Just like kids buzzing in their seat about going to Disneyland for the first time, I too was bouncing off the walls with excitement to visit the Petersen Museum as it truly is a magical place for any car enthusiast. This ever evolving place houses over 250 cars, with only a sliver of those being laid out across the three main floors. Many one off, innovative, and historical vehicles are also stored in their 60,000 sq ft underground storage area they call the vault. Previously locked down the vault housed these impressive cars that only made appearances when the exhibits in the main area were changed out. The vault however is now open to the public for guided tours so you can get the full experience of what Petersen has to offer.
Starting in the main lobby you are already shown a glimpse of what is hiding throughout the floors and vault of the building. On this visit the main exhibit on the first floor dubbed "The Porsche Effect" spills out into the lobby with two cars that would catch any Porsche fans attention. The RUF CTR Yellowbird #001, and the Jagermeister 962C driven by Thierry Boutsen/Frank Jelinsky for Brun Motorsports. But they don't spill their marbles all at once, the exhibit houses even more rare and historical cars.
This being my first visit to the museum I gladly took the ticket attendants instructions of going top to bottom and started at the top floor, working my way down to the first which houses their main exhibits. The top floor housed quite an array of movie cars, and a brief but educational walk through of automotive history that included some of the first motorized wagons of the late 1800's. This establishes a great connection to those who aren't die hard enthusiasts to be able to enjoy some very recognizable vehicles and to educate themselves on just how important the automotive industry was and how it continues to grow.
Moving down to the second floor there was a very intriguing section of alternatively powered vehicles throughout history. The red car you see above being the General Motors EV1 which for such a forgotten vehicle is laden with history. With a little over 1000 of these being built they were available by lease only and were only serviceable at select Saturn dealerships. The market as seen by GM at the time was unprofitable at the time and therefore many of these cars were crushed regardless of backlash from the customers. Only 40 were donated to museums (with their systems deactivated and a promise not to be reactivated for road use) in the US and the Smithsonian houses the only intact EV1. This area of the second floor also housed a drive-train from a Tesla Model 3 and a 2000's Honda FCX which is Honda's nitrogen powered model.
Working your way around the floor you then find yourself enveloped by Japanese tuner/super cars. Petersen truly brought the essence of the automotive powerhouse that is Japan by displaying not only factory fresh examples of things like an Acura NSX, but incorporating enthusiast builds like Daniel Pelligrino's Kaido-inspired Toyota Cresta you see above. Some of the cars on display are set and stay for the length of that exhibit however at the museum they strive to make each visit unique so cars are rotated out regularly. A prime example of this being that I was looking forward to seeing the road going Nissan R390 but it was off the floor during my visit. A big centerpiece of the second floor is the design area that you can wander through to see different sketches, concepts, and chat with whoever is working at the time.
Still circling around the second floor you run into part of Bruce Meyer's collection of historic race cars. This exhibit being named "Winning Numbers" by the museum as they each have a story behind them as beautiful as the cars themselves. While comparatively not vast in size to some collections, Bruce's collection has been produced out of pure passion for the automotive world. Referring to himself as "an enthusiast" as opposed to a collector you can tell that Bruce has a much deeper emotion and attachment towards the cars as compared to some collectors and their cars that are never even driven because yes, these are all driven regularly.
Spiraling down into the final floor of the museum you enter "The Porsche Effect". This exhibit has been such a hit with many of the visitors that instead of running through January, Petersen decided to extend it's display until late April of 2019. Cascading down the middle of the main stairs is a pillar with all of the triple digit designations that Porsche gives their vehicles adding a good transition into this history rich area. Not only does the museum have the vehicles themselves on display but throughout the floor along the walls are incredible pieces of art. Art such as old advertisements from Porsche, posters from races, magazines, old schematics of the nearby vehicles on the display, and lastly along the back wall a massive projection running through the lineage of race cars lined along the wall.
The price of admission alone is worth it just to see this one floor. The amount of history and truly special vehicles on display is what makes Petersen one of, if not the best, automotive museum in the world. Spending quite a long time on this final floor truly puts into perspective how much effort the museum puts into their displays. This exhibit specifically being the collaboration of Bruce Meyer, who is the co-vice chairman of the Petersen's governing board, and Wolfgang Porsche, Porsche's current AG Supervisory Board chairman, to bring attention to the 70th anniversary of the Porsche brand in 2018. Some of my favorite things to see on this final floor were coincidentally right next to each other. The original Carrera GT concept car that displayed at the Paris auto show in 2000 and a 959S. This 959S being one of only 29 ever built felt more special to me than most other cars on display as it is my favorite classic supercar and this particular one being the first red one I've ever seen instead of the more commonly known silver really struck a chord.
Sadly this visit I did not take a vault tour, mainly due to time restrictions and the fact that only with special permission is any photography or video allowed in the vault. However this does give me even more of a reason to come back and get the full tour of this magical place. At a mere $16 per person and open 10am-6pm every day I'd strongly recommend stopping in any time that you get a chance. With the exhibits always evolving and rotating cars in and out there is always new and interesting things to learn about during your visit. The vault tours being an extra $23 you truly aren't spending much for the chance to view the incredible array of vehicles that Petersen houses, some of them being the only ones in the world!
-Joshua Brown
@luckyclub.us
@petersenmuseum
Extras below!
