Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to car Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Hello and welcome to car Stuff. I'm your host Scott Benjamin.
I'm Ben Boland. We are joined, as always with our
super producer, Kurt Vitamin G garn. How's it going, Kurt?
It's going great? What's up? Dudes? The name stuck Vitamin G.
Vitamin K is there? Actually there's an Actually Vitamin K
(00:22):
isn't there? There is? Yeah, maybe that's a better one.
Maybe should go with Vitamin K was a drug? I
don't know, maybe like vitamin you no full disclosure. You
did come up with Vitamin G off air and I
think Kurt and I are both a d percent on board.
It's just such a cool nickname, and it's tough to
make a good nickname. What about special K? He could
(00:42):
be special? Yeah? What angel does? Is that a wait? Wait?
Wait wait? Special K is a drug? I thought that
was a breakfast cereal. Well it is, Okay, it's also
corn flakes. They call that special K, don't they. Yeah,
it's been con fusing a lot of ceed drug deal.
(01:05):
You know, there's there's some guy in the alley just
trying to sell some Kelloggs, and everybody's disappointed. But it's funny.
It's like it's a it's a tiger. He's he got
like a like a bandana on. He's all kind of
scruffy looking and like a hoarse voice. Has been working
for a while. No, I'm just kidding, Tony. If you're
listening to Mr Mr Tiger, I'll call Mr Tiger um
(01:29):
no disrespect meant. So are you saying that special K
is like the that's is frosted flakes killing whatever it is. Yeah,
it's like Special K is the unsweetened version. I think
you're right, instead of frosted flakes. Yeah, that's right now
before we gentlemen, before we begin today's episode. But this
is really important, Ben, We're gonna figure this out. I
(01:51):
want to advance and I want to air a grievance
about cereal and specific and about food products in general.
As you know, I'm very food motivated person. And I
still have not gotten that party sub. My girlfriend said
it was ridiculous because they are apparently only two of us.
I texted her right after we did that previous episode. Anyway,
(02:13):
here it is, Uh, do you guys remember Raisin Brand? Yeah?
I do, Okay, I was never a fan of raisin brand.
Two scoops are Raisins. See, here we go, Here we
go at the heart of the problem. Here cut you
cut to the quick. Oh I'm so sorry. This is
perfect and you're you're saving this time because we shouldn't
(02:34):
be nice about it. Have you ever heard of this
thing called shrink flation? No, but I've never heard the term.
But I think I know what you're gonna add. So
there are fewer and few Like the price of a
box of cereal is staying the same, but the amount
of cereal you get is dwindling, but the boxes staying
in the same size, and the boxes stay in the
(02:54):
same size. Okay, Just like when when you see maybe
a can of your favorite beverage or something, and you
know that the uh, the curvature at the bottom of
it has increased false bottom. Yeah, Well, you buy candy
bars and you notice that they've they've literally, like on
Cadbury Candies, they've literally cut the corners to save eight
(03:17):
percent of the chocolate that would normally be used in
the bar. All right, I'm trying to think of an
example of this. It seems like there was an airline
example of this recently, and not recently, I shouldn't say
decades ago, okay, but when they used to serve in
flight meals, and I think it was something crazy like that,
you know, by not putting an olive on, you know whatever,
(03:38):
the sandwich was a single olive or a single slice
of an olive. This airline saved like a hundred thousand
dollars a year or something. It was some crazy amount
of money. But it shows you the scale of what's
a small change like that can mean to a big company.
There we go. That's right. We are going to segue
to what this episode about. Thank you really me complain
(03:59):
about this. I've just I've been noticing it more and more.
It's one of those things you can't unsee. Can I
make one other food related common right now? Always I'm
looking at you right now, and you have a Coca
Cola in front of you do right here and probably
bottled right here in Atlanta, if I had to guess.
Not a Coca Cola commercial, by the way. But but
what I want to point out is that you're using
(04:21):
a paper straw, and I know that's the right thing
to do apparently, and I'm not I'm not on board
with this whole thing. The texture bothers me immensely and
they fall up. No, no, no no, I'm saying like, no, no,
it's not one of those like like I am upset
by using it. I just can't use it myself. I
(04:41):
feel like they stick to my lips. They just feel weird,
like it just don't feel like a straw is supposed
to feel. So I do tend to use a straw
from drinking soda. However, when this whole plastic straw thing happened,
I get it. I get it, you know, do your
best to make the world a better place and so on.
But the thing is that the vast majority of plastic
(05:03):
pollution in the ocean is coming from commercial fishing. It's
not coming from you know, Johnny or Jane America using
a plastic straw when they go to McDonald's. But we
at our office now we only have paper straws. We
don't have the flexible straws anymore, which is a shame,
because there's a superior straw. Everybody loves the bendy straws, right,
(05:26):
I mean I think, I think I think everybody across
the board. You know, whether you're young, you'll old, you
love the bendy straw so disappointing when you get one
and you put it in the wrong way, you know
what I mean, and we discover that it was the
bendy one too late. I've done that before. Yeah, that's
it's worse. You're right, it's not the worst, but I've
forgotten about the disappointment that leads to just disappointing. I
(05:48):
guess if you did that like a milkshake or something,
that'd be the worst. I mean, you can't. You can
flip it around if it's in water or something. Fine, guess,
but we can't be defined by our regrets. Hey, what
do you say? We talked about a museum, tod how
about that? Yes? Yeah, okay, so I've been as you
as you guys know. I'm increasingly great. Same. But yeah,
we're twenty minutes into the episode, and maybe we'll talk
(06:09):
about some cars. I don't know. Yeah, maybe we'll get
to it. So I'm increasingly being now in our current
incarnation of car stuff, I'm increasingly finding myself being a
on the road correspondent. That's great. I love being able
to do this. I love being able to find these
amazing museums, these amazing stories, A lot of stuff, Scott
(06:33):
that you and I have been talking about for years.
I love being able to go there in person. Recently,
I was stranded in Los Angeles due to a series
of cartoonish and uh in retrospect hilarious circumstances, and I finally,
you know, I did that thing where I was thinking,
I'm stuck here, I'm gonna be here for a day.
(06:55):
I don't have uh, I don't have a ton of
stuff plan uh. So I can either just wander the
streets to do often, or I could do something productive,
which I do less often. So so I finally did it.
I took you up on your recommendation from years ago,
and I went to visit the Peterson Museum fantastic And
(07:18):
and what was your impression the very moment you walk
into that museum, Because it does make an oppression immediately. Yeah,
oh man, it hit me before. It hit me before
I walked in, because I got a sense of the
scale of the building, like we've all seen the pictures,
but it didn't really hit me how large the museum
(07:38):
actually is. Has kind of a funky design, doesn't it.
I mean, it's like, really, um uh round it. It's
not it's not squared off in anyway. It's it's it's
a very free form, very organic looking building with uh
there's like red I think it's a red accent behind it,
or that's maybe just lighting that they could change. I
don't know, I can't remember, but it's metal on the outside.
(07:59):
Very king building design just as you approach the building.
