A few days ago, we brought you a photo tour of the Justice Bros. Racing Museum in Duarte, California, as an introduction to stuff you can do when you are a gearhead visiting the Los Angeles area. Now here’s a photo gallery of another great destination, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

The Petersen Museum was founded by Robert E. Petersen, the man who brought us Hot Rod magazine and later, the  Petersen Publishing empire. It opened in 1994 and is located on Wilshire Blvd. near Hollywood on the famous Miracle Mile. The building it is in was originally a Japanese department store that opened in 1962, and an Orbach’s was at the location for years. Across the street is a diner that you’ve seen in a lot of movies.

The Museum itself has a permanent display downstairs with lots of dioramas of real scenes of cars and hot rodding over the years, and the upstairs has a vintage speed shop, a motorcycle department, and a gallery that changes with the special displays that go in and out every few months. They have more antiques and hot rods and movie cars than they do muscle cars.

It’s a gearhead destination you have to see. Click here to see the Petersen Automotive Museum web site.

Click here to see the BangShift.com photo gallery of the Petersen Automotive Museum.