Take a virtual tour of the Petersen Vault’s hot rods and customs
The formerly off-limits Vault at the Petersen Automotive Museum has some of the coolest cars in their collection. It’s only been a few years since the underground venue was first opened to the public, and only then with an additional ticket on top of the museum’s general admission. Now that the museum is closed along with many other public venues, the Petersen has offered a look inside by way of virtual tours.
This newest tour, hosted by Petersen docent Tony Miller, focuses on the Vault’s collection of hot rods and custom cars. It begins with the one-off Bosley Interstate, a GT built on a Corvette chassis that uses a Pontiac V-8 powerplant. Soon after, we see a highly customized El Camino by GM designer Harry Bentley Bradley belies its age. Its C-pillars look quite a bit like the ’68 El Caminos that weren’t yet hatched by Chevrolet when Bradley built his own project.
Miller quickly covers a few other one-off prototypes before getting to some beautiful lowriders and then a string of dazzling customs who have all won the title of America’s Most Beautiful Roadster, some of them more than once.
One of my favorite cars from the Vault is Sniper, the Viper-powered Plymouth Savoy commissioned by George Poteet, designed by Chip Foose and built by Troy Trepanier.
Miller does a great job of showing off just a portion of the 250 or so cars in the Vault on this tour, so we encourage you to take the video in. With any luck, the Vault will be hosting live tours before too long.