But then when you go inside, like once you're and
that's the renovated version, which we'll talk about renovation and
all that to go through here because that's part of
the history of the building itself, which is it's Yeah,
I guess I could call it like a semihistoric building,
right and uh in Los Angeles. Um. But when you
(08:20):
write when you walk in, I mean you know you're
in for something special here at the at the Peterson Museum. Yeah. Absolutely.
And it was a lot to take in because when
I first walked in, I thought, Okay, this will be
this would be pretty simple. I can just there's probably
like a point A, you start at the point ZU
and debt or whatever. But the way the museum is
(08:42):
laid out is in terms of rotating exhibits, you know, uh,
and some permanent collections. They also have a they also
have a vault which will explore later, which you and
I have talked about in the previous episode. But this is,
no fooling, one of the largest automotive museums in the world.
(09:04):
So this is a museum that you could go back
to a few months later and reasonably encounter all new vehicles. Yeah,
isn't that crazy? Like I mean, with the rotation of
the other vehicles that we'll talk about, you know, there's
there's several that are rotated in and out, and then
they have you know, other exhibitions that go on at
the time, so there's like this endless supply of variety
(09:27):
that they can throw out there. You know that they
can they can kind of mix and match these things
together how they would like and put together collections that
either makes sense or are very eclectic, or you know,
whatever they want. And they also bring in, you know,
special exhibitions that are of course more focused you know that,
you know, but only last for a short amount of time.
So if you're fortunate enough to be able to go there,
you're able to catch those things. But they do have
(09:49):
a lot of I guess i'll call them resident vehicles
that they can bring in and out that you know,
do live in that vault and that they do throw
on the floor. But I would bet that you know,
I went to the museum, what four years ago or
something like that. Yeah, yeah, and you went just recently,
but I would bet that you saw very few of
the same vehicles that I saw on the floor. Yeah, yeah,
(10:09):
there was. Let's see, so they had they had Hollywood
dream machines. That was one of their big ones, and
that was the one that actually had the most mixed
feelings about this is this is like like movie cars
right right exactly exactly. So you'll see like some batmobiles.
You'll see some George Barriss designs, um and then they
(10:32):
had disruptors, they had some motorcycle design They had a
lot of racing, uh, like ground breaking race cars. Is
Bruce Myers exhibit of these epic race cars. They're ten
of them from nine seventy nine, and it's stunning. We're
(10:55):
talking about historically important cars like the first production Shelby
Cobra from sixty two, the Greer Black Prude Home Dragster,
also from sixty two. This one one two hundred and
thirty seven of the two forty one races it ran
under you know, driven by Don Prude Home the Snake. Yes,
(11:19):
and uh they had Bonneville Racer the seven. I'm sorry
still laughing at the snake nickname. That's a that's a
great nickname. That's a great nick Come on. It depends
on who you are. Yeah, well yeah, I guess so.
But I'm figured if you're drag racer, I mean, that's
a cool name. If you're a drag racer, then you
can rationally support being called the snake. I guess here
(11:40):
in the office, I wouldn't want to be called the snake,
like like, oh, there's Scott, He's the sneaky snake. Yeah.
I think it's different when you're when it's your nickname
is inserted between the first and last name as if
it were a middle name. But if you were called snake,
like yeah, snake Garon or snake Bowling, that's a good
that's a little different, you know, maybe like Don the
(12:00):
snake per Dome. Yeah, different than snake. You're right, it
is like his parents might have named him snake. But
but you know, you'd always question that, you always wondered
unless you asked the man himself. So I haven't you
don't want to ask snake if that's the real name,
you just don't do. So that's right out there. We
going like, what's so, what's your whole deal? What's it?
What's your thing about? Chances of him telling you are
(12:25):
slim to none. I don't know, man, Maybe Snakes a
good dude. I I just I have a have a
thing with nicknames after a certain I don't wanna like,
I don't want to trample on anyone's right to expression
or something. But one time I was on the road
and I was hanging out with a friend who lived
(12:48):
in town. This was in Nashville, Tennessee, and met an
acquaintance of his at the local bar and grill who
was well into his forties or fifties and introduced himself
as snake Bite. And I was like, I don't know
if I'm gonna call you a snake bite man. You're
you're like well into adulthood. Wow. If I if I
(13:10):
met a ten year old who was like, you know,
my name is herman, but I go by snake Bite,
I would be like, right on, snake Bite, you know,
you conquer the world. But I feel like, when you're fifty,
this has nothing to do with anything did he look
like a snake bite guy? Do you I mean picture him? Yeah,
he looked like he did some time. That's where you're there,
you go, maybe that's where he got it. That's yeah,
(13:31):
it's a prison name. I always heard the rule with
prison names was that, uh, the more innocuous sounding the name,
the more careful you should be around the personally. Yeah,
like if it's a Brian Ors, like if there's like
a seven ft two dude named Smurf. Okay, don't don't
(13:52):
rest Lisper. So I did not get arrested at the
Peterson Museum. All good for you, thank you. Yeah, I'm
taking that as a whin. And I didn't either. You
did not either. Now, was this Bruce Meyer exhibit up
when you visited? Now you're asking a lot of my
memory here, but but no, no, I don't think it was.
So that was one of the most impressive things. And
(14:13):
it's really tempting when you're in one of these museums
to get too close, which is why they have the
museum minders, their volunteers and so on. And it's strange
because I'm the guy who wants to look under the vehicle.
I want to look inside to see how the seating
works out, especially in some of those land speed record vehicles.
(14:35):
Oh yeah, I gotta figure out exactly what's going on
under the skin of those things, right, Yeah, it's always fascinating.
And that's just one example. We'll get into some other exhibits,
but the museum itself has twenty five galleries storing well
over a hundred vehicles in those galleries, and that's only
half of the collection, if that. Because in the basement
(14:55):
there is a vault, you know, the vault if you
pay a little little bit extra where you have some
connections and you're I don't think they let kids in,
I think eighteen or over. Yeah, yeah, then you can
go and view the vaults collection and no photographs and
no photographs, which is another tough thing to adhere to,
(15:16):
because you'll see some real gems down there. I mean,
but they'll all eventually make themselves available on the floor.
They'll cycle out, yeah they will. But you're going to
see some stuff down there that really surprising, interesting, you know,
maybe even not fully restored yet if they're working on them.
You know that type of thing. I love. I love
seeing that. That's what Remember we had a conversation a
(15:37):
long time. Going back to Nashville. I guess, um the
Lane Motor Museum. Yeah. Yeah, they're just outside of Nashville,
and that's one where you can get right around every
you can get right up to the cars. There's no ropes,
so as long as you don't touch, you can lean,
you can even have they even have the windows open
on something. You can lean your head in if you want,
as long as you're holding your yourself, backs, your belts,
not scraping anything, you know, or first or whatever you carry.
(16:00):
But they had a basement tour and it was fantastic.
