A Week of Adventures & More! Day 5: Hollywood Cars
If you are looking for world-class museums, Southern California may be the best place to start such an exploration. On this particular Wednesday, Leo and I chose to visit a very appropriate example by starting our day at the Petersen Automotive Museum. With this geographic area being ground zero for car culture in so many ways, this museum offers guests a truly fascinating experience in all things automotive. Located in a former upscale retail structure, the building today houses one of the world’s premier automotive collections. There are over 100 vehicles in 25 galleries. And there are an additional 300 cars located in the Vault below the Museum. For a car guy or gal, this is indeed a rabbit hole you can easily fall into.
Displays of vehicles start in the Museum parking garage, such as this Mercedes-Benz vehicle transporter, complete with an example of a vehicle it carried.
The cars on display here are simply fantastic. For a true car guy (like Bob Gurr) or gal, there is so much history and artistic talent to experience that you could spend days exploring each floor as well as the Vault of this museum. In this very brief illustration, I am going to concentrate on some of the movie cars displayed. The first movie car displayed was the stunt car in what is often cited as the best on-screen car chase sequence in film from the 1968 production of “Bullit” with Steve McQueen.
This was the car used for the major stunts in “Bullit” and has been restored after being derelict in Mexico. It is a great introduction to the Museum and the collection of movie cars.
The Museum is arranged into galleries on the different floors. The Cars of Film & Television display is located in the Hollywood Gallery on the Third Floor. It is a fine sample of cars that have entertained audiences of all sizes.
Bumblebee, actually a 2007 Camaro Concept car, as seen in the 2007 production of “Transformers”.
The automotive star of “Wayne’s World”, it’s the Mirthmobile! A 1976 AMC Pacer.
The Batmobile, as driven by Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader, in the 1989 production of “Batman”.
“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”
1985 isn’t all that far away when you have the hero Delorean fully restored from the first “Back To The Future”.
Even small cars have a big moment! The 1968 Fiat 500L as seen in 2023’s “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning” with a car chase through the streets of Rome.
A replica of 1995’s animated automotive winner, Lightning McQueen from Pixar’s “Cars”.
That is only a sample of the vehicles from movies and television on display. And not the only automobile with a connection to Disney either. Currently the Museum has a fine assemblage of vehicles celebrating 100 years of Mercedes-Benz. Among those is a very special vehicle that was personally owned by Walt Disney and has remained with members of the family ever since. It is a 1964 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL. Originally the car was white, and even appeared on-screen in Disney’s 1965 “That Darn Cat”. It was later repainted red by his daughter Diane Disney Miller.
Even the Museum Gift Shop has movie cars, as RC from “ Toy Story” was available for purchase.
So that is a very brief look at the Petersen Automotive Museum. There is a good deal more to explore!
Coming next, more Hollywood and Pixar!