Jack Nicholson’s Mercedes 600 Haunts Petersen Museum Vault
Petersen temporarily cracks open its vault, where you’ll find the iconic W100 Mercedes 600 from the film Witches of Eastwick.
Even in a venue as massive as the Petersen Automotive Museum, there’s only so much space. So the museum’s curators must carefully choose their exhibits from an incredibly expansive inventory. The rest? Well, they live in Petersen’s Vault, a magical, mysterious, 60,000 square-foot space loaded with 250 amazing cars. Rarely open to the public, the Vault is now accessible to the average Joe for a limited time. And it’s there that you can lay eyes on iconic rides like Jack Nicholson’s 1972 Mercedes 600 from the film adaptation of author John Updike’s famous 1984 novel.
Back in the day, every monarch and celebrity worth their salt owned a Mercedes 600. The massive luxury sedan was capable of transporting all manner of world leaders, drug kingpins, and actors across the globe in pure comfort. So it’s no surprise that Nicholson, once considered one of the bad boy actors of Hollywood, found himself smitten by this very Mercedes 600. Well, at least after his character crashed through the back window during the 1987 film’s climactic chase scene.
After spending some time in one during his time filming Witches of Eastwick, the actor took such a liking to the Mercedes 600 that he bought the car straight from Warner Bros. Nicholson had it restored/repainted/refurbished, and kept it for a bit before donating it to the Petersen Museum. Today, it rests with hundreds of other notable cars in the Vault, just waiting for its turn in the proverbial (and literal) spotlight.
Even if he may not own it anymore, it’s nice to know that the man with the most Academy Award nominations in Hollywood history has such impeccable taste. And it somewhat makes up for the 600’s long list of dictator/drug lord owners, too, doesn’t it?
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