New Porsche Exhibit Focuses on People Who Made the Cars Cool

There are a lot of Porsche exhibits that focus on all the wonderful wagens to come out of Weissach, and those exhibits are certainly nice to see. After all, who doesn’t love Porsches?

The new exhibit opening April 16 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has plenty of cool Porsches—40 on the second floor alone, with more scattered throughout the museum. Right when you come into the building you see a 962 and an LMP car there in the lobby, but the heart of the exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum is the people behind those Porsches.

“We decided that, rather than build it around the cars, we would build it around the people, especially those in Southern California that really made Porsche Porsche,” said Museum Director Terry Karges, himself a Porsche driver since high school.

The exhibit, called “We Are Porsche,” focuses not only on the people but specifically the Americans who made the marque mighty. America was always a big part of not only Porsche sales, accounting for over half of all sales at points in the 1950s and ‘60s, but it was Americans who helped make Porsches cool.

Think James Dean in his early racing 356s, Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans, Patrick Dempsey at the real Le Mans, Patrick Long at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and even Tom Cruise riding in Kelly McGillis’ Speedster in the original Top Gun, or posing with his new love interest next to her silver 911 in Top Gun Maverick.

“It’s a fascinating journey to look at all of the people who, without knowing it, just by loving the cars, driving them, and racing them, made them cool,” said Karges. “It’s really a great story.”

Right when you enter the exhibit off the elevator on the second floor, you are introduced to Max Hoffman, for instance. Hoffman was a true visionary. In a 1950s America that favored monster land yachts and towering tailfins, Hoffman saw the potential for somewhat funky BMWs, Mercedes, Alfa Romeos, and even Volkswagens. He first saw a picture of a Porsche 356 and knew there would be customers here who would embrace its light weight and nimble handling.