HAPPY RACE DAY! especially to Joey Seely who’s selling his incredible custom Porsche. (Nicknamed “Project Nasty,” the car surpassed $250,000 on Bring A Trailer but failed to sell.)
If you read my 2019 book Slow Car Fast, you’ll recognize P-Nasty as the visceral star of one of the chapters. Good luck Joey!
In today’s email: 👇
Museum Delight: A smash weekend at the Petersen
How to Grow a Car Meet: Q&A with a local legend
Motorsports Roundup: Euro-style racing in Texas
Here’s this week’s top story.
The Playbook for Modern Car Museums
Photo by Forest Casey.
LOTS OF AUTOMOTIVE AUTHORS don’t care about book sales. They aren’t expecting a smash hit or best-seller. But they do want to hit certain goals. And a common one that comes up again and again, especially for authors in L.A., is getting their book into the store at the Petersen Automotive Museum.
Over the weekend I got to count myself as one of the lucky few who saw that dream realized. I had the extreme honor of hosting a Carrara Media booth, and then getting copies of both Cult of GT-R and We Deserve This stocked in the store downstairs. It’s truly surreal to see our work carried by an automotive icon. The Petersen is truly one of those “We made it” moments.
This wasn’t a given. Museums today run the risk of being left out of the car culture conversation. Our community is driven largely by YouTube and social media. What’s hot or not can change by the day based on what was posted to Instagram. Around the country, and in L.A. especially, weekly cars and coffee events display some of the world’s rarest and most exotic cars up close and personal. For free. How do museums compete with that?
Understandably, the Petersen took time to adjust. Curated exhibits take years to plan out, and can remain on display for 12 months or more. They can’t keep up with the speed of modern car culture, and building grassroots support from the surrounding community is a glacial process. But it can pay off big time.
“Car culture is evolving and changing, so we need to be a part of that.” — Terry Karges, executive direction of the Petersen in 2023.
The Petersen stamp of approval still matters. We were out there on Sunday for the annual JDM Cruise-In, a gathering of Japanese vehicles that welcomes all types of cars and is open to spectators. Japanese cars have not always enjoyed validation from museums, many refusing to budge from their ‘50s diner and hot rod eras. So a museum like the Petersen making time and space to acknowledge this faction of the car world makes a difference. People will show up. The museum estimated more than 400 Japanese vehicles, including 50 Nissan Skylines, came to the cruise-in.
Photo by Ryan ZumMallen
Robert E. Petersen founded the museum in 1994. The founder of the Petersen Publishing Company, which included titles like Hot Rod and Motor Trend, he originally used it to house his personal collection of hot rods and sports cars from the ‘50s and ’60s, along with celebrity cars from Hollywood royalty. If the museum had stuck with that formula, it would have still made for an incredible collection. But it needed to make space for a new generation, too.
The current executive director is Terry Karges, who last summer told the Car Guy Confessions podcast, “We're gonna do something that is interesting to every part of car culture. It's evolving and changing, so we need to be a part of that.” Along with the JDM Cruise-In, the museum is also hosting a pre-party for the Luftgekühlt car show in October that celebrates the white-hot trend for air-cooled Porsches.
And since 2007 the Petersen has hosted four separate exhibits on lowriders, even bringing on Chicano/a Studies professor Denise Sandoval to serve as guest curator. Now this once frowned-upon subculture is getting the praise and recognition it has always deserved. According to Autoweek, each of those four exhibits broke attendance records.
Others have followed suit. The LeMay Museum in Tacoma, Washington opened its Shinka exhibit on the Japanese influence of car culture. And the Zimmerman Driving Museum, just south of the Petersen in El Segundo, has partnered with Bayside to open a beach-themed, ‘90s-inspired cafe to encourage younger crowds.
By displaying rare, special vehicles that won’t be seen on the street, yet still acknowledging the shifting tides of the culture, museums can stay with the times and highlight heritage all at once. There’s a place for preserving history, but staying relevant means connecting with younger audiences. Each museum may have a slightly different strategy. Strike the right chord, and authors will dream of reaching that store for decades and decades to come.