It was an extra few bucks to go on the
tour and some of the best things that I saw
of that day were down in the basement still And
I don't know what the what the thought was behind it,
why it was so exciting to see them down there
like that in the park, just like it's in a
parking structure or even you know, tighter than that. Even
(16:24):
so they're very very close together and you don't get
to see you see them all angles or get you know,
as close as you would, but it's just exciting to
see them, not even displayed, but just see them parked
there like that. And I know that this one the Peterson.
Uh there have been you know a lot of people
that write you know blogs are you know, their online
authors that write about you know, their experiences down in
(16:45):
the Peterson vault and you know what they've seen, what
they have encountered. And I think wasn't there there was
like one of Saddam Hussein's cars I think was down
there at one point. Um, like one of those old
really stately looking Mercedes vehicles you know that you can
picture of dictator in you know, they're really it's like
a Mercedes limo, but it's like the old diesel you know,
(17:06):
flathood type vehicle, you know that's really big but elegant.
But also it now looks very very dated, you know,
but you could definitely picture any kind of dictator riding
around in the back. But they've got some real treasures
down there. It's the eight Mercedes Benz six hundred. It's
probably still verified to guess, unless they auction it off
(17:27):
or something, you know. And this is interesting because these
cars especially were mostly used by heads of state. Oh
that's cool. They were like the cars of the ruling class.
And picture that Hussein had his until he was overthrown
in two thousand and three. The car is not in
perfect condition now, I would not assume so it has
(17:49):
some dents in it because guards would sit around on
the trunk and their rifle butts would hit the metal.
Is that right? I know, I probably shouldn't be laughing
at this. It's a dictator or his car. But I
mean you can almost visualize this when you see especially
if you see the car or if you know the
car that we're talking about, it just has that look.
It just has that old style dictator. This is, you know,
(18:11):
the show is vehicle. I could own look, you know,
and parade myself through town and you know, kind of
like a show of force. You know. It reminds me
a little bit of that scene in one of those
Indiana Jones films where the Nazis are trying to bribe
like a Middle Eastern ruler and they have golden treasure
(18:32):
and the guy doesn't care about that because they got
him a car. Do you remember that part? No, I
don't remember this. I got to watch the scene, I
guess I see. What car was a probably like an
old Diesel, Mercedes or something like that. It was a
nice one. Yeah, So that's just one of the weird
vehicles around in the Peterson Museum. One thing that I
thought you guys really enjoy is then pedro So. So
(18:56):
do you know about this? I do not so, and like, so,
here's this story. Back in the twenties, there's this obscenely
wealthy Spanish guy, the Marquis de Pedroso, and he's living
in France and he decides he's gonna build his own
sports car. So he designs and he actually does this.
(19:17):
He designs a supercharge straight eight and he implements some
pretty forward thinking innovations and uh, he gets so excited again.
According to the story that when he saw the car,
when he was getting close to building it and he
had running engine, he just took two wicker seats from
his porch and put them on and took off. There
(19:41):
only two that were ever built. The only one that
survived is at the Peterson Museum. He built. I'm surprised
that there were two built. You know, you think it
would be just the one. I know, was it like,
was it like just a rich man's folly? Crazy? So
just wicker seats from the front porch. That's laser. They
got covered with canvas when he regained possession of his
(20:02):
that's crazy. Uh. When Peterson Museum got them, they also
received full blueprints of the design. So theoretically you could
build another Pedroso today, if you want it, I don't
think I want to, Okay, Well, but maybe maybe, I mean,
I haven't seen the car, so maybe maybe I'll check it. Well,
don't over commit yet, because there are a lot of cars.
We've got some stuff to walk through. You know, it's
not so unusually, I guess. I guess wicker for a
(20:23):
material isn't all that unusual we've seen back in the day. Yeah,
I mean, it's coma is lightweight. It was, it was
durable and relatively durable, I should say. But I mean
just the idea I guess of throwing the ones from
the porch on into the car. That's strange and not
necessarily secured all that well, I would believe probably strapped down,
you know, leather straps or whatever if that. But the
(20:45):
thing that's different about the thing that's different with wicker
specifically is that wicker was used in automotive construction when
there were many like custom coach builders, you know what
I mean. Yeah, we talked about that before, Like the
same people who build the furniture are like, all right, yeah,
just bring the chassis of the car over. Yeah, why not? Yeah?
(21:06):
I mean, and we see it on on even the
exterior of vehicles, you know, with laid over, with lacquer
and things of that Ford design elements. Uh as some beautiful,
beautiful designs come out of that era that you know have.
It's just stuff you never would see. You know, at
this point in time, you never see anybody using wicker
right now to build I don't think. Yeah, I mean,
if there is somebody out there, my apologies, but I
(21:29):
haven't seen many wicker exteriors on vehicles recently. If I
have not, not on new vehicles. No, I wouldn't see
new vehicles. Uh No, there is another vehicle I didn't see.
(21:51):
I have to say, Uh, this is classic vitamin G
right here. Peterson Auto Museum is home to an official popemobile.
We did an episode on the popemobile. We're not the
Vatican technically doesn't like us to call them popemobiles. I'm
called the Pokemobile. I mean, I think that's how everybody
(22:11):
knows it. Just like uh, Frenny Star Wars fans. The
name of that tiny Yoda in the Mandalorian is not
baby Yoda, but everybody calls it baby Yoda of course. Yeah.
So this is where they want us to call it,
like Paple Transport, I think, or something like that, something
way less TV. So this popemobile is a Cadillac and
(22:34):
this is one of the only examples of one that
of a popemobile that was open top, constructed on a
modern chassis. GM Mexico built it for John Paul the
Second just to use on his trip to give a
speech at stadium in Mexico City. Just have the glass
box on it. This does not and good thing to
(22:57):
mention Scott because he never actually road in the Cadillac.
There were security concerns about that open design. However, as
the manufacturers are quick to point out, the Pope did
bless the car on the visit, so it's it's got
his co sign. Yeah, and it has that seat mechanism
(23:18):
that we talked about in earlier potmobiles, you know where,
so on several potmobiles the papal seat where the actual
pope sits is on this hydraulic system that can raise
or lower the seat. Oh that's cool. Yeah, that's really neat.
I like that. And that's the ones that have that
bulletproof shielding and do that too. Oh that is cool.
(23:39):
That's a that's a cool feature. I think that's that's
interesting to be able to raise and lower yourself into
into that box, in that glass box. See this is yeah,
this is where the dictators need to be humble, because
no matter how powerful you are as a dictator, I
don't think there are people who are building specific cars
for you to take a field trip. You know. You know,
(23:59):
I'm starting to laugh. When you were describing this, when
you said that the Pope blessed this vehicle. I got
this this picture in my head of like George Costanza
in Seinfeld, like buying a car that had claimed to
have been blessed by the pope or something because he
remember he had it was a John Voight's car, right,
but it wasn't the actor John. Remember, it was like
that whole thing. Remember he bought a car that was
(24:21):
all right. I have to I feel like it's one
of those moments where I have to say this because
I know I have many many years ago, there used
to be a chairman of Chrysler named Bob Eaton and
It was back at the time when my wife and
I at the time, we worked for a company that
was like a supplier to Chrysler. It was a television
station and it was like their internal television station. And
(24:43):
at the time we bought a jeep Cherokee that was
owned by a guy named Bob Eaton. But it wasn't
the Bob Eaton. So anybody later that didn't know, like
past us, you know, past the ownership, if they were
to trace back the ownership of that vehicle, they might
be confused to think that was Bob Eaton's jeep, which
I thought was kind of funny because it's somewhere down
(25:04):
the line that's going to get confused if it's still around.
