I’m not a car girl. Let’s just get that out of the way. I can name more V.C. Andrews heroines than vehicle models, and the only time I cared about horsepower was when it involved My Little Pony. But when I heard the Petersen Automotive Museum was launching an exhibit called the Totally Awesome exhibit, built entirely around cars and culture from the 1980s and 1990s, well, obviously, I had to be there.
This was my era. The glow-up years. The lunch-money-scheme-for-candy years. The Top Gun awakening years.
So when the Petersen invited us to preview the show before it opened to the public, I threw on some eyeliner, teased my hair, and rolled in like I was heading straight to the pupuseria after school. Okay, I mean cutting school to go to Tower Market and eat bolillos with cream cheese with my best friend, Monica.
And what I found was more than just cars behind velvet ropes. It was a time capsule you could actually walk through. A place where DeLoreans and Ferris Bueller’s Ferrari shared space with Pac-Man cabinets, Issey Miyake coats, and candy bars that haven’t seen a checkout line since Blockbuster still existed.
Let’s take a trip back to the 80s and 90s.
From the arcade floor to the fashion runway to the most gloriously ridiculous vehicles ever built, here’s everything you need to know about the Petersen’s new Totally Awesome exhibit.
Lemme tell you what, this moment in pop culture history still hits like a bag of sour apple Now and Laters.
totally awesome exhibit CARS:
Pop Culture on Wheels
Look, I’m not gonna pretend I walked into this exhibit ready to rattle off engine sizes or transmission types. I don’t even know how to open the hood of my Buick. I came here for vibes. The Totally Awesome exhibit understood the assignment.
These weren’t just vehicles. These cars were full-on characters from the movies, TV shows and childhood fantasies that raised us.
Let’s talk about this because I think when you’re a car museum, of course, cars are going to be your centerpiece but this really vibes as more than that. That’s important because maybe if you’re a car person visiting with your mom who isn’t, there’s still something for her to recognize and love. That’s the benchmark of a good exhibit is appealing to the wider audience and this does that spectacularly.
Back to the Future. It doesn’t matter who you are, you know the DeLorean, and yes, it’s that DeLorean. The one that needed 1.21 gigawatts and a time-traveling flux capacitor to blast into cinematic history. Seeing it in person is surreal. with its gullwing doors and fluxcapacitor like a glowstick that’s been spliced three ways. This is less “car” and more “sci-fi icon with a SAG card.”
The hits just kept coming and I don’t mean because that if Back to the Future were made today, it would take place in 1995.
Y’all that was the year after I graduated high school and none of that sits well as a feeling for me.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder aka the Modena Spyder was tucked away in the back but I imagine with intention that you really have to get to through this exhibit to experience one of movie’s greatest cars. So this was not a real Ferrari, because obviously they weren’t about to crash a real one through a glass window but this replica is the one they used in that scene.
This is the car that taught every kid in the ’80s the true cost of joyriding, skipping school and riding floats in a full on parade that happened in the middle of a regular and normal Chicago day because, of course, it did.
I fucking love the movies.
Top Gun’s 1984 Kawasaki Ninja. I have written about Top Gun many times in my journalistic career and just my regular real-life because where this wasn’t just one of the greatest movie ever made, it was certainly peak 1980s for me. I have many childhood memories tied to watching this on VHS afterschool. There it was, looking ready to launch off the tarmac with Kenny Loggins blasting in the background. Basically this was a full-on: you’re not going to be happy unless you’re going Mach 2 with your hair on fire moment.
You’re singing Highway to the Danger Zone right now and don’t even try to tell me you’re not. Linked here because it should be.
The Pac-Man Rod. Built in 1982 by Hot Wheels design legend Larry Wood, it looks like a sentient fever dream with wheels. I say that with full respect because Pac-Man was enormous. It was commissioned to promote the arcade game, complete with sculpted Pac-Man head and dragster body. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a ghost-eating yellow orb turned into a car.
