On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
snarlymon
When I was a freshman in high school I walked out of a grocery store in downtown Emmaus, Pennsylvania and saw a red Corvette Stingray parked on Main Street. As I walked around the roadster, soaking up its lines, I thought “what an amazing car!”. Up until that point the most exotic car in my little town was a Buick or a Cadillac, although one of our teachers had a Citroen that we all mocked as weird.
A short time later I was sitting on our front porch when that very same car rumbled down the street and parked at the corner grocery store at the end of our block. Moth meet flame. Turns out the Corvette was owned by the son of the store owner and was he there regularly. The store became my after school hangout and was the road to being a lifelong sports car nut.
So during a trip to Los Angeles to visit some friends it was almost mandatory to visit the Peterson Automotive Museum, one of the largest museums devoted to the art of automotive design. We had gotten a late start and were only able to stay a couple of hours so what you see here is a small sample of their collection.
Bugatti Type 57 Atlantic 1936
In the thirties, the Bugatti cars were synonymous with winning race cars and fast sporty coupes. The Atlantic is the latter. The Bugatti name has been revived and are still expensive, exclusive, ultra fast coupes.
Delahaye type 165 (The French Ambassador) 1939
I can imagine tooling around Paris on a warm summer evening in this streamlined beauty, its V12 purring under the hood. (although maybe not in 1939/40) The French manufacturer closed down in 1952, but left behind some of the most beautiful cars of the era.
Jaguar XKSS 1956
This is a road going version of the D Type Jaguar that won Le Mans in 1955 through ’57. Only 16 were made, making them expensive collector cars. This particular British Racing green car was owned by Steve McQueen.
BMW 3.0 CSL art car 1975
BMW (Bavarian Motor Werkes) was originally established to produce aircraft engines, which powered German aircraft during World War I, The company moved into automobile manufacturing between world wars, and established their brand as competitive racers. After World War II they continued that tradition with their sedans. In 1975, Hervé Poulain drove this car at Le Mans, with it’s livery created by Alexander Calder. This was the birth of the art car series, with such renowned artists as Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Matazo Kayama, and Roy Lichtenstein using BMW’s as their canvases
BMW 850 CSI art car 1995
Another art car painted by Jeff Koons.
Mercedes Benz W196 1954
By now you have probably noticed that I tend to be drawn to race cars. The W196 dominated the 1954/55 Grand Prix seasons piloted by two famous drivers, Juan Manual Fangio and Sterling Moss. While most of the W196 were standard open wheel racers, the streamliner was created for the faster formula 1 tracks, The straight eight engine featured desmodromic valves and direct full injection derived from the engine of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter. After winning the Italian Grand Prix two years in a row, the streamlined version of the car was nicknamed the Monza. Mercedes quit racing after a horrific accident at Le Mans in 1955, making this is the only closed wheel car to win a formula one race.
Ferrari 625-250 Testa Rosa Scagliati 1957
This was Enzo Ferrari’s answer to the D type Jaguars. Powered by a 3 liter v12, these cars dominated Le Mans in 1958, ’60, and ’61. Besides the factory team this car was popular with private racing teams so there are several different body styles of the Testa Rosa, depending on the coach maker. In 1962 Ferrari introduced mid engined prototypes and iconic GTO, making the Testa Rosa obsolete, Testa Rosa means red head, referring to the cylinder heads
Corvette XP-87 Stingray 1959
We’ve sort of come full circle with this Chevy prototype. The original Corvette, introduced in 1953, was powered by an anemic 6 cylinder coupled with an automatic transmission, so it could be considered, at most, a flashy boulevard cruiser. That changed in 1955 when Chevrolet dropped their new V8 and a 4 speed transmission into the chassis, which immediately made the Corvette a viable sports car and competitive in local races. Plans were set in motion to challenge the dominant European marks at Le Mans which resulted in the ’57 Corvette SS racer. But before they could compete in Europe, General Motors brass put a ban on racing. Soon after, a back door at Chevy appeared where, if you knew the password, you could get goodies like aluminum engine blocks, performance cylinder heads and advanced transmissions. This car rolled out that door in 1959.(sans any Corvette markings)
Mystery coupe 1962
This concept car was a two seat mid engined flat six coupe that never went into production although many of the components were already being used in in the companies other models. It’s low slung styling was like no other car of it’s era. You’ll notice that there are no doors on the car; its roof and windshield swung up for passengers to enter. It is interesting to speculate what its impact would have on the American auto industry if it had been produced. I’ll reveal its identity in the comments.
Baud
Those cars are awesome. Today we have cybertrucks. Ugh.
CCL
Wonderful post and photos
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I saw an orange wankpanzer at the Orange on Monday.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
I hope the real contractors laughed.
eclare
I can’t imagine getting into a car through the roof or windshield. You are spot on about The French Ambassador, it looks like something Bogart might have driven in Paris in Casablanca.
eclare
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
That must have been hideous.