It was like a Cherokee. It was a red one.
If anybody out there knows of this one, watch out
for that that fake on the on the auction block,
you know, if it happens. But but it was not
the Bob Eaton. But I always got kind of a
chuckle out of that thinking it was like it was
like Costanza's John Voyker is there. I mean, okay, I'm
(25:26):
totally unaware of this. I don't know the answer here,
but is it legal for private citizen to own a popemobile.
I guess it is. It has to be. There's no
law against this. Okay, one of one of the Pope's
recently owned or it still does, maybe owned a Harley Davidson.
Even he was like, he's a like he's a biker. Yeah,
I mean, so he's got a great big Harley Davis.
(25:48):
I don't know if he still owns it or if
it's uh and I don't remember which Pope it was.
I don't remember. I just don't have the knowledge of
pope cycle. Yeah. Yeah, and I'll have to dig into
that too. Hey, you can want one of the quick
thing or talk kin about the Vault or the Vault
rather the Vault not that one. Um. I remember that
we had talked about a car called the Dale a
(26:09):
long time ago. It was the big hoax car, remember yea. Yeah,
the whole story, the twisted tale of We can't even
give away too much. I think that's that's a saga though.
Check that out. That's one of our that's one of
the most fascinating episodes we've done. I loved that episode
of of Car, those episodes, I should say, it was
so much fun to research that it was just a blast.
(26:30):
But they at the Peterson they own one of the
Dale cars, So it's probably if if you were able
to get down there in the vault. I'm sure that it
it was down there somewhere. If it I'm sure, you know,
it's one of those cars that I doubt they will
ever let go of. I don't think that they would. Well,
it's certain that no one's going to drive it off.
That's one thing that we do know. Yeah that it will.
(26:52):
It will. It will never make its way under on
the l A freeways, yeah, not under its own power.
Won't be involved with one of the high speed chases
that we see from the helicopters. You know, it's not
gonna happen. There's another really wild car there to UH,
the ninety three Mathon V sixteen tea Bucket. This engine
(27:12):
is insane. The V sixteen and I did Not miss
Speak was built in the early nineteen nineties, even though
the cars from the twenties. They took two Chevy three
eights and joined them together at the crank shaft. There
were only two of these engines ever built, and only
one was ever installed in a car. UH and the
(27:35):
egg heads at Peterson say, based on what they know
about it, it probably produces five fifty horsepower five d
fifty pounds foot of torque. It's it's a monster. And
of course, as you can imagine that Chassie's pretty stretched
somewhere round is when they customized the engine. The four
(27:57):
tea bucket was built in twenty three. Yeah, okay, got you. Okay,
so it's on that body. But you know, um, it's
funny here. I find this a little bit funny. So
they they're here, they are, they're frankenstein in together a
couple of right and uh, and it's that's cool. It's
a cool thing to do. It's a neat you know,
the neat looking vehicle. I'm sure it has a certain
appearance that's really interesting and unique. But think about this,
(28:20):
like there was five fifty horse power as a pile
of horse power back then, and everybody was that. And
think about like the first production Viper was somewhere around
four hundred horse power. But it seems like a lot
of sedans now are around four horse power, you know,
or close to it, or you know, three fifty or whatever.
And you know you've got some of these um um,
I guess a lot of other performance UM lines of cars,
(28:43):
you know, like maybe BMW S or Lexus or whoever.
You know that a lot of their their top end
vehicles are in the five D some horsepower range right
now for production vehicles. So it's it's funny that you
know they're doing that UM back then they just the
idea was just go bigger with everything, right, I mean,
and what a cool what a cool design though to
throw it on an old model T though, and you
(29:04):
know what I think. And unless I'm giving something away here, Ben,
there's another model T that we want to talk about, right,
that Mongrel T. Let's get to it. You want to
because this is one of the ones that you brought
up in a previous episode, and almost with disbelief, we
we looked it up because we couldn't. I can't picture
ever seen this car before, but you had, you've seen it.
(29:24):
So one of the exhibits, one of them rotating exhibits
at the Peterson Museum the time I visited, was that
Hollywood Dream Machine exhibit. These are vehicles from science fiction
and fantasy, as you said, Scott, movie cars. They've got
a DeLorean up there, They've got some stuff from Blade Runner.
They've got two vehicles from mad Max Fury Road, which
(29:46):
we did an episode on and they were fascinating to
see up close there, very dirty, Yeah and U And
one of the things that was really the star of
the show for me were all these Barressed designed batmobiles,
like Barriss designed I should say bat vehicles, because there's
a bat cycle there as well. I guess they decided
(30:08):
to go with the bat cycle instead of the post cycle.
Can I stop you from of course I keep interrupting,
but these cars are so cool. The Bat cycle. There's
that detachable go kart and the passengers side like in
the um what do you call that? The side side car.
There's a sidecar that Robin would ride in that hand,
a detachable go kart that would launch out of the side.
(30:28):
That is so cool. And that thing I think I'd
sent you guys pictures of it. That thing. What surprised
me is that little go kart thing is so small
that I've I haven't seen a bunch of the classic
Batman episodes the Adam West era, but I feel like
that's even for such a campy show that was probably
(30:49):
too ridiculous for him to really use it too often
because you would have to the best way to describe
how you would have to ride that thing is to
crouch on your do what they call like the Slavic squat,
you know, and then and then take your hands and
put them flat on the ground in front of your feet.
(31:10):
And that's about your footprint on that on that. But
I will tell you the guy that played Robin, his
name is Burt Ward, and he was not necessarily tall.
He's not. He's about five ft eight, okay, so he's
a smaller guy. But I mean when you look at
him in those old Batman episodes, he's also very thin build,
so he's not a very large person. They probably built
(31:31):
it knowing that he would be able to do it.
I don't think that I could fit on this thing.
I don't. I'm not much taller than him, but I'm heftier.
I'm have a bigger person than Burt Ward was when
he was in the Batman movies and not slim like that.
But maybe it was built knowing that he would be
able to accomplish this too. But yeah, you're right, it's
it's nearly an impossible thing to get on. I've I've
seen promotional photos of him in that position you're talking about,
(31:53):
like on the cart ready to go. I don't remember
seeing an episode where he actually used it, though I
saw old photograph of him on it in the exhibit.
I thinks probably something that you know, the movie production
company or the movie house sent out as promotional material.
