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Petersen museum executive director to retire

The executive director of the Petersen Automotive Museum is retiring after a 12-year-run at the helm of one of the nation's preeminent car collections. Richard Messer is stepping down to concentrate on other business interests. He will be replaced by Buddy Pepp on June 15.

'Where They Raced' is SoCal racing history on DVD

Harold Osmer was looking for a master's thesis. This was about 15 years ago, and the car and racing enthusiast was working on his MS in geography from Cal State Northridge when he started to find old race tracks -- hundreds of them -- all over Southern California. Most had long since been plowed under and replaced by tract homes and strip malls.

CES: Cranking up Harman's QuantumLogic 3D surround-sound system

Yesterday we reported how Audi was readying a lavish 3D sound experience with 23 speakers and 1,400 watts of goosebump-inducing audio power. Not to be outdone, Harman had been quietly developing a system of its own: Quantum Logic 3D brings together 25 speakers and more than 2,000 watts of Tubthumping power to a new car near you, like driving inside Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Sitting inside the demonstration BMW 7-Series that Harman painstakingly lifted into the Studio at the Palms, Global Audio Engineering vice president Phil Muzio explained, "great music is delivered in stereo, yet our consumer research indicates that people enjoy surround sound." QuantumLogic 3D's surround sound expands beyond the boundaries of the vehicle's cabin, providing "a sense of detail and spatial placement that you don't get in stereo." Five height component speakers mounted in the corners of the headliner, and above the rearview mirror, elevates audio beyond the confines of the roof, "almost like you're in a convertible," said Muzio.