Summer days (and nights) are hard to beat, especially when “car guy” things are happening. On just about any day or evening in Southern California, enthusiasts and their machines can be found gathered at venues ranging from major shopping plazas to small brick-and-mortar businesses, celebrating car culture through events such as cars-and-coffees, cruise-ins, racing events, and full-on shows.
Located in Los Angeles’s Mid-Wilshire district (and just up the street from HOT ROD’s longtime home in the former Petersen building on Wilshire Blvd), the Petersen Automotive Museum is one of the city’s most logical locations for like-minded gearheads to come together and show off their cool cars and trucks. And on Sunday, July 7, 2024, that’s exactly what happened, as the museum—one of the world’s most magnificent archives of all things automotive, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary—held its annual All-American Cruise-In, occupying two floors of the parking structure.
As you will see in the photos, the event brought badass muscle cars and hot rods of all vintages and styles to the Petersen, and afforded visitors the chance to experience all of the museum’s fantastic exhibits, currently highlighted by a mind-blowing curation of cars, bikes, art, and other key elements of the lowrider lifestyle.
Hot-rodding legends such as Bruce Meyer, founding chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum, as well as acclaimed drag racing engine builder Ed Pink, noted photographer Ed Justice Jr., and journalist, automotive historian, and vintage auto collector Kip Cyprus were also on hand for an insightful panel on the hobby’s evolution, and more so its current state, from where they sit. The discussion included great stories from back in the day and touched on socio-governmental effects on hot-rodding and how those influences make having archives like the Petersen Automotive Museum more important to all of us.
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