Oh for sure. Yeah, before we bury the lead. Here's
why we're talking about this in general. Sorry again, I
(32:16):
took us on the wrong. No, no, no, this is
perfect because we're still in the world a Batman and
I did not know this. I'm sure many of our
Batman fans and the audience already fans the bat fans, right,
I'm sure they already. I'm sure you all already have
heard of this. But apparently the Joker had an official
vehicle of his own, the Joker's answer to the Batmobile,
(32:38):
the and Catwoman had her own Catmobile. The Joker Mobile
makes no sense for the Joker to have, now, it
really doesn't. It's an it's an unusual vehicle for sure.
It's not on brand. It has it's this mongrel ty
heavily customized. Um, we're talking like the seat backs are
(32:59):
surf words. Uh, it's a hot red model t that
was built in nineteen sixty six, and it's so strange.
It looks more like something that would be a beach boys. Well,
you know, and there's a good reason for that, right,
I mean we we did then look up the history
of this car because we were curious about what happened.
And I guess apparently, um, you can jump in here
(33:20):
anytime then. But Paramount Pictures in nineteen sixty six, I
got a call looking for a vehicle to go into
an Elvis Presley movie. And if you remember, Elvis Pressley
was doing a lot of like Hawaiian you know, beach
type movies, and you know a lot of movies at
the time. But one of the movies was called Easy Come,
Easy Go, and it's like a it's a musical comedy
(33:41):
type thing, and there's lots of you know, on the
beach type activity going on, you know, surfing, that type
of thing. But when that was done, and of course
you know, they designed like what would be like a
beach car for the nineteen sixties. I think everybody can
picture that. You know, the the outlandish colors, you know,
the bright reds, greens, yellows, blues, that kind of thing. Um,
the seats the seat back X are surfboards that have
(34:01):
been chopped modified and in a way that makes sense
for a seat back, and they look like surfboards sticking
out of the car looks like four surfboards. It's of
course an open vehicle model T if everybody can picture
the hot rod version of that. Um you know, the
big engine up front, and you know open at the top,
and you know, big fenders and everything, and the fat
wheels all around. I guess not too fat, not like
(34:22):
the big drag star type ones, but just a cool
looking beach buggy that you would anticipate, you know, being
from that era with the beach cars. Well, I guess
they just repurposed this thing as as the as the
Joker Mobile for the Batman TV series, which is really
strange to me, Like why why would Bear bearrass of
all people? He was building so many cars and and
(34:45):
like you said, Ben, this is way off brand. It
doesn't seem to fit the Joker for me. I mean,
I I don't know why, but it just doesn't have
the right feel to It. Doesn't far be it for
me to criticize someone's artistic choice, but just doesn't It
doesn't feel like a Joker mobile. I think, Kurt you
said it best off a air What were what were
(35:06):
you describing it as? The fur fur around the doors
looks like the grinches fur. Yeah, it's all kind of
matted down and dirty. And I know that that's a
lot of you know, it's time, right. I think it's
just time that does that, because I've seen shag carpet
that you know, gets into the same condition after a
long time, you know, an old custom vans and things.
But this is just like it's kind of dirty and
(35:29):
gross looking right now. But to give it, you know, credit,
I guess it's in the basement of a museum. Um,
I don't know. There's a lot of tiki design to it.
I mean a lot of you know, really intricate design
on the door panels. And it's creative. It's got a
lot going for it. It's it's definitely dirty. Yeah, it's creative.
It's definitely dirty. And I've seen I've seen the car.
(35:51):
There's a UM link to a video where it's you know,
a little bit cleaned up. It's a little bit polished up,
and that's probably the way you saw it. Ben's all
these photos are a little bit rougher maybe the way
it came into the shop. So it does look a
lot better. But I don't know as far as being
a like a car for the Joker, a good villain vehicle,
I don't know. If it's a villains vehicle has has
(36:11):
a happier feel to it. Yeah, yeah, it's uh, the
Joker supposed to have that like dichotomy, right, especially character
the classic Joker in the Adam West Batman is worlds
away from like the Heath Ledger Joker. Oh yeah, or
the one that we just saw recently that it was
into the backstory for the Joker. Oh yeah, I guess
(36:33):
that's pretty dark as well. Yeah, how he actually became
that person and it's just yeah, you're right, it's it's
a completely different character altogether. So yeah, maybe, but it's
still and it just doesn't fit that character very well.
It's it's an oddball piece of the collection. I mean,
there's a there's a lot of those though. Um you
had mentioned other movie cars, yeah, DeLorean Blade Runner, there was,
(36:56):
I have to be honest, so that was the only
exhibit where I had. UM, I would say mixed feelings
because there's nothing wrong with the vehicles, per se but
you know, you get up close, and you know, especially
with sci fi vehicles, you can see like a hovered craft,
a glider of some sort. We know that that technology
(37:17):
doesn't exist in the real world, right. I accept that
we're there to see the design, but then when you
get closer and closer, things start to break down and go, oh,
that's that is plywood, you know what I mean. So
you could tell that some are meant to be filmed
from far away. Others are meant for close ups, and
those are the refined, very carefully put together, you know,
(37:39):
well done ones. That's where you know they got the
close ups and the and the you know, maybe the
person's inside and they're doing you know, like driving shots
or whatever. But from a distance, these cars don't have
to be all that, you know, they just have to
have the same general shape. You're gonna have somebody different
driving them, a stunt driver whoever, right, so that doesn't
necessarily matter. I think one of the best examples I've
(38:02):
ever seen, but not in person, were some of the
Hardcastle McCormick cars. The Coyote, remember the cool Coyote kick
car that they had in that uh um McCormick. The
the convict in this whole thing. It's a it's a
very improbable setup for the whole the whole one. I
haven't thought, yeah, but it's a great at least love
(38:23):
to watch that show just for that car, just for
the coyote, because it was so cool. And they had
a few that were really well put together, and then
they had some that were just piles of garbage. I
mean they were just they were fiberglass shells and they
were on top of like a really rough frame. But
they drove, they run and they ran and drove. But
those are the ones they would, you know, jump over
hay bales, and you know, they weren't so careful with
(38:45):
it because they didn't they knew that they could build
another one quickly. But if you look at you know,
some of the stills from the actual film itself or
the television show, you're able to tell, you know, like, Okay,
this one is really really rough. You can see the uh,
you know, the intensity with which they focused on details
and some cars versus others that are a little bit
more like put together a bit more sloppily, you know,
(39:07):
or they're rougher around the edges. So you were there
at the museum and you're seeing things like you know,
tach welds and you really saw applywood on a car,
like you're seeing like it's not metal, it's painted wood.
And yeah, what about any other like really egregious things
that you saw, like cars that were standouts for like
you know, this is this. I can't even believe this
(39:28):
is in here in this museum, but it's part of
movie history. Yeah. I just want to keep it. I
want to keep it positive, like I it if anything
to put a positive spin on it, Uh, it just
shows the craftsmanship and the ingenuity of the people involved
in the production. Because until you get up close to
(39:51):
something like until you get up close to some of
these vehicles, and I'm not going to name specific ones,
but to you get up close to some of these vehicles,
you know when you see them on the screen, it
looks real. You know, Um my car is kind of
like that. Now. Yeah, yeah, what's going on. Nothing terrible,
it's just you know, from a distance, looks pretty good. Still.
