If you have never been to the Petersen Automotive Museum, you definitely need to get it on your bucket list. Since 1994, The Petersen Museum has been situated on the 3rd busiest corner in Los Angeles at Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. The museum is home to more than 300 collector vehicles of various shapes, sizes, makes, and models. Using rotating exhibits and loaner vehicles, the curators are able to continually maintain relevant and fresh displays to keep the public coming back for more.Images: Petersen Automotive Museum & Autoblog Video: Sunny & Mild Media
The Petersen Museum also hosts automotive related exhibitions that don’t include actual cars on the floor. Currently, a License Plate Art Wall is being shown with a full history of the license plate around the world.
An awesome special event is coming up on February 26th, 2014. The museum will be hosting a viewing of documentary, Where They Raced: Speed Demons in the City of Angels. The movie “…tells the story of a pre-gridlocked Los Angeles… a time ripe with orange groves, movie stars, year-round sunshine, and more auto racing and innovation than anywhere else in the world.” The film is loaded with hundreds of vintage photos, lost films, and interviews that shed more light on the lost race tracks of L.A. and the cars that ran on them. Interviews include Vic Edelbrock Jr. bringing Roger Ward’s V8-60 back to Gilmore, Mickey Thompson’s son and 1st wife walking a quarter-mile down memory lane, Huell Howser on the Corona Circle, and many others.
Lost film and modern interviews combine to give an excellent reliving of a world gone by. Traces of vintage L.A. can still be found throughout the city, you just need to know what you are looking at.
Entry is free, though an RSVP is required. A presentation will be put on by Writer/Producer/Director Harry Palenberg (Shotgun Freeway, Women in Boxes, and California’s Gold) prior to the showing. Popcorn is on the house and Johnny Rockets will have snacks and beverages available to purchase, including $1 Milkshakes.
Relive some of the glory days of automotive history. For more information, visit www.petersen.org and www.wheretheyraced.com