Audrain Automobile Museum

What a colossal waste of money. I spent $ 58 for my family to look at 15 or so cars for 20 minutes. Nice cars but highly disappointing.

Exceptional vehicles
Efficient presentation
Highly worthwhile
Audrain Automobile Museum, so named for the real estate developer of the building it’s housed in, is a compact but highly enjoyable museum for even the most casual car fan. You probably came to Newport to ogle the opulent homes, so why not drop by here and see what ostensibly occupied (or occupies) the garages, too?
My 9-​year-​old son and I (we do both happen to be car enthusiasts) were greeted by Dave, who gave us a great background of the building, a brief overview of the museum’s seasonal rotation (muscle cars, supercars/​superbikes, and pre-​war among them), the ownership of the vehicles (three separate, allied owners), and a few ground rules (like, check the iPads for info, ask the docent Joe any questions you might have, and very importantly, don’t touch these beauties). I paid ($ 12 for me, $ 8 for a student), signed up for the email list, and we got underway.
The space is meant to replicate a vintage dealership, with parquet floors below and steel beams above. Each car gets showcase billing, finely roped off for its own protection, but highly visible and (within reason) approachable. Televisions loop vintage footage, the walls are adorned with high quality photos, prints, and ads, and the iPad Prezis walk the visitor through each car’s provenance and intriguing notes from that model year and other context.
There’s something to be said for small museums that can wholesale switch their entire collections out en masse, but it’s even more impressive when the place feels like it’s purpose built for whatever’s there at the time. So, with all the dedicated mixed media around the cars, it felt as if this had been and would remain a muscle car museum. And these cars would be worth every penny if they were the entirety of the permanent collection.
Happily, this spot will bear revisiting because of the highly desirable collections that will switch in soon, and again a few months after that. I’d wholeheartedly recommend stopping by if you’re in town, and if you’re able to make repeat visits, sign up for the email list to stay up to date on news and notes.
This is a highly-​concentrated shot of automotive cool.

This is a newer museum in Newport. My husband being a huge muscle car fan we went to check out the current exhibit «American Muscle» and really enjoyed it. The cars are beautiful, the staff was really nice and answered any questions. They had an iPad at each station that told you a bit about each model and was sort of interactive (you could slide back to a different spot in the presentation, but then it would jump around a little oddly).
Looking at their web site they’ve had a pre-​war exhibit, and a super car exhibit, both of which would have been cool. I’ll be keeping an eye on their site to see what’s coming next.

beautifully refurbished building, if you cannot afford the $ 10 to get in the windows are large and you can see almost all the cars from the sidewalk! Their display changes so check there website.
Disappointed that the BUgatti was not there, even though it was supposed to be, but it was at a bugatti convention!

A neat addition to the Newport museum scene. The staff was all very friendly and welcoming. The cars were beautiful and I like that the collection will change a few times a year. We’ll be back.

Visited the Museum today with taking some photos in mind. Upon arrival the staff was extremely helpful and explained the current exhibit and the rules for the museum. There is a staff member that is on the floor the entire time in case you have any questions about the cars.
The exhibit is set up all on one floor. Each car had it’s own iPad on a stand with a slideshow of information about the car.
The Adult admission price was $ 12 which I though was reasonable for the exhibit.
This is just a small part of a large collection which they change out several times a year with different themes.
Photography was welcome as long as you don’t lean over any of the vehicles.