World’s Top Automotive Museums Offer Virtual Tours During Closures

For automotive enthusiasts and students looking for digital activities and entertainment while practicing social distancing, two California-based museums – the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles and the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard – are now offering a variety of digital programming that can be enjoyed from the comfort of home.

Petersen Automotive Museum

During its temporary closure, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is offering free virtual tours of The Vault presented by Hegarty. Led by Collection Manager Dana Williamson, the hour-long virtual tours provide rare access to never-before-seen race cars, movie cars and culturally significant vehicles.

“The benefit of this virtual tour is we can now extend the stories of our collection to a global audience. This give our patrons more access to the cars than ever before,” said Petersen Executive Director Terry L. Karges.

The schedule for the Petersen’s virtual tours is as follows:

• Friday, March 27, 2020 at 11 a.m. Pacific – Performance Themed
• Saturday, March 28, 2020 at 11 a.m. Pacific – Full Vault Tour
• Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 2 p.m. Pacific – Presidential Themed
• Friday, April 3, 2020 at 11 a.m. Pacific – Pre-War Themed
• Saturday, April 4, 2020 at 11 a.m. Pacific – Full Vault Tour

• Sunday, April 5, 2020 at 1 p.m. Pacific – From the Archives Spitfire Part 2

• Monday, April 6, 2020 at 11 a.m. – Deep Dive McLaren History Part 1

• Wednesday, April 8, 2020 at 9 a.m. – Superperformance Shop Tour Part 1

• Thursday, April 9, 2020 at 11 a.m. – From the Archives (New Release)

• Friday, April 10, 2020 at 11 a.m. Pacific – Deep Dive McLaren History Part 2
• Saturday, April 11, 2020 at 11 a.m. Pacific – Full Vault Tour
• Sunday, April 12, 2020 at 9 a.m. Pacific – Superformance Shop Tour Part 1

Virtual tours of The Vault cost $3. The admission allows the museum to continue to maintain its collection and support staff and digital programs during its closure. For more information, visit petersen.org.

For students, the museum’s education department has curated a variety of online learning tools. These include downloadable worksheets as well as daily virtual automotive-themed lectures and storytelling.

The Petersen’s initiatives have been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Drive, Time Out Hong Kong, Petrolicious and more.

Mullin Automotive Museum

The Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, is also offering free weekly virtual tours of its collection through Instagram Live. The themed, docent-led tours provide exclusive access to one of the world’s best and most exclusive pre-war car collections, including several Pebble Beach winners, Bugatti grand prix cars and more. 

The schedule for the Mullin virtual tours is as follows:

• Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 10 a.m. PST – Voisin 
• Tuesday, April 7, 2020 at 10 a.m. PST – Delahaye 
• Thursday, April 16, 2020 at 10 a.m. PST – Bugatti 

The Mullin Automotive Museum’s initiatives have been featured in Los Angeles Magazine, Automobile Magazine and Autoweek.