California Dreaming: Lions Automobile Museum

Stone-Woods-Cook gasser at the starting gate in the Lions Automobilia Museum. Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

Gearheads love So-Cal car culture. With Southern California’s year-round sunny landscape, wide urban streets and freeway infrastructure, the area is ideal for car lovers.

So-Cal car culture really ramped up when veterans began returning from World War II. Using their experience repairing and maintaining jeeps, tanks and aircraft during the war, they continued tinkering on vehicles once home, making cars faster and slicker-looking and eventually birthing the hot rod and custom movement. It continued with ’60s pony and muscle cars, then ’70s lowriders and mini trucks and, most recently 1990s-and-later tuner imports.

Get-togethers at drive-ins plus cruises and competitions at dry lake beds and drag strips became part of the So-Cal culture. One of the area’s more memorable raceways was Lions Drag Strip, located in Wilmington, Calif., from 1955 to 1972 and sponsored by the Lions Club International. In addition to hosting famous drivers and their cars and offering a variety of racing classes, it introduced lights for night racing. Nicknamed “The Beach,” Lions Drag Strip’s permit was revoked in 1972 by the Harbor Commission for industrial redevelopment, thus ending the storied drag strip.

Lions Automobilia Museum founder RIck Lorenzen with a 1940 Willys gasser. Lorenzen had a fondness for Willys cars in stock and race form, and the museum continues to reflect his enthusiasm for the diminutive cars Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

The Lions Automobilia Museum was started by the late Rick Lorenzen in 2019 to recreate the great times around So-Cal during the 1950s and ’60s. For those who lived through this golden age, and for those who never had the chance, the Lions Automobilia Museum is an experience to enjoy.

The museum is in a 100,000-sq.-ft.facility that houses more than 150 vehicles. The collection includes cars from the ’30 through ’70s, including stockers, hot rods, gassers, super-stock cars, front-engine dragsters, funny cars, customs, lowriders and top-fuelers.

Realistic murals painted by artist Kenny Youngblood show off all the good times by depicting So-Cal culture and motorsports. On “Main Street,” there is a Forster Freeze, Jim Dungan’s Speed Shop, a ’50s diner, a movie theater façade and a reenactment of Lions Drag Strips starting line complete with a “Christmas tree” timing light. There’s also an actual Texaco station that Rick’s father ran. When the landlord sold the Texaco station property, Rick and his father started Price Transfer in 1961, a freight-moving and warehouse operation serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The success of the firm allowed Rick to pursue his dream of forming the Lions Automobilia Museum, so the Texaco station has a special spot in the collection.

An area of Lions Automobile Museum made to look like the staging area of the original Lions Drag Strip. Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

Rick bought his first hot rod, a 1941 Willys coupe, in 1960 for $65. This car is in the Willys Gallery, which is a sort of “museum in a museum.” Rick’s Willys collection is extensive and encompasses several examples, from wild gassers to mild stockers, including the incredible unrestored 1941 Willys coupe survivor featured in Old Cars back in 2007. There are several Willys 77 examples, which were small cars built from 1933 to 1936. With its forward-pitched grille, the Willys 77 was derisively called a “potato digger.” The Willys was completely restyled and slightly enlarged in 1937 with a round body, pontoon fenders and a shark nose frontal design by Amos Northup that lasted until 1939. A more conventional front end that looked more like a Ford or Chrysler product was ordained for 1940 through 1942. This Willys front end had a more vertical pointed hood and fared-in headlamps. Unlike the forward-raked-nose 1937-’39 Willys models, many 1940-’42 Willyses became gassers (although some 1937-’39 Willyses had 1940-’42 front clips bolted in place). There’s also a one-of-a-kind postwar 1955 Aero Willys convertible in the Willys Gallery.

The museum has a full restoration shop and also works with the Society of Automotive Engineers to help young students learn automotive technology.

Lana Chrisman, whose father raced at Lions Drag Strip and has firsthand experience of So-Cal motorsports, is the museum’s executive director. Chrisman and her volunteers can provide much information about So-Cal car culture to visitors.

General admission tickets are $20, but seniors 62 and older pay $15, as do children 4-17. Call 310-223-3473 for days and hours opened.

Lions Automobilia Museum
2790 East Del Amo Boulevard
Ranch Dominguez, CA 90221
PH: 310-223-3473

Another Steve-Woods-Cook Willys coupe made to look as though it’s on the starting line in front of artwork by Kenny Youngblood at the Lions Automobilia Museum. Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

Honda racer is one of many vehicles at the Lions museum. Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

Most Willys coupes have been turned into gassers or tubbed pro-street cars, and very few remain stock. It seems even fewer have been turned into resto-mods, but this 1941 coupe is one such example. Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

A 1966 Chevy II driver floors the gas pedal against a 1963 Chevy II at a race during Lions Drag Strip’s heyday. Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

There are front-engine dragsters at the Lions Automobilia Museum, as these top drag strip warriors could be seen at Lions Drag Strip. Courtesy of Lions Automobilia Museum

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.

We know you love old cars, but do you collect anything else? Ever wonder about the baseball cards in a box in the basement or Grandma’s old coins in a jar? Do you love history or spin vinyl? Head on over to Collect.com and see what you are missing. Collect.com is the who, what, when and where of the collecting world! https://www.collect.com/

automobilia Lions Automobilia Museum

Michael PettiAuthor