Auberlen to star at Petersen’s BMW cruise-in

The most successful driver in IMSA history, Bill Auberlen, will attend this Sunday’s BMW & Bretzels Cruise-in at the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Auberlen, who has 65 IMSA wins to his credit, will be signing autographs and will join Tom Plucinsky of BMW Group Classic USA for a “fireside chat”.

The event, on Sunday, Sept. 28 from 9 a.m. to noon, is a partnership between BMW North America and Hagerty’s RADwood, which is an organization that celebrates 1980s and ’90s culture and car culture.  To this end RADwood will bring eight iconic BMWs from the ’80s and ’90s.

The cruise-in will draw in hundreds of BMW cars and motorcycles. Show car tickets are $36, and include one admission ticket to the Petersen Automotive Museum an exclusive poster and show car parking. General admission tickets are $25 and include one admission ticket to the museum, the poster and a complimentary coffee and pretzel. Spectator access to the cruise-in is free and includes that coffee/pretzel combo.

Those who love BMWs and motorsport should also head into the Petersen Automotive Museum’s Vault, where there is an exhibition celebrating 50 years of the BMW 3 Series in competition. Riffing on BMW’s longstanding “The Ultimate Driving Machine” slogan, the Petersen exhibit is titled “The Ultimate Racing Machine” and features 11 examples of this legendary car on track, stretching from 1978 through to 2024.

The 3 Series had big wheeltracks to fill, replacing the beloved and successful ’02 model which also scored some successes on track, notably (in 2002 form) the 1970 Nurburgring 24 Hours and (in 2002ti form) the 1971 European Rally Championship. But the 3 Series (and latterly, in coupe form, the 4 Series) reset the parameters of touring car success.

Presented in partnership with BMW, the Petersen’s display traces the evolution of the 3 Series through all seven generations, showcasing its impact on motorsport and the marque’s heritage.

Plucinsky says: “The original BMW 3 Series and now the BMW 3 Series and its ‘fraternal twins’ the 4 Series are the core of the BMW brand. ‘The Ultimate Racing Machine’ exhibit brings together seven of the most successful and important race cars— one from each generation combined with a couple of wonderfully preserved street examples including one of the three remaining, V8-powered, M3 GTR Strassenversion.”

If the ’80s and ’90s in general are your thing, there’s another Petersen exhibit for you. Totally Awesome! explores the intersection of automobiles and popular culture in the last two decades of the 20th century. Cars of all types reflected social and stylistic shifts at a transformative time in history, but it was also a period when computer-aided design became an essential part of the development process, and cars made significant gains in power, safety, and efficiency. A new era of racing regulations fostered engineering breakthroughs across motorsports.

This exhibition showcases some of the most spectacular vehicles built between 1980 and 1999, from visionary concepts to iconic production models, legendary screen stars, and high-performance racecars, all set against the backdrop of the fashion, media and music of the era.