Petersen Museum Revisits the Rad Decades With New ‘Totally Awesome’ Exhibit

The Petersen Automotive Museum is about to go full analog with a new exhibit that throws it back to the mixtape era complete with boxy supercars, VHS rentals, and way too much chrome and neon.

Opening June 7, Totally Awesome: Cars and Culture of the '80s and '90s takes a closer look at two fast-moving decades that reshaped both car design and pop culture. You'll find everything from motorsports beasts (Lamborghini Countach 5000 S) and showroom legends (Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2) to movie-famous rides like the Back to the Future DeLorean. Feel free to admire the hardware, but also take a look at how motor vehicles of the era were strong symbols of personal sataus, expression, and tech transformation.

The curators aren't just showing off pretty vehicles but also connecting the dots between early computer-aided design (CAD) tools, the rise of tuner culture, and a flood of media that turned cars into cultural symbols. Plan to see old-school arcade stations, cassette players, and other era-defining tech mixed in with the hot wheels.

"This exhibit celebrates the cars people drove and dreamed of driving in the '80s and '90s," Petersen's executive director Terry L. Karges told NBC Los Angeles. "From high-performance vehicles and pop culture icons to synth soundtracks and oversized shoulder pads, this exhibit is nostalgia in overdrive."

The museum's throwing a launch party on June 6 to kick things off early. Guests are encouraged to dress for the decade-acid wash, neon, leather trench coats, whatever fits. Event info and tickets are at petersen.org.

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