Petersen Automotive Museum | iDSC027

Petersen Automotive Museum As the Executive Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum, Terry Karges has seen the recent evolution of the museum and now the shifting landscape of the automotive industry and the basics of mobility itself. In this episode we cover where the museum is now, what it will look like in the near future and how technology might dramatically change things not too long from now. ***Transcript*** Recording date – January 11, 2018 Terry Karges: It's an automotive museum designed to allow us to showcase the history of the automobile, the industry itself, and the artistry of the automobile on many different levels and in a number of different galleries in rotating showcases. So from Hollywood film cars, to stars' cars, to exotic Bentleys and Bugattis, Delahayes, back to 1912, Detroit Electric cars, something for everybody really. We were voted World's Best Automotive Museum last year. We talk about the industry and the world. Nobody does what we do. There's an automotive revolution going on right now that we need to be a part of. But I also believe that people will still want to drive cars. Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States, Southern California. And today's podcast is quite special because with Southern California being the capital of the automotive world, we're in the capital building right now at Petersen Automotive Museum. And joining me is the Executive Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum, Terry Karges. Terry, thank you so much for joining me. Terry Karges: Afternoon. Glad to be here. Tom Smith: First, can you please give me a highlight overview of the Petersen Automotive Museum, which I and so many other people absolutely love? Terry Karges: Well it's a automotive museum designed to allow us to showcase the history of the automobile, the industry itself, and the artistry of the automobile on many different levels and in a number of different galleries in rotating showcases. So from Hollywood film cars, to stars' cars, to exotic Bentleys and Bugattis, Delahayes, back to 1912, Detroit Electric cars, something for everybody really. And then there's the vault, which is downstairs here, which is one of the most famous parts of any Automotive Museum in the world where we take you on a 90-minute tour of things and give you a great story behind most of the cars. Tom Smith: And I'm smiling right now because I've never been in the vault and when security first sent us down here for the interview, my colleague and I took a left when we were supposed to take a right. Terry Karges: A detour. Tom Smith: Yeah, because we saw the vault. Were like, "Oh." Terry Karges: Yeah, yeah. So cool. And it's actually we're about to completely overhaul the vault. We're going to do a major renovation in there and add another 60,000 square feet to the vault with another 200 cars. So the tour will be, what I believe to be, the most important or best automotive tour, guided tour, anywhere in the world. Tom Smith: So the museum itself is like any museum and in an art museum you're going to have exhibits that come and go. You guys do that too, right? Terry Karges: You bet. Every year…each of our galleries changes out every year, but they're rotating in various times so nothing is... There's always something new to see. You could come four or five times a year and see something new. Tom Smith: And how do you expand the vault? Are you going down? Terry Karges: There are 60,000 square feet of space that right now is storage space. We're going to convert that into showcase space and bring in an additional say 200 cars, very special cars, but by country or origin of France, Germany, British, American,