AM in NC
My kids and husband dragged me to a car exhibit at the NC Museum of Art about 10 years or so ago. Boy am I glad they did! Absolutely beautiful machines. So tired of seeing SUVs and pickups surrounding me everywhere I drive. Thanks for the photos and the information!!
ETA: So what is the mystery car?!
Auntie Anne
I adore the look of some of those cars – so sleek and streamlined.
Thor Heyerdahl
An excellent antique automobile museum – in a location that may be surprising – is the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska. I spent a couple hours there in 2023.
Thor Heyerdahl
I believe the photos and descriptions for the mystery coupe and the Stingray are switched.
Cliosfanboy
@AM in NC: It’s a Chevy Corvair (!) Monza GT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair_Monza_GT
Thor Heyerdahl
@Thor Heyerdahl: shame on me with no coffee…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
That’s great! Thanks for sharing. Now I need to go back.
Another Scott
Thanks for the pictures and descriptions! The Ford Museum in Dearborn MI has lots of great cars too. They have some physician’s Bugatti – the hood ornament is an elephant standing on its hind legs.
The 60s were an amazing time for auto development. Lots of progress can happen fairly quickly if companies care more about keeping ahead of the other guys than profits and stock prices. Of course, government has to guide that progress or you end up with cars that destroy the atmosphere and poison people’s brains and lungs, rust away before the loan is paid off, kill occupants in crashes, have 500HP but can’t stop or stay on snowy roads, etc, etc.
Thanks again.
Best wishes,
Scott.
BretH
Those cars are the coolest of the cool. When I was 12 my Dad took me to see the movie Le Mans starring Steve McQueen. It made an indelible impression on my young brain. Aside: maybe inspired by the movie on the way home he went too fast on a curvy section of Rock Creek Parkway in DC and we ended up against a rock at the side of the road and had to get towed.
Cheryl from Maryland
I recommend the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana. Located in the fabulous Art Deco styled headquarters of the Auburn Automobile Company, it has the most beautiful American cars from the 20s and 30s. It also has the happiest set of guards and volunteers I have ever encountered in a museum.
CaseyL
I’ve been to the LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
My “thing” isn’t muscle/racing cars. I tend to like the really old ones, the enormous cars of the 1920s-40s. From the luxury sedans that retained much of the old horse-and-carriage motif, with flower-holder vases by each window and a separate compartment up front for the driver, to what I call “gangster cars,” where you could fit six Tommy-gun wielding mobsters in the back seat. For some reason I adore those big old beasties.
Cars aren’t even one of my great loves, but I had a blast at that museum.
WaterGirl
Some of these cars are crazy! How fun!
Snarlymon
Yes. The mystery car is a Corvair. The roof opens up like a cockpit of a fighter jet. You can see its influence on the 3rd generation Corvette.
Timill
@Another Scott:
Chassis 41 121 – the Charles Chayne car. The elephant is by Rembrant Bugatti.
Must visit some time, as it’s the only Royale I haven’t seen in person. Harrah’s had two when I was there, Mulhouse has another two, and one was at a Bugatti exhibition in London in the 1980s.
Ten Bears
There’s a little bit of that Jaguar in my eMini …
ETtheLibrarian
That Bugatti is fire and I am note even a car person….
Does anyone remember the cartoon Speed Racer? No 11 reminds me a bit of that.
Another Scott
@ETtheLibrarian: Go Speed Racer Go!!
It would be nice to have those 2 retractable circular saws sometimes…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Another Scott
@ETtheLibrarian: Bugatti did a bunch of weird, incredibly labor intensive things. Like, as I understand it (of course I can’t find a link), the valve lifters / tappets were elongated cubes rather than cylinders. That let them control the clearances and the wear characteristics, but it mean that each one and the mating bore had to be individually lovingly filed and smoothed down by hand.
No wonder the Royales cost a bazillion dollars in the Depression.
Honda did thinking outside the box like that with their motorcycles with oval or elliptical pistons.
Best wishes,
Scott.
JCJ
@Cheryl from Maryland: I fully endorse your recommendation of the Auburn – Cord – Duesenberg museum. Perhaps the guards are so pleasant because it is off the beaten path so they are glad to get visitors!
rusty
I am an unrepentant gearhead, these cars all gorgeous (I’ll take the XKSS please), but the fun stuff I’ve owned has been much more plebian. My son and I have a summer project to get my 1976 Cosworth Vega running, it’s been sitting (thankfully always garaged) for 35+ years. The body is econocar Vega, but the engine is exotic, with a twin cam, 4 valve per cylinder head designed by F1 race engine designers Cosworth Engineering, along with the first computer controlled fuel injection ever in a mass market car. Fingers crossed we can have it running before he heads back to school. I can then rebuild the brakes and the rest over the winter with a hope of actually driving it next spring.
