Los Angeles Was a Car Collector’s Paradise. Now 6,000 Are Gone

The images are scenes from a car enthusiast’s worst nightmare. Bulldozers plowing SUVs out of the road so emergency vehicles can move through. A well-worn family wagon that survived hundreds of thousands of miles, now burnt through. Porsche 911s in a private driveway identifiable only by their signature roofline and a singed Fuchs wheel.

One image shows several collectible cars in a garage caked in ash and rubble. “They didn’t make it,” their owner, Pete Vlastelica, wrote in his Instagram story (@InCanyons). “They’re just cars. Special ones, but just cars.”

For as long as Hollywood has been producing movies, Angelenos have loved their ...