The Petersen Automotive Museum - Classic Life

Leave it to the French to build a leaf-blower on such a grand scale. Other benefits of the propeller-driven 1932 Helicron include industrial grade hair drying and dispersing stubborn flatulence instantly.

Included in an exhibit paying homage to the many contributions the Automobile Club of Southern California has made to motoring public is this 1929 Ford Model A roadster pickup bought by the club brand-new.

Bring back the good old days. The Highway Patrol was started by the Automobile Club of Southern California before it became a police agency recognized by the abbreviation CHP.

As an educational tool, the Petersen Museum is light years ahead of computers. This '48 Chevrolet flatbed features alternative fuel power derived from charcoal, or wood gasification.

What looks to be a Darryl Starbird creation is actually a 1957 Studebaker-Packard Astral designed to run on nuclear power. This atomic bomb never ran, but in the '50s it was the thought that counted, right?

Here's a bomb of another sort, it's the 1958 Toyopet the very first Toyota brought into the United States for sale ... did we mention it bombed?

The Deora II rolls on a section of bigger than life Hot Wheels track presenting the gateway to the Hot Wheels Hall of Fame. For a lot more information on the Petersen Museum log onto www.petersen.org

No Duesenberg is complete without one. Perhaps one of the most prized hood ornaments of all time the Lalique eagle. The Petersen has several on display.

Here's Nikita Khrushchev's limo, one of many head of state limos on display at the Petersen. Others include Eisenhower's white '52 Chrysler re-bodied with '56 skin, and the very first presidential limo to be armored, a 1942 Lincoln.