13 Shots from Petersen

I've lived my whole life in the Los Angeles area, and I'm a car guy, but here's something I've never done. A visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum!!!

My dad's car club managed to get a group trip there, including a tour of the vault. It was pretty awesome, but they don't allow photography in the vault. The three things that I remember from that part are one of the three gold DeLorians ever produced, a Pantera owned by Elvis that he put three bullets into when it wouldn't start for him, and a 62-63 Comet that was under construction. The Comet got my attention because one of the cars I'm always looking around for the similar but much cooler 60-61 model.

All the pictures are from the levels above the vault. I considered attempting a sneak vault photo on my phone, but never did.

Right out in the lobby they had this auto show superbike with a Dodge V-10 engine.

This Mercer was pretty cool. Whoever heard of a monocle windshield??? I was a bit mystified by the gear drive to the front wheel. The most likely thing I could think of was a speedometer cable take off.

Motorized bikes were well represented.

I liked the green car with the white hard top. Don't remember what it was named, but it is a trike, has a removable top, and seats four across the bench seat!!!

There was a design school that had done wood mock ups for the next generation Minis. I like that they used a 5 gallon bucket for the center gauge cluster.

A lot of auto show cars that never saw production.

The huge black Rolls Royce in the lobby has a perfectly round door, although it's not so easy to see in the picture.

Finally, on the way out, in the parking lot was a cool dune buggy!!!

Rude Awakening

What a way to wake up!!! Choppity choppity.... I thought I was back in old Saigon!!!


Such things as this should not happen on a weekend morning. Shocking that the rest of the family was sleeping through it. Oh well, since I wasn't getting any more rest, figured I'd step outside and see if I could see what all was up there. Only one chopper, and instead of the regular circling, it was hovering, being blown up a ways, and returning to where it started. Strange. I could hear emergency vehicles' sirens approaching. Two thoughts of what could have happened, one being that the constant drizzle had destabilized the hillside and a house or two had slid down. The other thought was that someone had attempted to race a Gold Line train at one of the crossings. Since I was up (and none of the local news broadcasts were showing a thing about it) I decided I'd throw on some clothes, grab my camera and see if I could find the source and get some shots in.

By the time I did this, though, Tooth boy woke up. I told him what I was thinking of doing, and before I took off I flipped through the broadcast news again, and there it was.

The third option turned out to be what had happened, though. One of the world famous 110 Freeway exit had claimed another victim. (Image of the car being lifted out courtesy of Fox 11's website)

I stopped by later in the day to survey the damage. Hard to tell exactly what happened, but I think that someone tried to exit without heeding the 5 MPH sign, overshot the exit and fell the thirty or so feet into the Arroyo Seco.

Every so often that happens.

While I was there taking pictures, I heard the brakes of another car locking up, and I was able to get a couple of shots, Ala Mad Max.

He was able to keep from going all the way over, but he was very lucky that there was no one heading onto the freeway!!!

Max Would Approve

I took this over the weekend. This was up on the Pasadena end of the 110 freeway, where it's narrow and curvy. Gee, I wonder what happened!!!

I think Mad Max would approve!!!