The Petersen Automotive Museum is going back to the future with a new exhibit that will show off concept cars from the 1950s, with some of the rides coming straight out of the junkyard.

“These cars are the Picassos and Rembrandts of their generation,” said Joe Bortz, a car collector whose vehicles will make up the museum’s latest exhibition “GM’s Marvelous Motorama: Dream Cars From the Joe Bortz Collection.”

The exhibit, which opened at the museum on March 16 and runs through March 2026, features six concept cars that were originally displayed as “Dream Cars” at traveling GM Motorama shows in 1953-55.

“They are one-off cars that are showing ideas for production or a future car design. The designers are untethered to design the cars just the way they want to and not have considerations for government regulations of production requirements,” Bortz said.

While many of the cars on display featured some technological advancements that were ahead of their time and later incorporated into some production vehicles, they were designed mainly for looks that at the time made these vehicles seem like they were from the future. They were lower, smaller and sleeker than anything else on the road.

“For these cars engineering was the tail and not the head. The head was styling and then engineering, and that set the tome for the concept cars,” Bortz said. “The looks were the driving force.”

The cars on display include a 1953 Pontiac Parisienne, a two-door town car-style vehicle with an open driver’s compartment and roof covering the back seat. There’s also a 1955 LaSalle II Roadster, a convertible that somewhat resembles a jet fighter with tail fins over the back wheels that stick out like tiny wings, and the curvy and aerodynamic 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne, which sported a windshield that curved into part of the roof, reminiscent of a Tesla windshield.

While these were cars of the future, many of them ended up being sent to scrap yard to be cut up and crushed.

Bortz found several cars in the exhibit in a junkyard in the 1980s, including the 1955 LaSalle II Roadster and 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne, which were both cut in half before Bortz restored them.

“I think it’s my responsibility, after being fortunate to acquire these cars, to share them with the public,” he said.

“GM’s Marvelous Motorama: Dream Cars From the Joe Bortz Collection”

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through March 2026

Where: The Petersen Automotive Museum, 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

Tickets: $21 general admission; $19 for seniors; $13 for children ages 12-17; $11 for children ages 4-11. All tickets are available at petersen.org.

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