The Krauser Domani caught me off guard because I’ve never seen this before. It’s a futuristic, three-wheeled hybrid of motorcycle and Bond villain lair. It’s the kind of vehicle you’d expect to see in an anime chase scene or a lost Knight Rider spinoff. The whole thing screams “European engineering and unresolved childhood trauma.”
Now, I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any disappointments. I came fully expecting the red Ferrari 308 GTS from Magnum P.I. You know the car that gave Tom Selleck his swagger (because it sure wasn’t all that 70’s chest hair). I was ready to recreate a whole mood in front of that car, and it just… wasn’t there. Missed opportunity.
Still, what’s on display is electric. Not just because of the vehicles themselves, but because of how much emotion they hold. These weren’t just machines. They were avatars for rebellion, freedom, style and survival. They were wish fulfillment on wheels. And at Petersen, they still are.
TOTALLY AWESOME EXHIBIT ARCADE GAMES:
Button-Mashing Bliss on Four (or Eight) Wheels
You know how every generation swears their childhood was the best? Ours actually was and the proof is in the joystick. The Totally Awesome exhibit doesn’t just park the cars. It plugs them in.
We’re talking arcade cabinets galore, the kind you used to beg your mom for quarters to play while she tried to buy batteries at Thrifty’s. From Hang-On to Spy Hunter to Ivan Stewart’s Off-Road, the racing games weren’t just on display, they were powered up and fully playable. My inner nine-year-old nearly blacked out from excitement although my grown-up reflexes were absolute garbage.
These weren’t just fun little side features. They were legit part of the cultural conversation. Back then, you didn’t need a driver’s license to feel the rush of a turbo boost. You just needed a joystick, a high score and a roll of quarters.
The car games were some of my favorite in the arcades (or more likely my local Pizza Hut). It’s where I learned all about every major driving course around the world (the Suzuki was always my favorite).
Beyond the games themselves, the exhibit leans into how digital tech influenced car culture. The aesthetics of those early racing games, bright lights, boxy graphics, futuristic dashboards, made their way into real-life dashboards. Suddenly, cars wanted to look like video games and that was the vibe.
One thing I loved was how Petersen didn’t separate this from the main story.
The exhibit straight-up acknowledges that kids raised on Nintendo, Atari and SEGA grew up obsessed with speed fantasies and that shaped the way cars were designed, marketed, and dreamed about. That matters.
So whether you were Team Pole Position or obsessed with Out Run just for the music, this section will hit you right in the warp zone. It’s not just gaming history, it’s the 8-bit engine that powered a whole generation’s love for cars and probably fueled our love of seeing crashes on the 405?
totally awesome exhibit FASHION:
Runway Rebels and Retro Royalty
So I knew there were going to be fashions tied into this exhibit but my body was not ready for this. Forget torque. Forget tire pressure. The real showstoppers in the Totally Awesome exhibit were on mannequins. Because let’s be honest: cars are cool, but clothes tell you who you are or were trying to be.
And the fashion in this exhibit, curated by the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (aka my alma mater, thankyouverymuch), was not here to play it safe. These were bold, rule-breaking, power-dressing looks from a time when the only thing bigger than your dreams was your shoulder pads.
We’re talking Issey Miyake in full sculptural splendor. It had the pleats, heat-set folds and colors that made you question your entire neutral-toned adult wardrobe (mostly I’m looking at you, Millenials). These pieces looked like wearable origami.
It was performance art for people who could also balance a checkbook.
Then there was Stephen Sprouse, whose graffiti-covered nylon was punk with a portfolio.
His prints screamed club-kid chaos and downtown NYC attitude.
These fashions were somewhere between a Warhol and a warning label, and just as legendary.
Let’s not forget the Fiorucci pants, the Bernard Perris suits, and a Norma Kamali nylon coat that looked like it could survive a nuclear winter and still show up fashionably late.