(40:12):
The vacuum it no, I mean, you know, it's just
getting older and there's some dents and things and things
from being in a parking lot. You know from your
door and your security sitting on the trunk with their
rifle butts. With the rifle butts. Yeah, that always causes
a lot of scuffs and dents and things. But no,
just you know, the normal like minor flaws that come
along with owning a vehicle for a certain amount of time,
(40:33):
and and you know, you're less pleased with it close
up as as you are than you know, I think
it becomes like a twenty ft car. You know, you're
happier with it from twenty ft away than you are
up close when you're polishing the car, and you you know,
just all the flaws and and the minor imperfections that
are there. But I think a lot of these museum
cars are like that too. But there are also many
of them here that are pristine. I mean, just beautiful,
(40:55):
beautiful examples. And maybe I'm I don't know if I'm
gonna lead you to something that wasn't there at this time.
There were four or five years ago on the ground
floor they had a display when I was there of
French manufactured cars or or built cars. Bugatti the Talbot
I think was another one that they had. But they're beautiful, beautiful,
(41:16):
flowing designs that were painted just like it looked like
they had twenty or thirty coats of paint on them
and chrome that was in real decorative um, organic flowing
curves and everything. It was just beautiful cars. But that
was also when that controversy was having It was going
on that you know, they were going to get rid
of kind of the American culture the South in particular
(41:39):
the South um South Southern California car culture type vehicles
and change the whole thing over to like these French designs.
Because the new owners of the place, and there was
a lot of like back and forth talk about what
they were doing, because they were selling some cars off.
I think at the time people were worried that they
were going to completely convert over to a different type
of museum them that it was never intended to be
(42:02):
like where where does the line stop? Right? Yeah, exactly, Yeah,
because they had that history of being kind of like
a microcosm of Southern California car culture, you know, through
the decades, like everything from the very beginning of the
Autumn WIBI all the way through the current day. Yeah. Well,
they've definitely expanded their collection, you know, and one of
(42:22):
the things that's really impressive and you can see these
if you go during the right time, would be all
the all the concept cars they have, you know, like
they have a Plymouth Explorer that was built by Gia
and it was one myth Explorer. Yeah, it's nineteen fifty four.
This was just a design study for like how would
(42:45):
a Plymouth look if this manufacturer built it. Yeah, and
I like stuff like that. Yeah, and it's really stylish
to look that up and see what that was all about.
But um, so they have more than they have other
concept vehicles there, of course. Um but yeah, I find
like just the eclectic nature of what they have there
(43:08):
to be fascinating to It's like they didn't focus on
just one type of vehicle or one um you know not.
It's not not that there's a bad thing about this,
but when you go to certain museums that have a focus,
like it's like the hot Rod It's hot Rod Museum,
or it's the drag racing museum that I went to recently,
Like it's all drag racing cars. They they've got a
separate building that has you know there the collection of
(43:29):
the owner, you know that that has other stuff, but
like one building is strictly just for this type of vehicle.
I find it fascinating that they have so many different
cars that they can rotate in and out like um,
and they have all these different exhibits that they can
again bring in and out like the uh they have
a Porsche collection, but I guess is pretty exemplary as well.
(43:50):
They have you know, like extensive, as they say, everything
from nine Porsches sixty four all the way up through
you know modern day pors as well. They have Japanese
automotive industry vehicles there on display, like a huge history
of the Japanese automotive industry, so like everything from the
beginning to the end of that. As well. They have
(44:11):
children's race cars that are powered that they can bring out,
which I think is, Oh, that's a fascinating thing. I'd
love to see that. That just I didn't see. I
don't think I remember seeing any of those, but the
powered children's race cars would be a really cool thing
because I'm a big Go Card fan anyway, like writing, um,
they have you know, the Lightning McQueen car from you know, Pixar,
Disney Disney Cars. You know, um, oh, I got a
(44:33):
Lightning mc queen shirt on today. You didn't. Wow, you
just did kind of like a sort of a Superman,
a little Superman movie. I just realized that I had
that shirt on today. That'sh What else they have They
have the NASCAR Herbie there, which is kind of a
unique vehicle Batmobile of course that you talked about. They've
got old Elvis Presley's Pantera is somewhere there. I know
(44:54):
that that car. That's another one that we just talked
about recently. You know how Elvis Presley like he was,
he had a lot of cars, a big collection of cars,
and the Pantera is one that sometimes will make the rounds.
You know, they'll it'll travel and you know with like
cars of the rock stars or whatever, you know. And
I know that it went to the Henry Ford at
some point and you can go see you know that
(45:15):
there's a bullet hole in the in the steering wheel
from where he shot. The King shot the car apparently
when it wouldn't start. And I think the story is
that after he shot it, the things started up like
it worked, like he threatened it into operating. This crazy
it's a stream. There's a whole story behind the Pantera
(45:35):
and elv and uh, Elvis Presley but um, and you've
talked about the DeLorean time machine. That's one that I
think everybody can picture. There's so there's all kinds of
movie cars and cars that were owned by famous people.
I know I saw um when I was there. There
was Fatty Arbuckle car. He's a he's a big car guy. Um,
a big car guy. He was a he was a
big he's a big everything guy. He was. He's a
(45:56):
big fellow, thus the nickname Fatty Arbuckle. But he, uh,
he had cars that were built by Harley Earl. He
went to Harley Earl and had three cars made specifically
for him by Harley Earl. He were designed and built
for him by him. I guess that pre dates, you know,
the days when he worked for GM, of course, and
you know it was full time on the GM design staff.
(46:18):
But one other thing about um, Fatty Arbuckle, he was
he was like like I said, he was a big
car guy at the time and really loved automobiles. He
was one of the first celebrities, one of the first
stars to be able to do this because he was
also the first movie star that would make was was
making on contract over a million dollars a year. He's
(46:39):
the very first actor to be able to do that.
So that's kind of his notch in history. I mean,
other than having some you know, some good films of course,
but um, apparently a good actor. Mr Arbuckle had some
skeletons in his closet. Yeah he I was confined to
avoid it, but yeah, he he um. I don't want
to get into because yeah, he's got a whole history
(47:02):
there as well, but yes, some definite skeletons in that closet.
While we're on the subject of things that are are
turning a bit dark, there's also the nineteen sixties seven
Booth Hill Express hot rod. Oh you know what I'm
talking about. I do have seen this one. I did
get to see this. You saw this, I did. Yeah,
this is nuts. So Ray Farmer built built a booth
(47:23):
Hill Express. They took a funeral coach from the eighteen
hundreds and they made it a hot rod. Yeah. Now
you know what. Kurt and I had talked about this
on an earlier episode when we did the seventies are
sixties and seventies hot rod cars. It was an actual
funeral coach. It's said. Now it's said, wasn't it said?
(47:43):
To have taken one of the James Gang members, I think,
to this final resting place at Booth Hill Graveyard. Yeah,
is that Do you think that's true or do you
think that's a that's a myth. It's tough to verify.
