The Petersen Museum presents “The World’s Greatest Sport Coupes”

Images courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum.

What is the greatest sports coupe of all time? Ask a range of enthusiasts that question, and you’re quite likely to get a myriad of different answers. Los Angeles, California’s, Petersen Automotive Museum did just that, asking celebrities with a passion for automobiles to name the sport coupe they’d most like to own, and the results will form a new exhibit, The World’s Greatest Sports Coupes, opening next week.

To give the museum credit, it certainly chose a diverse mix of guest curators. Representing the world of rock-and-roll are Nick Mason, the drummer for Pink Floyd and an avid car collector and vintage racer; James Hetfield, Metallica’s lead singer and owner of the Custom of the Year award-winning Black Pearl; and Brian Johnson, AC/DC’s front man and an avid racer who’s been known to use Thunder Guts, his 1928 Bentley 4-1/2-liter Le Mans Tourer, as a daily driver.

Actors and comedians participating include Adam Carolla, former host of The Car Show; Patrick Dempsey, the actor turned race car driver and team owner; and Tanner Foust, Adam Ferrara and Rutledge Wood, hosts of Top Gear USA. Others acting as guest curators include Ian Callum, Jaguar’s design director; Francis Ford Coppola, director, producer, Tucker owner, and screen writer; Bobby Rahal, former IndyCar star and team owner; John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios; and Bruce Meyer, founding chairman of the Petersen Museum and car collector extraordinaire.

While the Petersen has yet to announce the actual vehicles going on display – so far only hinting that designs from the United States, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and Germany will be included in the final lineup – it teased the selections in the above video, and the list of celebrity car enthusiasts involved should make for some decent guesses. (Oh, and Jaguar is sponsoring the exhibit, so it stands to reason that at least one Jaguar made the cut.) Making sure that those omitted from the list are not left out entirely, the exhibit will also include photography by Scott Williamson, highlighting other historically significant sport coupes.

The World’s Greatest Sport Coupes will run at the Petersen Automotive Museum from April 10 through September 30, 2014. For additional information, visit Petersen.org.