by Wallace Wyss –
In mid-February the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles will celebrate Ferrari again with a Cruise-In and Car Show on the upper level of the museum’s parking structure. A fitting honor considering that more Ferraris are sold in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.
The show takes place February 17, 2019 from Sunday 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM at 6060 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90036.
A spokesman for the FCA of America SW region said that there will be over 200 Ferraris and possibly even more than that since Los Angeles has been plagued with rain for several weeks and if the rain’s gone, the Ferraristi will come out to play.
By 7:30 a.m. you can count on a line of precious metal along Fairfax Avenue, waiting to enter the Petersen’s parking structure. The Ferraris will be let into the parking structure for free but not other cars. Warning: parking on the street has some strange rules, so it’s best to park inside.
A Ferrari 288 GTO portrait in oil by Wallace Wyss
In addition if you want to go into the Museum itself, you have to go down to the first floor and buy a ticket.
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Ferrari likes to point out that, despite annual sales of less than 10,000 cars, their profits are soaring, due in part to marketing the Ferrari name itself. From shoes to watches to hairdryers — Ferrari sells the rights to use their name on certain products. Ferrari also operates 16 retail stores, 30 franchised locations, and two theme parks.
The Petersen Museum was founded in 1994 by HOT ROD magazine publisher Robert E. Petersen. In 2015, the museum underwent an extensive $90 million renovation. The building’s façade was redesigned by the architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox.
It is a blast to see the new exterior which stands out because of the stainless-steel ribbon assembly, made of 100 tons of 14-gauge type 304 steel in 308 sections, with 25 supports and 140,000 custom stainless-steel screws.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Wallace Wyss
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss has been a guest lecturer on car design at the Art Center College of Design. As a fine artist, he is marketing portraits of collector cars. Interested prospects can write him at mendoart7@gmail.com.
Wyss in a denim modified with a bespoke painting of a Ferrari in Mendocino, CA.
The gathering honors Enzo’s birthday actually on the 18th.
All Ferraris were originally RHD as that form suited all of Europe’s race circuits . Enzo’s true ambition was to win races at any cost by building the world’s best race cars . He was not the slightest bit interested in selling his cars to the public as main road transport . It was only when he got low on funds that someone told him , that to make enough money to race his cars successfully he would have to sell his cars to the American public , thus in the early 50’s LHD Ferraris were available and the rest is history . Ninety percent of all Healeys and TR’s were sold to the US , so it was a good move by stubborn Enzo .