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.

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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.

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