By Guy Bird
Photography by Uta Kogelsberger
‘One thing that we all have in common, especially in Southern California, is the automobile,’ says Robert E Petersen. ‘To some, the automobile is an appliance, but to us it is a passion.’
Robert is the founder of the Petersen Automotive Museum, LA’s cathedral for car worship. Situated in the heart of Wilshire Boulevard – an area dubbed ‘Museum Row’ owing to the number of other such institutions on the same strip – the 300,000sq ft, four-floor Petersen building is a not-for-profit space where anyone with even a passing interest in cars will find something to excite them.
LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum
The care and attention with which the vehicles have been selected bears witness to this. There are more than 150 exhibits at any one time, and as many in the vaults awaiting their turn. They include Hollywood movie cars for films such as Grease and Batman, cool concepts and racecars.
Usually exhibited as walk-through dioramas that evoke the fashion and culture of the time each car was created, the exhibits provide context for younger visitors and memories for older ones.
Recent exhibitions have ranged from ones exploring experiments in aerodynamics to Fins: Form Without Function, a show celebrating the golden age of American car design in the mid-20th century, where, as the museum puts it, ‘Imagination was the stylist’s only limit.’
Driver’s paradise
Unlike major museums in other cities, the Petersen is approachable by car, with parking on site. It’s the same for the rest of our trip around LA.
Maybe it’s because LA is so geographically spread out compared to many other cities – it’s 44 miles long and 29 miles wide – and, because so much of the greater LA area was developed with the car in mind, it has wide streets and plenty of reasonably priced parking.
Either way, jumping into a car to discover the sights of LA is feasible and affordable. Given the paucity of public transport, driving is how most of its inhabitants get around.
Next stop on our alternative tourist agenda involves heading slightly northwards up to the corner of South La Brea Avenue and West 1st Street, to Nick Metropolis. At a sprawling and mainly open-air lot, a plethora of neon signs, furniture and pop culture ephemera piled up in endless rows gives the impression of a fairground that has fallen into disrepair.
But take a closer look and it reveals itself as a veritable Aladdin’s cave of neon wonders that you can buy, if you have the room and inclination. In one back room sit dozens of different-sized Hollywood-style shop sign letters; in another stands an 8ft-high Marge Simpson light sculpture; in a third there is a kitsch lampshade with a high-heeled foot and fishnet tights-clad leg for its stand.
Just a few paces down are more regular but no less interesting retail experiences, from upmarket skate and streetwear outlet Union and limited-edition sneaker shop Undefeated to various vintage shops.
The Walt Disney Concert Hall
Head north again up La Brea and turn left on to Melrose Avenue and you’ll find some of the biggest fashion names and outlets in the world nestling with some cosier and less well known ones. Kid Robot is an example of the latter, with its small but perfectly formed shop offering limited-edition art toys and clothing, for kids and adults alike.
Custom made
For another fix of car culture visit the ‘King of Kustom’, George Barris. Up in North Hollywood at 10811 Riverside Drive, Barris Kustom Industries is the headquarters of the man – now in his 80s – behind so many automotive pop culture icons, from the Monkeemobile in the 60s to Starsky and Hutch’s striped Ford Gran Torino in the 70s and Knight Rider’s ‘KITT’ Trans Am in the 80s.
He’s also the man behind the original 1966 TV series Batmobile, which sold earlier in 2013 for $4,620,000 – the highest price ever paid for a TV or movie car – plus one-offs for pop stars (all the Beatles), celebrities (including a Rolls-Royce for Zsa Zsa Gabor) and various presidents and sheikhs.
From custom cars to Hollywood vintage memorabilia, modern-day art toys to rare sneakers, LA has some hidden gems to match any world city. But unlike most other cities, in LA you can enjoy the experience by car.
