Foreward in 2021
These photos in this post are from 2018; long before SARS-CoV-2 was a concern or worldwide problem.
As with the photos I recently posted from my 2017 trip to Rhode Island, the following is a collection of photos shot in 2018 which I’ve had in my personal backlog to edit and write about for several years. I only recently finished editing and composing this post alongside others from the same trip due to the sheer volume of images.
Newport Car Museum
In 2018, I went on a roadtrip to visit with my friend Alyssa and explore more of her home state of Rhode Island. I’ve been several times before, but as with any trip to a place you’ve been before, you discover something new every time. This time, one of those discoveries was the Newport Car Museum, which was highly recommended to me by numerous gearhead friends and car groups I’m in.
On a day to myself that I’d devoted entirely to exploring Newport, starting the the car museum, I was a little confused upon arrival, because the museum shares an entrance with a Raytheon office complex, but I’d heard that the owner, Gunther Buerman, formerly worked for Raytheon, so this wasn’t entirely surprising to me; from what I’ve read there’s no indication whether this is actually true, but the building that houses the Newport Car Museum was formerly a missile manufacturing facility on the Raytheon campus. When I saw the cars parked out front I knew I was in the right place - there wasn’t anything super rare, but the SL550, Fiata, and modded A4 grouped together aren’t your super common econobox traffic. I parked in their cluster of more interesting cars by the NPT CAR MUS flag.
The most stunning thing about the museum besides the collection it contains is the architecture and interior design. Opened in 2017, the museum was less than a year old when I was visiting, but it felt so well-established already with complete and modern designed exhibits and offerings from every era and genre of classic, exotic, and notable automotives available in the United States. It’s a large museum filled with almost 100 cars and numerous pieces of art and furniture from names including Salvador Dali and Charles and Ray Eames, and it still has room for further buildout as the collection expands.
Upon walking in with my camera wearing a Porsche polo, the staff thought I was an automotive journalist on assignment and offered me a private tour; if I had played my hand differently I could have taken them up on it, but I was honest and said I was just vacationing, not wanting to waste anyone’s time.
The first stop when arriving is a room with Forza 6 driving simulators you can try once included with admissions if you’d like. I was the only person there, and gave it a whirl, but the game crashed / froze less than a minute from it starting, and the attendant instead of resetting it said “you’re done” and wanted me to pay ~$25 to “go again.” This was my first impression upon entering the museum mind you, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I politely told him that it’s a racket to expect me to pay for something of theirs that’s broken, and moved on. Luckily being able to enjoy the rest of the museum uninterrupted helped me forget the bad first impression.
The Newport Car Museum has some of my all-time favorites, such as a Diablo VT Roadster, only the second Countach I’ve ever seen, each major iteration of the Viper, the only XJ220 I’ve ever seen, the first second-generation Ford GT I’ve seen, and my dream car, the Porsche 4S Targa, though I’d prefer Forest Green Metallic, Mamba Green Metallic, or Anthracite Brown Metallic over Viper Green as displayed, despite my shirt matching in color.
The museum is also home to cars with race and movie heritage in addition to the rare and limited models on display. Needless to say, the Newport Car Museum has something for everyone from every vintage from the 40s forward. The staff was extremely friendly, and helpful in even pointing me towards other Rhode Island car collections and invited me to a nearby cars and coffee that I was unfortunately unable to attend seeing as it was after I’d headed home to DC. I’m very curious to visit again the next time I’m in Rhode Island to see what additions have been made since my first visit.
After visiting the Newport Car Museum it was time for lunch, and I head to nearby Easton Beach to grab a lobstah roll on the beach. After inhaling some chowda with my roll, I walked on the beach and explored downtown Newport before heading to the highly recommended Newport Cliff Walk. On the way to the Cliff Walk I spotted another car museum I’d heard of, however this one wasn’t open the day I was there. There was also some interesting beach traffic I spotted.
