Chapter 106

2/12/2006 

Ch 106 Gross Out                                                  Automotive Magazines                                 

Playboy Magazine sent their automotive editor of 20 years down to meet with a dozen of us Museum volunteers last week. Ken Gross is no ordinary dude. You know you are in the presence of greatness when you are in his audience. His son Chris Barron is lead singer for the Spin Doctors (Pocket full of Kryptonite) and his wife is a Vice President at the certification organization for the mechanics at your car dealership, the Automotive Service Excellence. His resume goes on and on, but he frequently appears at our museum as a primary consultant, flying in from his Virginia home.

Ken recounted some aspects of volunteerism relative to his decade as director of one of the premier automobile museums, the Peterson Museum in LA. One music appreciation night turned into a rap-fest. When they ejected Biggie Smalls (Notorious BIG), he was murdered outside the building by a rival gang. Conspiracy theorists see wikipedia.org for the P. Diddy-Tupac- Suge Knight- Death Row Records connections. Ken’s encyclopedic knowledge base on all things automotive was astounding. Some people think I’m obsessive with automotive stuff. I was like a drop of engine oil under the engine a Mack Truck that is Ken Gross. He apparently grew up in little Swampscott MA (near Neph Scott’s wife’s home)

He’s been all over the world, driven all sorts of cars, knows all sorts of famous people.

For example, his uncle gave Jay Leno his the first comic job on the west coast. Once at Talladega Racetrack in Alabama when Jay and racer David Donahue were setting an endurance speed record in a Porsche Carerra GT (like sits in our museum now), Jay erroneously lifted throttle coming off one the turns and consequently went into a spinout for 5 revolutions. As Jay came into the pits he says “Hey, did any of you guys see that deer crossing the track?”

I had to ask him for a Playboy story “that he could tell”. He said that at Paul Simon dinner at the Playboy Mansion west Hef introduced him to his gaggle of 4 beautiful scantily clad young girls. Later he found out there should have 5, but one of them had made the mistake of saying to a reporter, “The parties here are fun, but most of the time it’s like living with your grandpa! “

Having previously taken a few job meetings with some EPA engineers, I’d have to say they were never this enGrossing.

Later helped deliver Steve Saleen’s  half million dollar S7 supercar then started a new involvement with Corporation Services Company [ Next chapter.]