Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles

1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 Grand Prix F1 car.

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has recently undergone a major $90 million facelift.  The outside of the museum is now very artistic, spectacular and futuristic.  Although this is a museum, this somehow ties in very well with many of the old and not so old cars inside that were also very artistic, futuristic and spectacular in their day. 

The refurbished exterior of the Petersen Automotive Museum

The museum is the biggest and best automobile museum in the USA.  Its attraction is that plenty of space is given to each exhibit.  It does not have the crowding and parking lot feel that blights so many auto museums.   They only show a part of their collection at any one time which encourages repeat visits and also gives space to show the cars in an enhanced environment.  However, you can visit the Vault which contains the rest of the collection on the payment of an extra admission charge.  For me, the one and half hour guided tour of the vault is an absolute must.  The only minus is that kids under 13 are not allowed in the vault and you are not allowed to take photos.  Photography is, however, allowed in the main areas of the museum which is great.  Some of my photos of the very pleasurable half day I spent in the museum are shown below:

The museum is split into 25 galleries and including the Vault the collection has over 300 cars of which only a few are shown here.

LOBBY

2014 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse KPM Series

2003 Dodge Tomahawk.  A 300mph motorccle with a V10 Dodge Viper engine!

ROLLING SCULPTURE

1936 Bugatti T37SC Atlantic

1938 HRG Airline Coupe.  A car made in Croydon, England. 

BMW & THE ART OF THE AUTOMOBILE

1975 BMW 3.0 CSL. Painted by Alexander Calder.

1995 BMW 850 CSI.  Painted by David Hockney.

PRECIOUS METAL

1938 Hispano Suiza Dubonnet Xenia.

1995 Mclaren F1 - 243 mph top speed. 

THE CHARLES NEARBURG COLLECTION

Porsches 962, 936/4, 917 & 935K3. 

1926 Miller 91 Armacost Special Indycar.

THE OTHER GALLERIES

 

1970 Mclaren-Chevrolet M8D Can-Am car.

 

1929 Bill Niekamp Ford Roadster.

1913 Mercer Type 35-J Raceabout

Some additional plusses about the museum - It has ample parking, a very nice shop and also has a small café on the top of the building.  The guided vault tour is extremely interesting and informative and well worth adding to your day.  I got to see the 24 carat gold plated DeLorean, some very interesting cars owned by famous personalities, some early historical vehicles and a few interesting racing cars amongst others (sorry no photos).  Our guide was entertaining and knowledgeable, she did a great job.  Overall this museum gets a ten out of ten rating.

Click here for a link to the Museum Web Site.

Click here to see my post about a Breakfast Club Cruise-In at the Petersen Auto Museum.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.
For a daily posing of a fast car, visit my new blog Auto Vitesse by clicking here.

View us on Facebook by clicking on this link.

Petersen Auto Museum Breakfast Club Cruise-In

Jasnuary 24th 2016, The Breakfast Club Cruise-In at the Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles.

The Petersen Auto Museum in Los Angeles has recently been refurbished and was only recently reopened in December 2015.  One of their regular events is a Breakfast Club Cruise-In and one of the first since since the reopening in December was held on January 24^th 2016.  As I was in the area I decided to attend but I wasn’t prepared for the awesome number of cars that attended.  Vintage cars, Classic cars, Sports cars, Custom cars, Hot Rods and Super cars turned up in force and over 200 cars were spread over two floors of the multi-storey car park.   Here are some of the more interesting cars I spotted:

VINTAGE

Only a few vintage cars turned up but they were rather interesting and included a rare LaSalle Roadster and A Pebble Beach winning Bentley.

1928 LaSalle 303 Roadster.   La Salle was one of the Brands used by GM for cars just below the luxury quality of Cadillac.  However, this car would still have cost over $3,000 when new.

1925 Bentley Speed 4 cyl.   This car has been a Pebble Beach winner and is in absolutely immaculate condition.

CLASSIC

As well as the inevitable Chevrolets and Fords they was quite a variety in this group.

Beautiful, big 1967 Pontiac GTO convertible.

