Petersen Automotive Museum: Not your average museum

OBA64-Peterson-Museum-14 — It looks like a motorcycle, but with four wheels; Dodge V10 powers the Tomahawk, of which nine have been constructed.

From our Old Bike Archives – Issue 64 – first published in 2017.

Story and photos Jim Scaysbrook

On Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles sits a very unorthodox building, the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Robert Elnar Petersen was a prolific magazine publisher who began with Hot Rod magazine and expanded to many other titles, including Motorcyclist, “delivering gasoline-powered dreams to the mailboxes of millions”. In 1996 he sold his company for $450 million, but during the previous four decades had amassed a very large collection of motor vehicles and with his wife Margie, had purchased a defunct department store on the famed Miracle Mile, which became the basis for the original museum. Petersen died in 2007, aged 80, but his wife continued with the museum until her death in 2011. With proceeds from her estate and the Petersen Foundation, a $125 million revamp of the building took place in 2015. The result is a stunning creation which wraps the original building in ribbons of stainless steel. Inside are themed displays housed in 25 separate galleries over the three above-ground floors, holding around 100 vehicles. Below ground, a similar number of vehicles await their turn on show.

George Brough’s personal motorcycle, Old Bill (named after a WW1 cartoon character), on which the ‘guvnor won many races and sprints at Brooklands and hill climbs elsewhere in Britain.

Morbidelli V8 was conceived in 1998, capable of 240 km/h, with a US$45,000 price tag, but never went into production.

A 1933/34 H-D VL74 used by the LA Police Department.

1955 H-D KHRM, with four-speed gearbox, hand clutch and swinging arm rear suspension.

Built by Formula 1 and Indycar driver Dan Gurney, the Alligator used a 600cc Honda engine in the feet-forward design. 36 were built from 2002 with a price tag of $35,000.

Although production ceased in 1942, the hand-built v-twin Crockers have gained almost legendary status. This 1936 model, owned by Charles Nearburg, produced a healthy 60 hp.

One of 206 650cc Triumph Bonneville converted to 750cc in 1970 to qualify for AMA racing rules.

Produced from 1947-1948, around 1,000 Salisbury Model 85 scooters were built in Pomona, California. Top speed was 45mph.

Not many museums have one of these on display. The fabulous all-conquering W196 Mercedes Benz grand prix car from 1955.

Built by Korky’s Kustoms for the popular Batman television series, the Batcycle used a 1966 Yamaha YDS-3 as the motive power for the Dynamic Duo.

This 1988 Yamaha V Max was built as a mobile filming rig by Motocam. It was used in feature films Terminator 2, Judgement Day (1991) and True Lies (1994).

Prior to forming his publishing empire, Robert Petersen had worked in Hollywood for big name organisations like MGM and the museum contains many examples of cars and motorcycles that have been created for use in films and television. As well as the cars, motorcycles and other exhibits owned by the museum itself, items from a number of individual collectors are also on show. Notable among these is a selection of cars and bikes owned by Charlie Nearburg, who made his fortune in oil and gas exploration. A handy racing driver, Nearburg established a new wheel-driven Land Speed record in 2010 at 414.4 mph (667 km/h) on Bonneville Salt Flats. Included in the Nearburg display is one of the Britten v1000 bikes that raced at Daytona in 1996, and several Formula One cars, including the Williams FW08 driven by Alan Jones to win the 1980 World Championship.

One of the Britten V1000s raced to a famous 1-2 result at the 1996 Daytona Battle of the Twins.

While there are a relatively small number of motorcycles on display, the Petersen Museum is an engrossing experience because of the diversity of the exhibits which not only include some amazing vehicles, but all sorts of special exhibits tracing automotive engineering and culture. For more info visit https://www.petersen.org