As any car enthusiast can attest, winters are always the worst time of year in New England. Many of us put away our favorite cars for the season to avoid the buildup of rust and the mountains of salt and sand deposited on the road that tear away at the undercarriage. Being unable to drive in a sporting manner (at the speed limit of course) for months weighs on you if you truly enjoy driving. It’s an itch that can’t be scratched. So, to avoid multiple speeding tickets once the weather begins to break, my gearhead friends and I went down to see the Newport Car Museum to get our fix in.
Of course, the Newport Car Museum is in, you guessed it, Portsmouth RI! Luckily my friends and I got one of the few days in the past couple weeks where it was sunny and 50+ all day. The drive down was great, we all took our own cars with some walkie talkies to converse during the hour-long drive. It’s amazing how much fun it is to squad up with the boys and go the speed limit the whole way on a road trip.
The museum itself is actually a privately owned collection of over 100 cars. It showcases all eras of cars – as well as all categories – from the 1950’s to today’s current models. There were sections for supercars like the McLaren P1, Bugatti Veyron, and the classic Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. They had a whole section just for Porsche with 911s from different decades. A section for Classic American Muscle with Camaros, Mopars, Corvettes and the old fin Cadillacs the size of modern-day boats. Unbelievably, the museum owns what most would argue is the most expensive car in the world: the 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO. We didn’t get to see the original, but they do have a replica on display. I understand the owner not wanting to have the actual car out for people to touch as its worth north of $50 million, and supposedly has traded hands privately for $80million, making it possibly the most expensive car in the world.
My personal favorite section was for Mustangs and Shelbys. I’ve loved Mustangs/Shelbys for as long as I can remember. For viewing, they had all the most iconic Mustangs from the original 1964.5 to the newest GT500. They even had my dream car, a 1969 Mustang Boss 429. They also had some original Shelby American cars including the racing Cobra and the Daytona which are extremely rare and valuable. Pictures below.
All-in-all it was an amazing time with the boys and scratched my enthusiast’s itch……for now.