The Hell's Belles were there with their girly cars.  Great to see them and this this pink Ford Rambler.

1948 Nash arriving at the Cruise-In.

Stunning Maserati Sebring.

Chevrolet Impala Convertible.

Nash Metropolitan.

Fiat 500.

Chevrolet Camaro SS

A Ford Capri.

Circa 1980 Ferrari Mondial Convertible.  Rather nice condition.

Cadillac

SPORTS CARS          

For us Europeans there were a few cars that we don’t often see amongst the sports cars.

Dodge Viper SRT

Saturn Sky Roadsters

"Honda" Acura NSX

Lange Concepts LCIIISPider - a one-off.

Morgan

CUSTOM CARS & HOT RODS

Given that Robert Petersen originally started his publishing company with Hot Rod Magazine, it was appropriate that a number of them turned up.

Chevrolet Alternomad custom car.

Very low slung custom Mercedes-Benz.

Custom Ford truck.

SUPER CARS

I was particularly impressed by the number of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins that turned up.

Ferrari

Lamborghini

Aston Martin

Jaguar F Type Project 7

Jaguar F Type project 7

It was great speaking to some of the owners of these fantastic vehicles.  If you get a chance, do attend to one of these cruise-ins either as an owner or enthusiast.  Sometimes they are open events like this and sometimes specialist events for a particular marque.  

Cosworth engined single seater road car - The BAC Mono.  A 2.3L 280BHP engined F3 chassis made street legal.

Vector Avtech prototype.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

For my review of the Petersen Auto Museum, click here.

For a daily posing of a fast car, visit my new blog Auto Vitesse by clicking here.

View us on Facebook by clicking on this link.

Tailpiece - A tool room replica Ford GT40.

16e Traversée de Paris Hivernale 2016

A Simca Ariane finishes the Traversée de Paris by returning to the Chateau at Vincennes.

A Penny Farthing finishing the Traversée

The Traversée de Paris again brightened up one of our winter Sundays today, the 10th January 2016.

We nearly missed it after missing the alarm and getting held up in a traffic jam, but luckily caught up in the end.

After initially going to Montmartre and seeing the tail end of the 700 vehicles taking part we headed to the finish at the Chateau of Vincennes.

One of the charms of the Traversée is the huge variety of vehicles that take part.  There is everything from bicycles to Solex to motor bikes to cars, tractors and trucks.

Organised by Vincennes en Anciennes, this annual event gets classic car owners out of their bed early one Sunday in January and in to their vehicles that normally spend their winter in the warmth of the garage.

As well as the 700 official participants many of the spectators come in their interesting cars and vehicles as well.

The start was at 7.30am from the Esplanade at the Chateau of Vincennes.  Then they traversed Paris via Place de la Bastille, Le Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Place de la Concorde and Les Invalides.

For the 2016 edition, women were the theme.


Below are a few pictures that show the variety and quality of the vehicles in this year's Traversée.

Shame about the weather!

Track going 1973 Porsche 911 3.2 in Vincennes

Citroen Maserati SM in Montmartre

Solex in Montmartre

Citroen 2CV outside the Sacré Coeur.

Austin Healey 3000 in Montmartre.

Old sign in Montmartre.  Poulbots are the local street urchins.

Being a wine fan, I couldn't resist a quick detour to see the Montmartre vineyards.  This is a tour bike going by.

An immaculate Morgan outside the Chateau de Vincennes. 

1923 Ford Model T.

Renault 4L.

Deutz Tractor

Renault 4CV

Motor Tricycle

Harley-Davidson detail.

The cyclists dressed up nicely and pedalled all the way.  Well done!

Rover

Facel Vega  III

Opel GT and Citroen DS in front of the Chateau de Vincennes.

Citroen Ami

Renault Dauphine by the Chateau

Citroen 2CV

Volkswagen Hippy Van

Mustn't forget the Alfas!   A GTV6 and a Spider.

Nice green Triumph Spitfire and Porsche 911

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.

For a daily posing of a fast car, visit my new blog Auto Vitesse by clicking here.

View us on Facebook by clicking on this link.