{"id":2665,"date":"2023-08-28T18:23:15","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T01:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2665"},"modified":"2023-08-28T18:27:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T01:27:33","slug":"motor-city-cars-are-stars-at-petersen-museums-vault-and-other-permanent-auto-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/lifestyle\/2665\/motor-city-cars-are-stars-at-petersen-museums-vault-and-other-permanent-auto-shows","title":{"rendered":"Motor City Cars are Stars at Petersen Museum\u2019s Vault and Other Permanent Auto Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"See<\/a>

See a simultaneous Tesla assembly and cars of the past, too.
Photo by Harrison Shiels<\/p><\/div>\n

\nThe Motor City\u2019s North American International Detroit Auto Show rolls up each September, and Claude Molinari, CEO of Visit Detroit, is ready for the ride.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cDetroit\u2019s auto show is the premier automobility event in the world right now. When you\u2019re talking about electrification, and autonomous vehicles, there is no bigger showplace on the planet,\u201d Molinari told me. \u201cLike the industry itself, the show is transitioning, but it is still a spectacular event. There may be a half-dozen cars debuted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Hudson is scheduled to perform at the black tie charity preview gala.<\/p>\n

Growing up in the Motor City, automotive company executives, including those in Lansing, were more like Barons and Dukes than VP\u2019s and CEO\u2019s. Michigan\u2019s car culture is akin to computers in Silicon Valley; winemaking in Sonoma; and show business in Hollywood. L.A.\u2019s Petersen Automotive Museum is a big, bright crimson and chrome-striped building parked at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue like an idling hot rod.<\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s car collections for tourists include Henry Ford Museum; Gilmore Car Museum; Lansing\u2019s R.E. Olds Museum; and Stahl\u2019s Automotive Collection. But I discovered, during a visit, the Petersen Museum has Michigan connections. The Petersen\u2019s underground, 250-vehicle \u201cVault,\u201d (extra admission price but worth every penny) is sponsored by Traverse City-based Hagerty, which insures collectable cars. One of the \u201ccollectibles\u201d on display is one of the University of Michigan\u2019s experimental, space age, solar-powered cars.<\/p>\n

Michigan-based, award-winning automotive journalist Paul Eisenstein, publisher of\u00a0TheDetroitBureau.com, has driven every car ever manufactured on test tracks, and roads switch-backing though the mountains above Monaco and England\u2019s Goodwood Festival of Speed. \u201cOoh\u2026the Petersen Automotive Museum is amazing. They built a huge, dedicated facility I have been lucky enough to go to for events held there and it is astounding,\u201d he told me. \u201cThey have a very large, permanent collection of cars owned by automotive publisher Bob Petersen, the late founder of Motor Trend, and they have constantly changing exhibitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Californian car buff Paul Cavallero shows off his custom-purple-painted 1972 Detomaso Pantera at the annual Rodeo Drive Concours d\u2019Elegance and sometimes outside Dan Tana\u2019s Restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard. Cavallero drove me, top down, to visit the Petersen Museum in his brand new 2023 Chevy Corvette convertible. We arrived in style as his jet-black beauty, top-dropped, dropped jaws in the museum\u2019s parking garage as some snapped pictures of the \u2018Vette.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaparazzi,\u201d I joked, which was appropriate as we were about to see a display of vehicles filmed in movies. But it was Cavallero\u2019s jaw that dropped when he saw a temporary exhibit of Italian cars saluting the legacy of Enzo Ferrari. \u201cThere is a lot of money in that room,\u201d Cavallero said with awe.<\/p>\n

In terms of showbiz, Cavallero immediately noticed a rare Pantera, like his, only yellow. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure car that belonged to Elvis,\u201d he said. A bullet hole in the car, pointed out by a museum guide, confirmed it was the King of Rock and Rolls\u2019 ride. The Petersen Museum displays the \u201cScooby Doo Mystery Machine\u201d van; the stainless-steel DeLorean driven in \u201cBack to the Future;\u201d more than one Bat Mobile; the VW Bus from \u201cLittle Miss Sunshine;\u201d \u201cStarsky and Hutch\u2019s\u201d red car with the white stripe; the 1959 Cadillac ambulance from \u201cGhostbusters,\u201d and the 1966 Ford Thunderbird \u201cThelma and Louise\u201d drove off a cliff at the film\u2019s end (one of them, actually.)<\/p>\n

The funniest showbiz vehicle is the wooden car created to look like a stage coach and sent as a gift by comedian Bob Hope to Western film star John Wayne in 1971\u2026with its bed full of cow manure!<\/p>\n

There is so much \u201ceye candy\u201d in this toy store of performance cars, including a copper-colored sports car designed by the King of Morocco \u2013 all a spoonful of sugar with the historic vehicles, too. The museum has procured cars ridden in by Saddam Hussein; U.S. Presidents; Soviet Premiers and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin; and a Pope Mobile created for the Holy Father\u2019s visit to Mexico City. The sedan chauffeuring President Ferdinand Marcos around the Philippines featured the anti-attack measures of a military vehicle.<\/p>\n

My star of the show was a beastly\u00a01925 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 Aerodynamic Coupe,\u00a0which must be seen to be believed. And for some reason I took a shine to the 1931 Ford Model A station wagon. I wish modern cars, which now resemble jelly bean-shaped appliances, had the fin-tailed flair of cars of the past. The Petersen Museum\u2019s toy store gift shop allows you to take some mini beauties with you.<\/p>\n

Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at\u00a0<\/em>MShiels@aol.com<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0His radio program may be found at\u00a0MiBigShow.com or weekday mornings\u00a0from 9-noon\u00a0on WJIM\u00a0AM 1240<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Motor City\u2019s North American International Detroit Auto Show is a must-see for car lovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[4998,1044562],"class_list":["post-2665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-michael-patrick-shiels","tag-detroit-auto-show"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2023\/08\/Detroit-Auto-Show.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2665"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2673,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2665\/revisions\/2673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}