Another Scott
@rusty: Nice!
Get a good muffler for it! Supposedly the original exhaust was so restrictive that the engine only put out about 20 HP more than the stock 4 banger.
:-/
Best wishes,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
FYI, that still happens daily around the world.
i used to have walk by a yellow Deux Cheveaux to get to my metro stop. It was the Cybertruck of it’s day in terms of appearance–it had actual practical value as a vehicle.
Steve in the ATL
British Racing Green is the greatest color in the history of colors.
MCat
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I saw a PINK one. Really. Ugh.
eclare
@MCat:
A Mary Kay Cybertruck?
Cheryl from Maryland
@Steve in the ATL: YES! And why it was discontinued for the Mini-Cooper and replaced with some iridescent metallic green I cannot understand.
RSA
How cool! What a great selection of automotive history.
For anyone visiting, I’d recommend also walking across the street to the recently renovated Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Eric S.
Two years ago, while visiting friends in LA, I also went to the Petersen. I drug my friends along who aren’t car nuts. They appreciated it but not like me. It was my one “must do” while in town. If you get there and have time, visiting the basement garage is worth the extra costs.
terraformer
such beautiful machines! I get so tired of all the angry designs that seem to inflict most sports cars and other vehicles today: the last few gens of Corvettes look like some Transformers chucky-like love child, the pissed-off eyebrow additions to Jeeps, etc.
*These* cars are lovely. They have flowing lines and, dare I say, feminine curves. So few cars have curves today – they’re all angular and choppy. I joke that you could catch an eyelid on the edge of the Cybertruck if you’re not careful.
Also, get off my lawn
John Smallberries
Couple of years ago, they had a James Bond Exhibition where they had cars boats, planes, gadgets, all sorts of stuff from almost all the movies. It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.
ronno2018
I went to that museum one day because the getty villa was closed due to a fire (minor one during the pandemic not the terrible palisades recent one).
it’s pretty cool, and i enjoy car design and history, but the damn things are destroying the planet and kill a million people a year https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/wiki/faq/
Steve in the ATL
@ronno2018: Al Gore warned us that the internal combustion engine was a “mortal threat” to society. He was mocked and reviled (Time magazine: “Is Al Gore a hero or a traitor?”). He was, of course, correct.
Mocked and reviled but turned out to be 100% correct…sounds like Hillary as well!
Bastards.
ETA: didn’t mean for this thread to take a dark turn. We could redirect away from the darkness by discussing halogen headlights!
Deputinize America
@rusty:
Those Cosworths were amazing. I’m jealous.
Deputinize America
@Steve in the ATL:
A guy my wife works with has a convertible TR6 in British racing green. Every time I see that car, I have to refrain from touching myself.
Michael Bersin
I stopped making fun of Citroëns in the mid-70s when a high school friend drove us around in his dad’s Citroën Maserati….
WeimarGerman
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: There’s a orange one I spot at every visit to Hoag Hospital on Sand Canyon in OC. Blech.
Dmkingto
Great photos & some wild cars! Love that Jag D-type, I’ve always loved the E-type that followed it. 15 or so years ago, I briefly dated a woman whose dad owned an E-type. I probably should have put more effort into it and married her to have a shot at the car 😆.
I did own a 99 Triumph Legend motorcycle in Imperial Green – that’s a gorgeous color.
Lauryn11
@Steve in the ATL: Absolutely. Someone rear-ended my BRG Mini last year and totaled it. I cried. I tracked the ship my baby was on from Southampton docks to the dealer when I first bought it. Now I have a Mini S but I couldn’t find a Racing Green one for sale with low miles. The new one is Pepper White. (sigh) My dream car would be a ‘63-‘65 Racing Green Jag E-type roadster. 🙂🙂
Ten Bears
@Cheryl from Maryland: My ’23 eMini is British Racing Green, same as the ’69 Austin America I had in high school. The glass headlight cover are alike, as are the fenders though not so pronounced as that Jag. I never drove an older Jag but a 90s model a few times, that’s how my Mini drives
Timill
Footnoting the Jaguar XKSS; it was not a roadgoing variant of the D-type. Jaguar built a number of D-types for customers to race, but had 25 left unsold at the end of 1956. So it converted 16 of them to be road usable (and street legal, more or less) – the other 9 were destroyed in a fire at the factory.
The Steve McQueen car was built as chassis XKD 569 and shipped to the USA as chassis XKSS 713 on 19 April 1957. [Yes, I have a reference work for this]
Chris T.
Dead thread, but: there’s a sort of language, if you will, to car designs. That early BMW yells “I AM A DODGE” in more-recent car language.
Jaguar sort of lost their voice in the early 2000s or so. Their attempt to re-brand now doesn’t seem to be working yet. It’s a shame because the E-type is so pretty.