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Speaking of JDM, the crux of my 2023 book Cult of GT-R is the extreme lengths people will go to in order to own a Skyline GT-R. Well, here’s a prime example.
Congrats on the arrival, Dustin!
Ask A Millennial! Kadi Erickson, 29
Courtesy of Kadi Erickson.
Kadi is the creator of our local Long Beach car meet, Shore Shifters. She was also one of our very first Ask A Millennial! subjects (here), and I’m honored to have her back for a return interview as Shore Shifters celebrates five years!
Five years ago I fired up a cars and coffee idea with zero expectations. I was 24, a near-grad at CSULB (Go Beach!), in a new relationship, with the B5 of my dreams. Now I'm pushing 30, in my wildlife career, in the same great relationship, with the same B5. It's a trip how much these potentially uncertain things have become unshakeable constants. Shore Shifters was also an uncertainty — were people going to come to a meet started by a no-name person? Would I show up to an empty parking lot? Would the police run us off? Nope, and I'm incredibly grateful.
The most surprising thing is the diversity of cars and people. It started with me, a few friends and our mostly European cars with a few JDM goodies sprinkled in. It has now become this glorious mix of random, eclectic vehicles, driven by owners that are just fantastic. It could be a Peugeot, an Autozam, a 23-window VW bus, an old Lancia, or a kei car that steals the show — you never know what is going to show up! Shore Shifters has become a haven for the strange, unusual, and uncommon. I like to think it's just as weird as I am.
I wanted Shore Shifters to feel like a neighborhood, where a group of people eventually becomes a community. It's a family-friendly, dog-friendly scenario, and I have no time or patience for automotive tomfoolery. There are no big vendors, no raffles, no giveaways, no tickets for sale, and no contests. I do not have a desire to turn it into some huge automotive extravaganza. I have turned down opportunities in order to preserve the vibes. The Shore Shifters crowd always understands and respects the assignment: park and chill. The meet has always been no frills, and it helps that an early-morning beach setting evokes a sense of calm. I'm just a girl who throws a monthly flyer together, brings a folding table, donuts and local coffee to the beach for free. And that's just enough to maintain this charming, quirky community.
In the beginning I said, “No contests, just friends.” That statement is driven by personal experience dealing with condescendence, belittling, and snobbery I have seen and dealt with at meets. You should never have to defend yourself from people trying to make you feel unwelcome, not knowledgeable, or not worthy. Shore Shifters is for people looking for a place to gather, learn, and enjoy the company of supportive enthusiasts in a scenic setting. I keep it inclusive. Naturally, I don't want Shore Shifters to be a bad example. I'm not looking to get rich, and I'm not looking for a million followers online. Anything I have gained has been a gift or a surprise, whether that's a couple bucks to support my donut purchases, or a friend creating a Hot Wheels box based on Shore Shifters.
Many thanks to all who have supported me and surprised me with their kindness. And I have to thank my dad, who got me into cars in the first place, who now comes to Shore Shifters every time.
Follow Shore Shifters here, and follow these great accounts too:
oilstainlab: The hottest automotive faux-history around.
georjah_erin: A blonde Canadian woman addicted to lowriders.
cncpics: My friend Leo posts all the local events you need to know.
And Finally…
It was a busy weekend in racing, with IndyCar hitting a double-header in Milwaukee and F1 taking to the majesty of Imola for the Italian Grand Prix. But my favorite event was the World Endurance Championship, or WEC, making only its fourth visit to Circuit of the Americas in Texas for some kickass sports car racing.
With only two races to go in the season, here are the current standings in the top-level Hypercar class:
Toyota (+25): 147 points
Porsche (+10): 136 points
Ferrari (+18): 128 points
Shoutout to Cadillac though, who came away with a surprising 3rd place finish in their home country. U-S-A!
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