It was fashion that dared you to be loud, structured and let’s be real, unapologetically extra and that is probably why I am the wild, style woman I am today.
Let’s just say if you weren’t ready to strut when you got to this display, you were by the time you left.
The paired looks of Versace and Kamali took us from leather daddy to disco diva in a single spin of the pedestal. Gianni Versace’s 1983 black leather ensemble walked the line between fetish and high fashion. Right next to it, Norma Kamali’s glittering black-and-silver jumpsuit from 1982 gave “ready to party” energy with exaggerated shoulder drape and club-kid drama. Together, they encapsulate the bold duality of 1980s style: one part seduction, one part sparkle, all attitude.
Meanwhile, across the way, we saw the chic structure of Bernard Perris’ 1986 wool jacket-and-skirt combo, paired with a Fall/Winter 1984 Gucci look complete with matching handbag.
These were the kinds of outfits that said, “Yes, I’m in finance. What of it?” while still being absolutely ready to throw down at Spago after hours.
Pure boss energy.
This wasn’t just a trip through iconic silhouettes. It was a reminder that fashion in the ’80s and ’90s wasn’t just about looking good. It was about claiming space. Women weren’t just dressing for the boardroom. They were armoring up for a world that underestimated them, and doing it in Technicolor and shoulder pads.
So yeah, the cars were cool. The games were fun. The fashion at the Totally Awesome exhibit was pure power.
Nostalgic Treats & Cultural Significance:
Not Just Sugar, But Substance
Before I wrap this up, we need to talk about the candy bar. Yes—there was literally a bar, but instead of drinks, it served up Pop Rocks, Pixie Stix, Fruit by the Foot and Pop Tarts. It was basically the corner liquor store of your childhood dreams, minus the questionable lotto tickets.
This wasn’t a gimmick. It was strategy. Because the Totally Awesome exhibit isn’t about glorifying an era. It’s about reliving it through every sense: sight, sound, and yes, taste. That cherry Pop Rocks might’ve been chemically questionable and no, I didn’t mix them with Coke, but it hit harder than therapy.
But let’s so some truth telling for a moment. Cars from the ’80s weren’t winning beauty contests.
Most of them were boxy, underpowered and more likely to be seen in a used lot than a showroom. The economy sucked and that was reflective in the aesthetic. But there’s power in looking back at an imperfect past and saying, “Yeah, that was real and I survived it.”
This exhibit doesn’t try to gloss it all over. It doesn’t pretend the cars were perfect or the culture was without cringe. It embraces the chaos. Because nostalgia isn’t about pretending things were better. It’s about remembering who we were, what we dreamed about and how we made joy out of struggle.
For me and my sister, that joy came from sugar coated sour straws bought with lunch money I absolutely wasn’t supposed to spend. From watching Top Gun way too young and deciding I’d grow up to be sexy and dangerous.
From devouring V.C. Andrews novels like incest was Dr. Seuss or scribbling outfit sketches in my notebooks.
And now, I run a whole damn media brand that runs on the gasoline of nostalgia because these stories still matter. This culture shaped us. And the Petersen gets that.
Final Thoughts from a chola who lived it
The Totally Awesome exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum isn’t just a walk down memory lane. It’s a full sprint through everything that made the ’80s and ’90s weird, wild, wonderful and worth remembering. Whether you’re here for the cars, the clothes or the arcade joystick that gave you carpal tunnel in 1992, it’s all waiting for you.
So yeah. It’s not about being a car expert. It’s about being a memory collector. This place has got all the good ones.
The Totally Awesome exhibit At the Petersen Automotive Museum is open and tickets can be purchased on their website.
Follow along on my Instagram @thevintagebonita for even more behind-the-scenes throwbacks, style inspo and full pop culture breakdowns.
And don’t forget to subscribe to Hollywoodland News for stories that blend memory, media and meaning because nostalgia isn’t going out of style anytime soon.
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