Audrain Auto Museum SUPER Car Exhibit

Audrain Auto Museum, Newport, Rhode Island

Since I'm lucky enough to live in New York and see some fancy cars, I'm also lucky enough to be close to New England and visit some fancy car museums too. Heck, there's car museums all over the place in the USA and around the world! Over the President's Day weekend my wife was nice enough to say we could visit two museums in Newport Rhode Island, so that's exactly what we did. We did some other fun things and visited historic Plymouth Massachusetts, so while it wasn't totally all about cars, there were a LOT of awesome cars. Oh, and now that I think of it, I did NOT until just now think about Plymouth MA and the Pilgrims being in any way related to the old Plymouth brand of automobiles. Honest! I won't even mention it!

Our first stop was at the Audrain Auto Museum. On the day we visited they had just opened a new exhibit about Super Cars. Several of the descriptions of the cars on display got into the topic of what makes a car a "Super" car, so I'll just say that I think it's up to the observer. One person's Super car is another person's NOT super car! This exhibit was not gigantic, but every vehicle on display was the kind of unique ride that you'd go out of your way to see. As I like to say, here's something you don't see every day! All these cars were in one room, and they pretty much hit all the brands you'd expect from Super cars, and one that I wasn't familiar with before seeing this display. If you like Bugatti, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Tesla, then there's something here for you. There was also one motorcycle from Ducati!

1967 Lamborghini Miura. Mr. Lamborghini was born under the sign of the Bull, so that
explains their cool logo. The Miura is named for the Miura Cattle Ranch in Spain, and their history of bull fighting animals. 

The Miura is sometimes considered as the car that started the Super
Car craze. V12 power, plenty of aluminum in the body, and magnesium wheels
all keep the weight down and performance UP!

2020 McLaren 620R, and of course "R" stands for "RACING." This is one of only 225 produced.  

With a 3.8 liter twin-turbo engine, this car offers more than 600HP and weighs just over 3,000 pounds. 

1994 McLaren F1. This is only the 2nd one I've ever seen, and besides 
performance, it's known for having three seats, with the driver in the 
middle just ahead of the two passengers on either side! The body is carbon fiber, and this is one of 68 that were built, not counting a prototype. OH, and one other thing, one of these sold at auction a few months ago for (take a deep breath) $20,000,000!

 

McLaren F1
The other F1 I've seen was in a museum also. Go figure!
Top speed of over 240MPH. If you like this car, then you should know that the designer Gordon Murray is now building his own cars too!

Released in 1987 to celebrate 40 years of Ferrari, the Ferrari F40 was probably the first car to hit 200MPH. This one is from 1991.  

F40, it's hard to miss that wing! The engine features twin turbo-chargers added to the V8 power. 

This is a 2020 Ford GT "69 Heritage Edition', the modern take on the original Ford GT40s that eventually won at LeMans as seen in the Ford Vs. Ferrari movie. This new version
has also won it's class at the 24 Hours of LeMans. 

Besides the battery tender plugged in, you can tell that this thing
is built for aerodynamics at high speed. The seats are fixed, so the steering wheel and pedals all move to adjust to the driver!

Here's the car I'd never seen or heard of before, the 1992 Vector W8. The dream of Jerry Wiegert to build a US super car came true, although the company didn't last long. 

They only built 17 of these, and it went 242mph. Super Car

This is a 2003 Ferrari Enzo. After the F40 they had built the F50, and then 
came this little number named for the founder, Enzo Ferrari. I think this shows that not all Ferraris are red too! 

Naturally aspirated (no turbo, no supercharger) 6 liter V12 engine