Petersen Story Brings Out Exotic Car Fans at KCRW

DnA’s story about the Petersen Automotive Museum and its sales of exotic cars brought forth valentines to favorite cars from listeners — and colleagues. Here Rhythm Planet’s Tom Schnabel riffs…

DnA’s story about the Petersen Automotive Museum and its sales of exotic cars brought forth valentines to favorite cars from listeners — and colleagues. Here Rhythm Planet’s Tom Schnabel riffs on cars he has “admired over the years.”

The 53 Packard Caribbean convertible….one of America’s most beautiful cars.

250 GT—50s V12, my dad’s was not rosso but burgundy. My old man also had 4 Rolls Royces, a Maserati 3500 GT with gorgeous coachwork design by Touring of Milan, two 275 GTB Ferraris, a 56 Gullwing (my mom hated getting in and out of it…not easy). I grew up cleaning Borrani wire wheels, Mulliner and Park Ward Rolls, and would have to be a multi-millionaire to buy the cars of my dreams.

575 Maranello—great front-engined V12 grand tourer

Above left, Schnabel says we should go visit the Oxnard Mullins Auto Museum, specializing in gorgeous Art Deco cars (an inspiration, says the architect Eugene Kohn, for the curving lines of the new cladding for the museum).

And it turns out that KCRW’s very own Jason Groman (composer of DnA’s theme tune) kept his 1964 Chrysler Newport, above right, in the Petersen Automotive Museum vault for thee years! Like many of the cars in what David Undercoffler describes as the most interesting part of the museum, Jason’s set of wheels never made it “upstairs” onto the museum show floors.

Do you have a favorite car? Or, if your mode of transit is two-wheeled, send us your favorite bike, past or present.