USA TODAY Nominates Newport Car Museum for Best New Attraction

PORTSMOUTH, R.I.; USA Today has nominated the Newport Car Museum for "Best New Attraction" in the entire USA. The nomination is part of its "10 Best Readers Choice Award"s contest and was decided with the help of a panel of travel experts who combed the country for the best new attractions of the year. Fans can go to http://bit.ly/2zMLp1E to vote for the Newport Car Museum once per day until voting ends on Monday, January 1 at noon ET. (Winners will be announced January 5.)

The Newport Car Museum, which opened June 1 and has hosted over 14,000 visitors, is the only New England institution on the leaderboard for its category. It also is the only automobile museum.

"It is an honor to be nominated,�?? said Newport Car Museum Founder Gunther Buerman, “but now we need our fans and all those who benefit from cool attractions like ours in this State to help us become Number One!�??

More About Newport Car Museum

The museum's location in nearby Portsmouth, R.I., in a 114,000-square-foot building once devoted to missile manufacturing, seems an unlikely place for a car museum; however, with 50,000 square feet of exhibit space, another 5000 for special events, and a free parking area for 300+ cars, it offers what most car museums across America can only dream of offering.

The museum's artistic presentation of 60+ cars represents seven decades of automotive design; from the fabulous 50s to today's hottest designs" and appeals to men as well as women and to all generations, from grandparents to parents to children. Five separate galleries showcase Ford/Shelbys, Corvettes, World Cars, Fin Cars and Mopars. Special wall art (much of it consigned); theatrical lighting; turntables; and videos with directional sound celebrate the cars as works of art. There are no barrier ropes around the cars, and pieces from an eclectic collection of Mid-Century modern furniture (representing iconic designers such as Eames, Knoll Bassett, Jacobsen and Wegner) are dispersed throughout the museum, giving visitors a comfortable place for rest and reflection. The one to two hours it typically takes to tour the museum includes time for testing driving skills on one of the museum’s six driving simulators, just like those used by Red Bull Racing’s Formula 1 Racing Team.

Newport Car Museum has five-star ratings on Facebook, Google, Trip Advisor and Yelp.

Newport Car Museum is handicap accessible and hours are currently 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Tickets can be bought at the door or online at www.newportcarmuseum.org where more information and directions are available.

Enter at Light, 1847 West Main Rd., Portsmouth, R.I. 02871, 401-848-2277, www.newportcarmuseum.org; info@newportcarmuseum.org

Plenty to see and do at the Newport Car Museum. In the short six months since it has opened, it has hosted over 14,000 visitors. These and more photos available in high resolution by clicking the image above