Latest News
2026 Honda Ridgeline Review
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is among the greatest such museums in the world, a must-visit mecca for car lovers.
History Lessons
Last month, I had the privilege of visiting the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA to get nose-to-nose with some of the most amazing and historically significant cars ever built. For those of you unfamiliar, the Petersen Automotive Museum was founded by Robert E. Petersen, publisher of Hot Rod, Field & Stream, and dozens of other magazines. The museum was envisioned as a center for world-wide automotive culture located in the heart of that most car-centric of cites, Los Angeles. Their mission is to educate all generations of car lovers about the history of the automobile and to preserve for future generations especially important and compelling cars.
Below I’ll go over the highest of highlights currently on exhibition at the Petersen and then offer a glimpse of what the museum has lurking in their expansive vault, which is literally jam-packed with the most amazing vehicles you’re likely to ever encounter in one place. The Petersen is an automotive mecca every car nerd needs to visit at least once.
Current Exhibits
We Are Porsche
To honor Porsche’s 75th anniversary, the Petersen is currently showing their We Are Porsche exhibit featuring all manner of historically important Porsche road cars and racecars. As a big Porsche fan myself, I felt especially lucky that this happened to be the museum’s largest exhibition currently on display.
Two of the coolest there date back to the very beginnings of Porsche, a special pair of 356s. The first was a Gmünd Porsche 356 thus named because it was part of the first fifty cars built by Porsche over in Gmünd, Austria in the late 1940s. The next was a Porsche Continental. Why don’t you remember the Porsche Continental? Because that was the name importer Max Hoffman had suggested Porsche use when introducing the 356 to an American audience. Too bad Ford already had the rights to the Continental name, and Porsche was forced to stick with 356. Still, it’s neat to see the old Art Deco script spelling out Continental on the side of a 356.
Another influence of Max Hoffman’s was the suggestion that Porsche offer an open top version of the 356 to the American market, and thus the 356 Speedster was born in 1955. On display at the Petersen is a racing-tuned 1958 Carrera GT Speedster, one of twelve built. Among the many, many other Porsches on display included the full-size Sally Carrera from Cars, the Posche 918 Spyder from Glass Onion, the ‘73 911S from Maverick: Top Gun, and Slash’s 991-gen 911 Turbo, along tons of Porsche racecars.
Splendor & Speed
Another jaw-dropping exhibit was Splendor & Speed which featured some the Petersen’s rarest and most compelling cars. The 1939 Shah Bugatti, with its swooping fenders and signature horseshoe grille, is among the most beautiful cars I’ve ever seen in person. As the name suggests, the Shah Bugatti was once owned by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran.
Also part of Splendor & Speed is a 1956 Jaguar XKSS, one of many vehicles in the Petersen collection that were once owned by Steve McQueen. The ’56 XKSS is a true classic of a Jaguar with its British racing green, flowing body lines, and aggressive side pipe exhaust.
Superlatives don’t quite capture the majesty of the Round Door Rolls-Royce, considered the crown-jewel of the Petersen collection. Even among classic pre-war cars, the Rolls-Royce Round Door, a 1925 Phantom I, is unmatched in its opulence and ostentation. This massive car stretched over 20 feet in length and weighs approximately 8,000 pounds. The couch building on this car is stunning with its black exterior, titular round doors, and red leather interior.
Fast-Forward
The Fast Forward exhibit offers a look at interesting and rare 1950s concept cars. From the Jet Age era, these space race inspired concepts include the 1955 Chrysler Falcon by Ghia, a two-seat drop top envisioned as Chrysler’s answer to the Corvette and Thunderbird. It’s a neat car that feels like a real production car from an alternate timeline.
For “out there” designs, it’s hard to top the 1954 Alfa Romeo B.A.T. 7 concept. If you thought the ’59 Caddy had the wildest of wings, think again. The B.A.T. 7 (“Berlina Aerodinamica Tecnica”) was an experiment in aerodynamics and achieved an impressive 0.19 drag coefficient.
Movie Cars
The Petersen has a lot of movie cars, and these aren’t just ones that have been featured in movies, they are the actual cars, typically the “hero car” that one that gets filmed in close ups with the actors. There were loads of iconic movie cars including the 1989 Batmobile from Tim Burton’s Batman. Of course, there was a Herbie VW Beetle in its number 53 livery. The DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future was also on hand with flux capacitor fluxing. Other movies cars included the very pink Honda S2000 from 2 Fast 2 Furious, the Lincoln Continental from The Matrix, the Ford Thunderbird from Thelma & Louise, the Elenor Mustang from Nic Cage remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, and the Mystery Machine from the live-action Scooby-Doo movie.
Inside Tesla
On the main floor of the Petersen is the Inside Tesla: Supercharging the Electric Revolution. This exhibit walks visitors through the evolution of Tesla from the first Tesla Roadster to the Cybertruck. In between, there’s all sorts of cool displays: an “exploded” Model 3, the Roadster 2.0 prototype from 2017, aerodynamics mockups, charging infrastructure, batteries, and electric motors, models of the Space X rockets, and even the Tesla android. Love or hate Elon Musk, it’s hard not to be impressed.
The Vault
Like most museums, the curated exhibits are just a small slice of what the Petersen has in its collection of cars. In their underground garage, the Petersen houses hundreds of additional cars in their vault. Now open to public viewing, The Vault at the Petersen is a dizzying collection of fantastic vehicles. I’ll touch on a few notables but know this is just a handful among many, many amazing cars.
Among these is a one-of-two 1947 Ferrari 125S. This car is the very first Ferrari built with their signature Colombo V12. Also in the vault is one of only three gold plated DeLorean DMC-12s commissioned by American Express. There’s also the ahead-of-its-time 1948 Tucker with its central, cyclopean headlight that tracked with the turn of the wheels. The yellow DeTomaso Pantera in the vault is the one owned and shot by Elvis Presley.
Other historically significant cars include the 1964 Honda 600, their very first production car imported to the US. The Cadillac Popemobile is a treat, even if the open top car was never actually used as the Swiss Guard deemed it too dangerous to allow the Pope to ride in a convertible. Fred Astair’s 1927 Rolls-Royce is especially impressive with its green silk upholstery. There is also Jane Manfield’s pink Lincoln Imperial and the Farrari 308 from Magnum P.I. They even have a 1903/4 Cadillac as an example of the earliest “horseless carriages,” this one costing the great sum of $750 when new.
The list goes on and on. I can’t recommend the Petersen Automotive Museum enough. If you’re a gearhead and car lover and ever anywhere close to LA, do yourself a solid and make the trek to the Petersen. You won’t regret it.
