Petersen Automotive Museum
While I was letting the turkey digest, I decided to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire and Fairfax, to get a jump on a possible story next week — the X Prize cars are supposedly celebrating by ceremoniously leaving the Petersen to travel to Anaheim for the EVS-23 convention. I had heard that the Petersen is also doing an alternative fuel vehicle exhibit right now, so I wanted to check that out, but I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of a car museum in general — I mean, a car is a car; it’s a utilitarian machine, and I don’t like the idea of glorifying it too much after all the trouble it’s caused. But I tell you, I was drawn in by the first cars in the lobby before I even bought my ticket, and became more fascinated as I went on from exhibit to exhibit. It’s obvious that the creators of the museum have a love for vehicles that encompasses history, hard work, innovation, ingenuity, along with an appreciation for changing body styles, colors, and horsepower. It took me a good long while to even get up to the alt. fuel exhibit — and when I did, it was awesome and thorough and let me in on a couple of alternative energy options I didn’t even know had been experimented with for automobile use (turbines, jet engines, rocket engines, steam!). And they actually have an EV1 on the premises, which I never thought I’d get to see, so that made my day. There’s also an entire section of the museum devoted to ‘Hollywood cars’ like Herbie the Love Bug, lots of models driven or donated by Steve McQueen (that guy loved his cars and motorcycles) and the Michael Keaton-era Batmobile. Oh yes, and how can I forget the little custom pink number from 2 Fast 2 Furious the movie? In the end, I felt myself pulled towards a beautiful old car, with contrasting deep navy-looking body and cream-colored chopped top. I looked at it for a few minutes, and then began to read the placard in front of the exhibit. It was the beautiful customized car Clark Gable had given to Carole Lombard shortly before her death — and I actually got choked up. What a softy!
–Refined gOil
