Street to the Strip is the current exhibit at the Audrain Automobile Museum featuring New England Hot Rods. Experience the imagination, enthusiasm and talent that went into building and restoring these cars.
Audrain Newport Concord Motor Week
Donald Osborne – Audrain Auto Museum (00:03) Well, welcome to the Audrain Automobile Museum here in Newport, Rhode Island on Bellevue Avenue. Current exhibition is one that which is really exciting. This is street to the strip, New England hot rods 1945, to 1965. Of the 18 cars in this exhibition, 16 of them were built within 100 miles of the museum where we stand right now, there was great hot rod work done here in the northeast, and specifically in New England, that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. And this exhibition is an extraordinary demonstration of that, and there are tributes to the people that built the imagination, the talent, the enthusiasm of the people, and the fact that a number of the cars in this show are owned by people in their 30s. It proves both that there’s continuing enthusiasm and the fact that these are people that care about people who built these cars.
DO – (00:53) All the cars in this exhibition are not as they appeared when they were first built, all of their owners modify them slightly during their lifetimes to either make them go faster, and make them look a little better. And they all have incredible stories to tell. And they’re all cars were used and are used. I think that’s something is also very special. Every one of these cars is a running car, all the cars and motorcycles in the Audrain collections are run regularly and driven on the streets, and it’s thrilling to see these cars here in the exhibition, to read their stories to get to know what the owners were thinking when they built them. People of all ages can really get themselves involved in cars, and that’s what we’re doing here at the Audrain is to foster that involvement and enthusiasm to bring people together.
DO – (1:36) It’s such a thrill to anticipate and experience the 2021 Audrain Newport Concord Motor Week because we had such tremendous success with the event in 2019. It was absolutely extraordinary, and one of the things that really set it apart, and is really great to experience right now is the fact that the community is so eager to see this happen. The city is welcoming us the state is welcoming us, people from all around the region just can’t wait for this to happen, and everyone’s so excited about coming back to this Concord Motor Week that really integrates what the city is, with what it is that we have to offer. That’s what makes this event really special is the fact that it’s not an event that’s held at Newport, it’s of Newport. You know, we say that the overarching theme of the event is history, luxury and sport, which are the things that Newport stands for as a city. And we’re able to deliver that through cars through the people that own these cars and want to share these cars and talk about these guys. It’s a very, very experiential thing, and this year feels more exciting than ever. As for this event itself, the Concord Motor Week is just the start of what I think can really make Newport become a real car mecca.
Automotive History
DO – (2:45) There’s so much automotive history in Newport going back to the turn of the 20th century, one of the first circuit races was held in Cranston, Rhode Island in 1896, the first Vanderbilt cup race here in Newport in 1900, and with apologies to the great Monterey car week, I think it’s not unreasonable to think that in five or six years, we’ll have the Newport car week, and the heart of that will be our events here at the Audrain, the Newport Concord and Motor Week, our seminars, the exhibitions here at the museum, our tours, everything that we do to bring cars to people to celebrate, share, and preserve automotive history.
