault. If you’re not a car geek when you walk through the museum’s doors, you will be transformed by the time you leave. The Petersen’s mission (though it’s worded differently on its website) is to provide a place where people can admire cars they can’t afford – up close rather than as they race past on the freeway. As you wander through the Petersen you have the distinct feeling of being a lucky guest among a priceless private collection, rather than being inundated with commercial messages as one would at an auto show or being sized up by sales people as one would at a dealership. Here you have the opportunity to take your time and appreciate the glint of chrome on a 1957 Cadillac El Dorado Biarritz, the genius behind General Motors’ EVI, or the simplicity of the first automobile fueled by gas, introduced by Bertha and Karl Benz in 1886.
A selection of cars used in movies and TV shows, including Herbie the Love Bug, Magnum PI’s Ferrari, and the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Photo copyright 2018 by Anna Boudinot
The collection is divided roughly into three categories: mind-blowingly expensive, exotic cars (such as the 2016 McLaren MSO HS and the 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari), classic cars, and famous cars that appeared in movies and TV shows. After all, what would LA be without movies, and what would movies be without cars? Here you’ll find the Batmobile from Tim Burton’s Batman (which today would of course have been CG generated rather than built as an actual functioning vehicle), the 1966 Thunderbird from Thelma & Louise, the 1958 Plymouth Fury from Christine, and the legendary Delorean from Back to the Future.
The museum takes special care in depicting the artistry of automobile design. Temporary exhibits included a selection of cars that won AMBR (America’s Most Beautiful Roadster) awards, and a collection of Ferraris through the ages. The museum is also a place for car fans to congregate and connect: the day my father and I visited, we strolled out onto the top floor of the parking garage to check out a “cacklefest,” an exhibition of privately-owned street rods and rat rods.
Throughout it all, there is a strong conveyance of how important automobiles are to our history and culture. It made me start thinking of how I take my little Honda for granted, but how I couldn’t experience nearly as much as I do in life without it. The invention of the automobile has had a profound impact on our society, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Vault.
Though a 90-minute tour of the Vault costs an additional $20 on top of the general admission fee, and is a bit longer than most people are willing to stand in a parking garage, I would categorize the Vault as a mandatory element of your Petersen experience. So wear comfortable shoes. Here you will see one-of-a-kind vehicles as off-the-wall as a 24-karat gold-plated Delorean (used as a promotional gimmick when American Express Gold cards were a status symbol in the 80s) and as inventive as the award-winning solar-powered vehicle built by University of Michigan engineers in 2001. Our guide guided us along the Vault in chronological order, beginning with Model Ts from the brass era and Model As from the nickel-plate era of automotive manufacturing. He remarked that early Fords were only available in black because it was the only color paint that dried quickly enough to keep Henry Ford’s assembly line moving along at a profitable pace.
A 1965 Ferrari 250 LM on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Photo copyright 2018 by Anna Boudinot
The Vault was not without its Hollywood stars, either. Inhabitants included Cadzilla, Grease Lightning, and gorgeous vehicles once possessed by Clark Gable and Rita Hayworth. There was also a Rolls Royce Phantom owned by film director John Frankenheimer, in which he ferried Bobby Kennedy to the Ambassador Hotel the night of Kennedy’s assassination. When you remember that the Ambassador, which once stood a mere 4 miles down Wilshire Boulevard from the Petersen, has since been torn down, it really starts to sink in how much history these cars have witnessed.
We saw several cars that had been in service of world leaders, from Ferdinand Marcos to Saddam Hussein to Nikita Khrushchev. The first armored car manufactured for a president was there – it belonged to Franklin D. Roosevelt – and a white, custom-tailored, Cadillac built for the Pope was parked nearby. This Popemobile, though blessed by Pope John Paul II upon his arrival in Mexico City in 1990, was never used because it was a convertible and, as such, offered no protection from bullets. The guide remarked that it had cost $900,000 to make, driving home the point that the Petersen is extraordinary in its ability to showcase that which is priceless.
While you’re in the neighborhood, visit LACMA, the La Brea Tar Pits, and the Berlin Wall.