Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

Visiting the Petersen Museum, Part Two.

Of course there are movie cars.

My favorite Batmobile.

Christine and Herbie, a match made in Heaven?

Upstairs was the "70 years of Ferrari exhibit." I remember reading in a magazine column once, that car enthusiasts can have two reactions  to viewing these exclusive, hyper expensive cars.  One ( the Lover), will find them amazing, and they are glad to have the opportunity to just see these cars close up. The other (the Hater) will grumble that that these have no relevance to the average car guy and they are just owned by snooty rich folks. I will admit that for many years I was lined up behind the Hater. Now, I have softened my attitude towards these machines. Yes they are exclusive and will always be way beyond my reach. But so what. There are architectural and artistic treasures that can be appreciated by all, even if only possessed by a very few. At least they are shared with the rest of us. These cars usually debut performance and styling features decades ahead of the mass produced hordes.

The first Barchetta. These early Ferraris are my favorites.

Nothing like a Red head.
The exposed front wheels were  a design theme explored on many late Fifties dream cars.

My favorite car in the entire museum. How could a car from 1961 still look so good?

                                         Bueller? Bueller? I hated the movie but loved this car.

Its like looking at a fighter jet. I can't warm up to these, yet.

There were only three Jaguars on feature display. Being a Jag fan I had to include them. The poor XJ220 suffered from being powered by a twin turbocharged V6. Buyers in this price class wanted an actual V12, like the first prototype.

1930's Jaguars are amazing. I guess it's no wonder that these have been reproduced as kit cars.

This was Steve McQueen's D type. The man knew how to have fun.
Personally I think the competition C type has better lines.

This was the first street car capable of 200mph. The styling has grown on me over the years.

                               These have just started to develop a strong collector following.

The NieKamp roadster. A classic hot rod.

I decided that I wasn't going to try to do a whole running documentary on the museum. Enjoy the pictures. You can enjoy the actual cars during your visit.

There are enough different displays to satisfy almost any auto enthusiast. There were things that I found fascinating and other just as worthy things that I kind of glossed over. One of the best things is the mix of people that came to the museum. Like LA in general, people of all ethnic, social and economic strata will find themselves rubbing elbows, just like on the LA freeway system. You could say that the freeway is the great equalizer, it is shared by the late model Ferrari, the Lowrider, ( I was actually passed by a '39 Chevy Lowrider while negotiating the East LA interchange) the beat up over loaded mini truck, tired Camry, immaculate vintage car, and any other vehicle you could imagine. Mercedes and BMWs are so common they don't even rate a second look, actually not even a first look.

As I was looking at Gypsy Rose,  I got into a conversation with a middle fifties aged Chicano fellow who was there with his twenty something year old son. It turns out that this gentleman had been acquainted with Jessie Lopez and had even been a member of the Imperial car club back in the day. We spoke of the difficulty of hanging onto our cars over the years, and how our interests were likely to change as we aged. It was obvious that Lowrider cars were more than a styling affectation to him, they were a part of his identity.


While looking at the Ferrari display I made the acquaintance of a young fellow in his late twenties. He was very impressed by how advanced the cars were for their time.  I told him that it was interesting to see if you can pick out the influences that filtered down to the mass produced market over time. We talked about currently available, affordable cars that would be worth holding onto. He mentioned the Honda S2000 and I heartily agreed with him. He told me that he had an Acura RSX and that he was looking for a second car, the S2000 might be it. He said he wanted to learn to fix his cars and was hoping to buy a house someday with a garage he could turn into a workshop. He had a young family and I knew that it would be a real challenge for some years, but to try to hold onto something that he loved. I wished him well.

While checking out that blue hot rod I had a conversation with an affluent older gent. I mentioned that while I had grown up in the mid Sixties I never remembered seeing any hot rods on the street. This guy was about five years older than me and had grown up in Southern California. He said that he had owned several old hot rods in the day, and some of his current neighbors had built up some Offy powered rods. We were discussing some high buck, hot rod building. Still, he said that he couldn't see himself actually driving one of these traditional hot rods anymore.


At the Jaguar display I spoke with a gentleman in his late Thirties who was there with his young son. He was surprised when I told him that Jaguar was building a continuation series of the D type. When I said that I remembered when you could find a running E type for a grand in the early to mid Seventies, he was quite surprised. When I mentioned that there were still fixer uppers available for less than ten grand, he mentioned that in his experience starting out with a better example was usually more economical. He was right of course. He told me about some of the muscle cars that he had restored and how it was easier to get a loan to buy a finished car, than to get any financing for the restoration.

There are lots of people there with their own stories and experiences, Don't be shy, start up a conversation with the person next to you.

I hope you get a chance to visit the Peterson Museum, soon. Enjoy the cars and take the time to talk to your fellow enthusiasts, it's nice to get different people's viewpoints.