Interview: Jeff Zwart Talks New Petersen Show “Life At ZwartSpeed”ForbesMichael Teo Van Runkle, ContributorUpdatedWed, September 9, 2026 at 11:30 PM UTCAdd us on GoogleJeff Zwart's East African Safari rally Porsche built by Tuthill, on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.Petersen Automotive MuseumThe Petersen Automotive Museum's latest exhibit, Life at ZwartSpeed, brings visitors up close and personal into the life of Jeff Zwart, a photographer, video director, racing driver and event coordinator whose life and career helped to form the public perception of Porsche in the United States over the past four decades. Zwart's photography and video work spans across the automotive industry, in fact, for carmakers as diverse as Nissan, BMW, Jeep, Ford, and Audi—but the work for Porsche inevitably stands out given the rest of his story.As a teenager, Jeff Zwart learned to drive behind the wheel of his father's Porsche 356. Decades later, he would claim eight division wins at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, each time driving a Porsche. And more recently, his position as the Creative Director of the popular Porsche show series Luftgekühlt helped bring the storied German brand to the masses amid the nascent social media landscape. Before the Petersen's exhibit opened in Los Angeles, I spoke with the man himself about how one single room can possibly hope to contain everything that accurately represents such an exciting lifetime.A young Jeff Zwart captured in the mural behind his first car, a Porsche 914-6 that he later raced in the Panama-Alaska Rally.Inside a Life at ZwartSpeedThe exhibit packs a room full of cars, photos, videos, trophies, models and more. A 1953 Porsche 356 almost perfectly matches the car Zwart learned to drive in, while his first car, a 914-6, still wears the livery from his second-place finish in the Panama-Alaska Rally. There's even a tractor, I noted.AdvertisementAdvertisement"I think this museum, the Petersen, is not really used to having tractors on display," Zwart laughed, "But I maybe broke that rule a little bit here. When you see this tractor, it's a wonderful kind of art deco caricature of itself, the Porsche System tractor P 312."Throughout the rest of the space, Zwart's many racing helmets dot one wall, while stills and videos reveal a lifetime of commercial production following his education at Art Center College of Design and a stint with Road & Track magazine. A mountain bike tucked into a corner neatly matches a Porsche Arova-Porsche 212 Skibob. I asked Zwart where exactly the Petersen found such a variegated collection."I've curated the last two Porsche shows," he revealed. "We Are Porsche being the latest show that was here, I was the curator on that from Porsche Cars North America's standpoint."In ZwartSpeed, "for the most part, everything came out of my archives," he continued, "And then I borrowed some slates from different people, meaning my filming slates that I didn't have. I have about 25 of them, and I think they're all up on display."Early trophy for Zwart's class win at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.Even sorting through such treasure troves required months of planning, so much so that Zwart even rediscovered his first childhood camera.AdvertisementAdvertisement"It's also been kind of a little bit nice for me to just kind of go through memory lane," he said, "My very first camera that my parents gave me when I left were a field trip in fourth grade. There's still a little taped note on masking tape on it that says 'Jeff's first camera' that my mom wrote on it."For fans of racing, alongside the air-cooled East African Safari rally car built by Tuthill for Zwart to pilot through that grueling event, a legit Pikes Peak class winner probably stands out as the most enthralling."We have some of my initial trophies from back in the '90s… I have my Hall of Fame plaque," he recalled. "And we have the 2002 car here on display representing Pike's Peak. That car is one of everybody's favorites for the Mobil 1 graphics."I asked Zwart what exactly "ZwartSpeed" means to him, expecting to get an answer about driving full throttle up America's Mountain or across the African veldt. Not so, as it turns out.AdvertisementAdvertisement"'ZwartSpeed' was kind of a term that people on my crew gave me and my filmmaking," he admitted, "Because everybody knows that things have to be done quickly. And that was a little bit of a term that, you know, we've got to get this done at ZwartSpeed, which is maybe not humanly possible…"But surely, that frenetic pace must carry over to racing, as well."To me, rallying is kind of high-speed location scouting," Zwart confessed, "So it's very much like my filmmaking here. You know, I'm always looking for great roads to film on and everything, and rallying is just another version of that."Zwart's personal Porsche 356, which he regularly drives through Colorado in search of adventure in the high mountains.An Influencer Before InfluencersIt's also impossible to ignore Zwart's role in the rapid rise of the Porsche enthusiast community over the past decade-plus. He potentially produced the photographs for many posters that hung on bedroom walls in the 1980s and 90s, before the rise of social media brought Luftgekühlt front and center. Luft, as fans call the event, appears in main form through the wooden platforms that Zwart's Porsche 906 (also known as a Carrera 6) sits on at the Petersen. But that car, as well as another 356 with a canoe on the roof, don't just sit around the rest of the year—Zwart is well-known for driving his incredible collection of Porsches through Colorado no matter the season or weather.AdvertisementAdvertisementThat passion shows up in the still photography, the videos, the racing successes and every bit of ephemera collected over the decades. ZwartSpeed stands as a retrospective of sorts, but for a living legend rather than posthumously: a Porsche influencer in the original sense of the word.A rare Porsche 906, not a race car but road-legal and regularly exercised by Zwart."I've kind of lived three parallel lives, and they've all kind of fed nicely into each other," Zwart nodded."There's an approachability to Porsche, even to this day," he went on. "The concepts and the basis of it are rooted in things that are enthusiast-based. The design, the lightweight materials, the powering against the wind and all those elements of the first cars, aluminum and aerodynamics and engineering, that made a rear-engine car work are still present today. And I love the fact that the brand always has a story to tell."The Petersen will show Life at ZwartSpeed through June 13 of 2027, but Luft 12 is set for outside Atlanta the second weekend of October 2026—in direct conflict with the final Colorado Hill Climb Association race of the year. Clearly, Zwart himself faces a choice, one that he's no doubt accustomed to making while living at ZwartSpeed. But even if curating a Porsche show can take priority over racing Porsches these days, Jeff Zwart is still showing no signs of slowing down.This article was originally published on Forbes.com
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