Newport Car Museum Revs Up for Fall
New England’s Largest Car Museum Offers Plenty of Reasons to Visit, Including Expanded Hours During Motor Week
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. – Fall is one of the busiest travel seasons in the Northeast, and New England’s largest car museum is making sure it has plenty of reasons for people to Google it and find their way to a private collection of over 75 unique and valuable cars dating from the 1950s through to current models. The Newport Car Museum, located in Portsmouth, R.I., is just six miles north of its more famous cousin Newport.
Extended Hours During Motor Week
From Wednesday, October 2 through Sunday, October 6 the Museum will extend its hours from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. so that those attending Newport’s first-ever Motor Week will have extra time in their day to schedule a visit. (The Museum is otherwise open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
“There will be non-stop car things to do in Newport during that time, but a visit to the Newport Car Museum can’t be missed, whether you’re a car enthusiast or not,” said Newport Car Museum member John Jackson, a Corvette owner and the Museum’s first visitor when it opened in June of 2017. (The Museum has greeted 80,000 visitors since.) “It’s one of those hidden jewels that more and more people are discovering, and it keeps getting better and better.”
The Newport Car Museum first launched with 50 cars and by its one-year anniversary had added another 20 cars before introducing eight more on its second anniversary this June.
Presented as proudly as if they were in the MOMA, the immaculately kept cars are displayed in six galleries, using low-rise platforms and turntables, theatrical lighting, specially commissioned large-format artwork and award-winning videos to tell the story of Ford/Shelby, Corvettes, World Cars, Fin Cars, Mopars and American Muscle Cars.
Walking through the museum’s 70,000 square feet of exhibit space is both like walking down memory lane and taking a crash course on post-World War II automotive history, starting with the oldest cars from 1954, including a bright yellow Buick Skylark Convertible and jet black Kaiser Darrin 162, and finishing with the newest models from 2019, including a sleek Corvette ZR-1 convertible and power-hungry Dodge Demon.
There are no ropes around the cars, and an impressive collection of Mid-Century modern furniture provides comfortable, fun places to sit and contemplate the cars as works of art. Instead of audio tours, docents – and many times the founders themselves – ignite lively exchanges of information and recollections, while eight driving simulators and a fascinating gift shop round out the Newport Car Museum experience, which can take anywhere from 90 minutes to several hours, depending on how long one decides to spend admiring any given car.
More Fall Activities
- The Museum’s popular “Hoods Up” Weekends, which give visitors a chance to check out the engines of every car, are typically held the second weekend of every month, but in October the event will take place over the first weekend (October 5-6) to coordinate with Motor Week.
- Wednesday Movie Nights return, with theater seating, popcorn and refreshments offered in the Thunderbird Ballroom while classic auto-related cinema favorites play. In anticipation of Disney’s release in November of Ford vs. Ferrari, the Museum will host a special showing of the documentary The 24 Hour War, recounting the Ford vs. Ferrari rivalry at Le Mans, during October’s Motor Week (on Wednesday, October 2 and again on Friday through Sunday, October 4-6).
- The exact dates have not yet been set, but the Newport Car Museum has acquired a 2014 McLaren P1 and will unveil it in the World Car Gallery in November.
- Car club visits, which account for additional interesting cars to see in the parking lot “corrals” provided by the Museum, continue with the Friday, Oct. 11 arrival of the Porsche Type 356 Club at noon and the Sunday, Oct. 13 arrival of the Corvette Club of Western Massachusetts at 10 a.m
The Newport Car Museum is housed in a converted three-acre building that was once used as a missile design and manufacturing facility for The Raytheon Company (a U.S. defense contractor, which today shares a street entrance to its campus with the Museum). Parking, ample for 350 cars, is free, and tickets can be bought at the door or online at
where more information and directions are available.
Admission is $18 for adults; $15 for seniors, military and students; and $8 for children 5 to 15 (with an adult).