A lot of this is like tall tale territory, you know,
and I wonder, but the hot Rods all have these
stories about them. I like that though. I like that
(48:04):
there's a mystery, and I like that you know that
that people can kind of dig into it if they
want to and trace it back. That's always fun. Well,
I know it sounds like we're maybe jumping around a
little bit. We're doing that because we want to give
you kind of when we give you a broad view
of just how many different unique vehicles there are. In fact,
I am probably going to return when I go back
(48:26):
to that area of the world because they have some
upcoming exhibits that I want to see. I was thinking
about this after we did our Famous Car Collector's episode.
I think Scott mentioned James Hetfield of Metallica, Right, Yeah,
that's right. So the James Hetfield collection is coming to
(48:48):
the Pierson Museum. He has an entire collection that he's
exhibiting in the museum and it started. The opening day
is today as we record this. Oh no kidding, I
I'd love to go see that because he's got he
I think he was a collector of hot rods, right,
hot rods and some some really old class I mean
we're talking nineteen thirties iron that type of era vehicle,
(49:09):
that vintage era. I think. Oh no, I think it's
a one day thing. Oh boy, well, you know what,
that's too big? Well, gosh, if you're listening to this
episode live, which otherwise otherwise I just missed out on
the in the Headfield collection. But I'm sure there's plenty
of other collections, uh to go to and check out.
That's that's the one thing too. I mean you go
to their their website. They've always got you up to
(49:32):
date on what's coming in, what's what's leaving, you know,
the dates of the shows and everything. So if you're
in the area of you know, the Peterson definitely worthwhile.
It's not really that expensive to go. It's it's relatively
a cheap afternoon um. But man, there's there's so many beautiful,
beautiful vehicles there. It really is a different type of museum. Altogether. Yeah,
(49:54):
highly recommended. No, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna start
say one museum is better than another, since I feel
like I'll be on the road for a lot of these.
But it is very different from the Nagoya Museum. And
if you go to the Peterson Museum, be aware that,
like the Natural History museums or the Smithsonians, this is
(50:15):
at the very least a full day visit. Don't go
in it like for thirty thinking you're gonna run through. No, no, no,
this is this is a long afternoon or a full
day and maybe even like you said, you can go
back and check it out. Now, it's funny that you
(50:38):
say natural history museum because that's where this whole thing started. Really,
I mean, we didn't talk about this, but I just
want to mention it because I think it's there's one
thing in here that's really interesting. I think, out of
this whole thing, I mean, maybe you can take pieces
of this, and you know that's the most interesting thing
to you, but the purchase price of the of the
building was one of the most interesting things to me
out of this whole thing. So the building itself, I
(51:02):
think it's like I want to say the nineteen sixties.
Was open in nineteen sixty two as a branch of
a department store I believe, right, see boo, yes, ce boo.
It was a department store back then, and then another
another department store bought it from around over. It was
a nineteen sixty five and they owned it until nineteen
eighties six, and I think it was called or Box,
(51:23):
so it was an are Box department store. Then after
that point, so from eighty six and then after that,
I mean after I guess um Peterson bought the Peterson
who by the way, I mean we didn't even say this.
Peterson is a publishing magnan. He's he's the guy that
was in charge of UM magazines like hot Rod and
(51:43):
Motor Trend and and Motorcyclist. And he also had some
other stuff like Tiger Beat and teen Magazine and U
Sassy magazine he had. He has a really compelling story,
just real briefly on him. If we can do his background,
is that all right? Yeah? Why not? Sure? And then
I'll get back to the building. Okay. So Robert Peterson
was born in ninet six and he was a bootstraps guy.
(52:06):
His father was a truck mechanic which give him that
lifelong love of cars. He's a veteran. He served in
the Army Air Corps and he went to work as
a publicist at MGM, and he got laid off, which
launched him into his creating his own business with some
other people who got laid off at him GM. And
(52:27):
that set him on the path to becoming the publisher
of all these profoundly influential auto magazines. And it also
gave him, frankly, the scratch he needed to create his
own car collection and then to create this automotive museum. So,
in a weird way, thanks for being jerks, MGM. What's
(52:50):
he'll saying? I mean every door that closes and it
gets the worm or something like that. Right, that's that's it, right,
I learned, Uh, I learned the word for Oh man,
I thought of you guys for the blending of idioms
or cliches. Oh, this is my my problem, right, this
is my diagnosis. I think it's your gift. Uh. It's
(53:11):
called a mala for a malla for so like we'll
burn that bridge when we get to it, okay, or uh,
that makes perfect sense. It's not rocket surgery. Well, when
you say them the ridiculous, that's that's crazy. But to
me they make perfect sense. Uh, you've opened this can
of worms now lyeing it. These are great. You know
(53:33):
who did this? And now I remember, Um it was
in Back the Future. It was it was it was
a biff. Yeah, you're right, Curtis Biff. Biff was always
mixing up those scenes and it was so funny. But
I do that myself now, Like I can't. I can't
get them straight. I don't think it's a bit either, dude,
I believe you. I cannot get those straight. I mean
there's something that I can't that I can I get,
(53:53):
but others I just can't remember. And like it's it's
funny because I've already started saying it and then I
just have to finish it with what ever I can
think of at the moment. You know, I could, I
know how to use it. I just can't get the
right words out. You always nail the beginning, Yeah, well yeah,
I mean it's used in the right context, but then
it's not. It's the closing part that I have had
(54:14):
to wrap up. You know, there have been so many
man that I sometimes I can't remember whether you actually
said one, or whether I thought of something that sounded
like it would be like a Scott Benjamin style observation.
There's stuff like, you know, you can lead a horse
the water, but there are two in the bush, stuff
(54:34):
like that, you know, said and that mallaf okay, very good,
very good. So he anyway, so Peterson, Peterson, he's moved
on from his job he laid off or whatever, and
and now he's suddenly thrust into the world of publishing
or he wants to be a publisher, right right right,
and that's where he made his fortune and that's why
(54:57):
we have to uh in a weird way. And MGM,
and now that we know Pearson back to the building.
We did this episode backwards, didn't we, I guess, so
you know maybe it was um well, was the actor
Tarantino likes together like this? Right? Maybe that's a maybe
he should give him a co credit on this. Maybe
(55:17):
this will be our first non linear podcast. Actually probably
wouldn't be. But we we do this all the time.
We talked about it. Crap, that doesn't matter, Curt, are
you gonna edit this in? So we start like in
media arst know this makes sense? Really? Yeah, you're too kind?
I don't know about that. Toast listeners if any of
this makes sense. Alright, So back to the building. Oh yes,
(55:40):
we also on this series. Note if there are any complaints,
we do want to hear from you, the good stuff
as well as the bad stuff, so we're grateful whenever
you take the time to contact us. We have a
special email for any complaints. You can write directly to
our complaint department, which is Jonathan Strickland at heart radio
(56:01):
dot com seven during sixty five days a week, days
a year. I mean, he's gonna kill us. Could be
as mean as you want. Yeah, please please let it,
just let us have it. Yeah, let's unvarnished truth again,
only to that email address. Uh, feel free to send
multiple times if you're worried it didn't come through. I
(56:22):
love this part of the show, me too. Okay, this building.
