Virtual Car Meets & Tours During Covid19 - Zoom Zoom via Zoom
Published on Tue, May 5, 2020
By: Glenn Oyoung
Virtual car events are now a thing, and many of the big museums and automotive collectors are open to the public in this new way. Is it as good as the real thing? No way. Is it better than nothing? Absolutely 100%. Here’s a couple of virtual car meets to get you through your quarantine.
If you’re in California like the LACar team, then you’ve been “sheltering-in-place” for almost two months now. The weather is heating up, we’ve watched as much Netflix as our brain can handle (that’s a LOT by the way,) and we’re getting antsy. While I can resist the siren song of the beach — something 40,000 people couldn’t resist a couple of weekends ago — it would be tempting to get a car meet going. Instagram is not going to cut it. I want to meet up with old buddies, see some new and exciting cars, and hang out while enjoying a donut or three. Who’s with me!?!?!
Thankfully, some creative minds share our longing to experience car culture and have adopted new ways to bring the cars & coffee experience to our homes – virtual car meets! Is it as good as the real thing? No way. Is it better than nothing? Absolutely 100%.
Virtual Car Meets
Here’s a rundown of some virtual car meets that you can check out from the safety of your home:
Global Cars & Coffee by the Petersen Automotive Museum
My good friends at “the Pete” decided to change up their monthly event into the first-ever global cars & coffee event. Like their regular in-person meets the Petersen draws a wide variety of historic vehicles to its virtual meet. The first one was April 26th, and the next will be on May 10th. A nice touch is that “attendees” can submit their cars and give a little introduction, which is pretty cool because it would be very time-intensive to collect the history of every vehicle if you were there in person.
Here’s a video of their first event (YouTube)
You’ll find more information and the application to display on Petersen’s website
The Vault at the Petersen Automotive Museum
I love the Petersen so much that I have to throw a second shout-out to them for opening up their famed Vault for free to the public in our time of need. Usually, the tour is a $30 add-on to your ticket if you can get a reservation. No such problems now — all you need is WiFi.
Non-other than the Petersen’s Collection Manager Dana Williamson walks you through an extensive tour of 250 of the museum’s most prized vehicles ranging from the first Ferrari racecar to Ken Block’s rally car.
Mullin Museum Collection Tour
We’re huge fans of Peter Mullin’s storied collection of 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s bespoke French automobiles that he houses in his eponymous museum. If you are into pre-WWII automotive art featuring brands like Bugatti, Delage, Delahaye, Hispano-Suiza, Talbot-Lago and Voisin, then you will want to tune into the Mullin Museum’s Instagram feed every Tuesday at 10AM.
Instagram @MullinMuseum
Galpin Motors Collection
Galpin Motors head-honcho Beau Boeckmann is pretty busy lately, from the debut of his new show “Car Kings” (formerly “Driven”) on Discovery to running of the world’s most successful dealership networks.
The car king himself takes some time to walk viewers through some of his personal favorites amongst his family’s unique and historic collection. We get to see a four-engine Mustang called the “Mach IV” and a 1965 Shelby GT 350, said to have been personally delivered to Galpin by Carroll Shelby himself.
Cars & Caves Virtual Car Show
Prior to Covid19, I had never heard of the Two Guys and a Ride channel on Youtube, but I like what they’re up to. Unlike the other collections on this list, the garages featured by Two Guys and a Ride are from just regular dudes (who have done really well) in the Midwest. On Episode 1 we’re introduced to Steve who has redone a garage and made it look like a mini gas station circa the ’50s. Steve decorated his four-car garage in vintage gas & oil signage, which he proclaims is “better than stocks.” If you’re looking for inspiration for your next Amazon Prime or eBay binge, this little show might just do the trick for ya.
Here’s their first Virtual Car Show on YouTube
Featured Image by Jason Leung.