Bugatti Type 57c, Ferrari 212 225 Spyder, Mercer And Rolls Royce! - The j - Turn episode 3

This week on The J-Turn, were coming to you from the coolest garage on the planet. If youre truly an automotive enthusiast, then you have probably heard of this place. Leslie, thank you for having us today. What a pleasure. Likewise. Tell us a little bit about the Petersen Museum. How did it begin? The Petersen Museum was the brainchild of Margie and Robert E. Petersen. Mr. Petersen founded Hot Rod Magazine and Motor Trend magazine, and a couple of dozen other enthusiast magazines. And he wanted there to be a special place in Los Angeles where we could celebrate our car culture, and as it happens, a car culture that he helped to create. And how many cars do you have in your collection? We have over 400 cars in the collection. What Im really excited to see is the vault. Will you take me there? Id love to. Lets go. So were finally here in the vault. Im really excited to be here. Tell me a little bit about this collection. Well, the collection was acquired by Margie and Robert E. Petersen during their lifetime and by people who have donated cars to the Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation. And since we only have room for about 150 upstairs, we keep a good couple of hundred down here in reserve for future exhibits and to take to car shows throughout the country. Its living, breathing workspace so its very unusual for the vault to look exactly the same two days in a row. Alright, I want to see some of your favorite cars. Id love to show them to you. One of my favorites in the collection has to be this 1939 Bugatti Type 57C. Straight 8, twin cam, supercharged. But thats not where it ends. This car was actually a gift from the French government to the Shah of Iran in 1939 when he got married. But its so beautiful, its so exquisite. Its really a piece of rolling sculpture. I mean, you cant help but notice the concealed wheels, the spats over the front and the rear, these really clever air vents on the side that open to let the flow of air come into the passenger compartment. You have hidden door handles that open in a very unique way. And once youre inside, you have a hand crank under the dashboard that you can raise or lower the windshield. Its really a very practical car. Its a lovely car. Its built during the height of the art deco era and has to be one of the most exciting combinations of chassis and coachwork and history of any car thats been built. This is our 1913 Mercer, a century-old car. And in its day, this car was as sexy and as exotic and as rare as any Lamborghini and Ferrari is today. This, in fact, was a supercar of its era, an era where there were still dirt roads and a lot of horses on the road to kind of try to maneuver around. You were really something if you could have one of these cars and handle it properly. But this car required about a six to eight step starting procedure, depending on whether or not it was recently running. You have to set little controls and you have to go under the hood and you have to prime the engine. But this was the kind of authentic motoring experience that you wouldve had one-hundred years ago. Alright, well I cant wait any longer. I really want to see the Ferrari that Enzo gave to Henry Ford. We can go right now. I know where it is. Here it is! Ive been waiting for this. Jessi, you picked a really good car to like. This is a 1952 Ferrari 212 225 Spyder. This car has a really special history because its the only one of its kind ever made and it was given by Enzo Ferrari to Henry Ford II. There was a time when ford and Ferrari were thinking about getting together. It never happened, but there was some thought there. And we come back here and you notice this is strictly a fair-weather car. Theres absolutely no provision for weather protection. And because theres no side windows, you dont need outside door handles because you can just reach inside and open the door. This car has never been restored. It only has about 12,000 miles on it. And its the original paint. The engine has never been outside or apart. Its just a really extraordinary car, a true survivor. The car that really stayed with me throughout the day was that massive Rolls Royce. Ive never seen, I mean it doesnt even look like a Rolls Royce, Ive never seen anything like it. From the circular doors to the fan-shaped opening windows, its really just an incredible and monstrous creature. Theres the Toyota 2000GT, Japans first supercar. It looks like a Datsun, but it was actually built three years prior to Datsun being introduced. It was built by Yamaha for Toyota and everything on it is entirely original. The paint, the interior, theyve never been redone or restored. Steve McQueens Jaguar XKSS is the sexiest Jaguar Ive ever seen. And he mustve agreed because he liked it so much he bought it twice. Its absolutely obvious from looking around the vault that Mr. Petersen loved his hot rods. He founded Hot Rod Magazine in 1948 and it seems his love grew throughout his life. Theres so many different combinations and ways that you can build them. Some of them have crazy grilles, ridiculous detailing, upholstery on the running boards. No two are alike. The collection they have in the vault, its almost overwhelming, its almost automotive overload. Just a ton of iconic cars surrounded by equally iconic cars. You could spend days there. I really love how all the vehicles down here are, you know Im not kept away from them by ropes and there arent any, theres no historical context surrounding them. Youre right and thats not always a bad thing to have cars that are really stripped from their context. And thats the idea behind the vault. People can come down here and see a sea of cars and they can get pretty close to them. They can see how the cars differ, how much theyre alike. They can compare a 39 Bugatti to a 39 Mercury if they want to. They can see how the differences of French coach-building compare with American coach-building and get a whole new perspective on automobiles. Now I know that you guys opened the vault to the public for the very first time over the 2012 holiday season and that it was so popular that youve extended the hours. How long does the public have to get down here and see the vault? Well, we have indeed done that. Im not sure. The public can come down here indefinitely but Im not even sure how long indefinitely is gonna be. As long as theres an interest then well want to make it available to people. So, you heard him. Nobody knows how long the vault doors will stay open and times a wasting!