Back to the building. Okay, so we're in, and I
guess Six years later, Robert Peterson decides that he is
going to he's looking for property for a museum for
his interest in automobiles. He's got all his money, right.
He decides that he's going to open a museum, and
he's trying to find an ideal space, and he decides
(56:42):
that this is a great building for it, this this
department store, because it has very few windows. The place
doesn't have it's not like completely open like a lot
of the other um a lot of other buildings downtown were,
and decided that this would be a great place to
have you know, artifacts, you know, like without any kind
of direct exposure to sunlight, so you know, it doesn't
have to worry about sun fade on, you know, whether
it's automobiles, interiors, or paintings or whatever. He happens to
(57:05):
put up in there and decides that he's going to
buy this building. And he buys the building in two
for an odd sum. This is this is what I
find interesting about this whole thing. I mean, there's a
lot interesting, but this number he buys it in n
for it's all once completely once eleven million, one d
eleven thousand, one hundred eleven dollars and eleven cents, so
(57:29):
all ones, all the way across. It's very easy number
to remember. But he buys that in buys building in
from that department store or or box, and in nine
opens up the museum, the first iteration of the Peterson
Museum and a much different version than you and I
have seen it was. It was it was still nice,
it was just different. And the renovation that they went
(57:51):
through recently, they went through in two thousand fifteen and
did this this hundred and twenty five million dollar renovation.
Where as we said, you know, they've they've done not
only the inside inside museum, but they've also done the
outside of the museum where it's this kind of and
here's a better way to describe it. I found it finally,
um a stainless steel ribbon assembly that's made of one
(58:11):
hundred tons of fourteen gauge type three or four steel
in three hundred and eight sections, and it has something
like a hundred and forty thousand customs stainless steel screws
that keep the thing in place. It's really a it's
an interesting looking building. It stands out in in downtown
l A, of course, and it's just it's it's I mean,
inside and out. This is a unique experience. Really, it's
(58:34):
it's it's the building itself has got its own history,
the materials inside that the person who owns it, or
who owned it, I should say, he has passed on.
He passed away. I believe in two thousand and seven,
wasn't it. I think that's when Peterson, Yeah, two thousand seven.
He was aged eighty when he died. But of course
the place is still operating and doing well as you
as you said, Um, it's just it's a it's a
(58:56):
great place to go and as you've mentioned, spend more
than a day there if you can, or a day.
You know, it's tough to spend more than a day,
but if you can spend a day there, I'd say
you're getting your your money's worth out a museum for sure.
And the museum itself is is a celebrity in its
own right. It has its own history as a building.
As you mentioned, Adam Krola held his tenth anniversary celebration
(59:18):
for his podcasts there, So maybe we can do a
live podcast at the Peters Museum one day. It is
involved in the death of the notorious b I G. Yeah, right,
that was the last place he was seen alive, right, right,
And the buildings featured in a couple of films Miracle
Mile Volcano, Who Killed the Electric Car? So so check it, Yeah,
(59:40):
who killed the Electric Car? That's what the ev was there? Right,
It was a museum. What was it. There was a
strange story. Someone who owned uh g M E V
one goes to visit their their car, and that's right,
because they had to return the vehicles right right, had
to give them back to GM. And the one that
that person in particular owned were rented was on display
(01:00:02):
at the Peterson Museum. That's still the e V one
story for another day, but that's still so strange it is.
But let us know what exhibits you saw at the
Peterson Museum, because odds are the average person is not
seeing all of the exhibits, nor probably all of the vehicles. No,
unless you work there, you wouldn't. He wouldn't have been
you know, privy to see every single one of them
(01:00:23):
or no, you know exactly what's coming up when. So
it would be it would be a fascinating place to work,
wouldn't it. Yeah? Absolutely, dream job. I mean our gigs, okay,
but dream job would be working at a at an
auto museum, wouldn't it. Yeah? I guess so that would
be fun. I don't know, you know what. I waffle
on this a little bit because I think it'd be
really cool to work in a museum, an AUTOMOI automobile
(01:00:44):
museum would be fun to be surrounded by that. But
I mean after about a day or two, I don't know,
unless you're really taking deep dives into the history of
a certain car and you really focus on that and
then move on to the next one, I think that
it would just become a bit repetitive for me. See,
this is why you want to get the perfect job,
which is either the test driver or the restorer. Oh yeah,
(01:01:08):
if you're a mechanic, that'd be great, it would be fun.
But test driver, that's an interesting idea too. If you
were able to like actually, you know, take them out
and motor them around a little bit, stretch their legs,
that'd be fun. I think you have to earn that though,
I don't think they let you. I don't think like
on the website they have, you know, cashier cafe position
(01:01:29):
test driver. Yeah. You know some of the Dilson's at
the Lane Museum, the one that I mentioned earlier, I
know that I was talking to one of them for
a long time and just kind of our paths crossed
many times, you know, during the museum tour there. He
was very helpful. He said that you know, he does
get to take vehicles home, because that's one of the
pride of a lot of museums is that, you know,
(01:01:49):
it's just been particular the Lane Museum. Every vehicle is roadworthy,
so they encourage their employees to take them home sometimes
and you know, just kind of work them out a
little bit, because it's good for a car to move it,
it's it's bad for them to sit around. So they
realized that. And you know, I'm sure that there are limitations.
There's certain vehicles there that are not allowed to bring home,
like you know, the you know, the rally cars and
(01:02:10):
things like you know, the Group B rally cars that
show up or vehicles like that that are not you know,
road legal, of course, and that's why you refuse to
volunteer there, right, That's right, Yeah, I'm not taking not
taking a Group B Rally car home. I'm not doing it.
One important note regarding these museums in this travel So
now that I am officially uh A on the road
(01:02:33):
consultant for car stuff, there are going to be times
where I'm out of the studio because I'm on some
weird mission and we would love your help recommend some
of your favorite museums in your neck of the Global Woods,
some of your favorite car events, race tracks. No spoilers,
but we're working on getting Car Stuff itself back on
(01:02:54):
the road, you know, and we would love to hear
your recommendation, so let us know. You could let us
on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. We mentioned in this episode we
mentioned a lot of stuff that we have recorded previously,
like the Dale Car, a couple other stories. If you
want to check those out, you can find our podcast.
(01:03:14):
Just point your browser to Car Stuff Show dot com
right well, which you go to our website and you
can find us on any anywhere you get podcasts. Just
know that I think it's uh it's Apple Podcasts that
only shows you the first three hundred that's correct. If
you want the full archive, you have to go to
I Heart Radio, the I Heart Radio app, I guess,
(01:03:35):
or I Heart radio dot com and check that out there.
But there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of I think
we're we've got to be getting close to a thousand.
Way it maybe a little ways off, because you know,
we're like once a week at this point. So yeah, well,
you know, if we plan this right, you guys, we
can get a party sub for episode one. Yeah, you're right.
(01:03:57):
You're right. That'd be fantastic. I mean, dare to dream.
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