点评:The Newport Car Museum displays 100 cars - mostly sports cars, muscle cars and super cars - from the 1950s through present. It’s the nicest museum I have ever visited. Every car is in perfect condition. Every surface is fresh, new and immaculate. The lighting is wonderful, the placards on the cars are pleasant and easily readable. There’s appealing car-related art and videos on the walls. Designer seating for visitors. It looks and even smells like a dealership showroom. And the collection is what the Vanderbilts who built the nearby ostentatious Breakers and Marble House mansions would own if they were alive today: Lamborghinis, Corvettes, Porsches, a Bugatti, etc.
As cool and pleasant as it is, it’s more of a collection of expensive showcase cars than a museum. It’s not about automotive history or design or engineering. It’s a dozen barely-distinguishable Porsches and another dozen Mustangs and another dozen similar Corvettes in a row listing their specs and sky-high prices. Many of the cars aren’t even rare or noteworthy; just expensive. There are also a bunch of “recreated” cars, which is odd when there are so many authentic super cars on display. The recreations seem to reflect a desire to create and display beauty rather than to educate and inform as a museum would. And it is beautiful. But you’re not going to leave this museum with much more information than how much it is possible to spend on a car that you don’t ever drive.
翻译:新港汽车博物馆陈列着100辆汽车——大多为跑车、肌肉车和超级跑车——年代跨度从20世纪50年代至今。这是我参观过的最棒的博物馆。每一辆车都保存得近乎完美,车身表面崭新如初、一尘不染。馆内灯光效果极佳,每辆车的说明牌也制作精良且易于阅读。墙面上还挂着富有趣味的汽车主题艺术品与视频。为参观者准备的座椅也极具设计感。整个展馆的外观与氛围甚至气味都宛如一家汽车经销商的展示厅。这个收藏品集合,就如同如今还活着的范德比尔特家族成员会拥有的那样——他们曾在附近修建了奢华无比的“Breakers”庄园和“Marble House”豪宅。藏品包括兰博基尼、科尔维特、保时捷以及布加迪等豪车。
虽然这里很有趣且令人愉悦,但它更像是一个收藏昂贵展示用汽车的场所,而非博物馆。这里并不着重展示汽车的历史、设计或工程技术。一排排的保时捷、野马以及科迈罗车型,彼此之间几乎难以区分,它们都标明了各自的规格参数和高得离谱的售价。其中很多车甚至连稀有性或独特之处都算不上,只是价格昂贵罢了。这里还有一大批“仿制版”汽车,在如此多真正的超级跑车陈列于此的情况下,这一点就显得有些奇怪了。这些仿制品似乎体现出了人们创造并展示美感的愿望,而非像博物馆那样旨在教育或传递信息。不过,它们确实很美。不过,离开这座博物馆时,你并不会获得多少新信息,顶多也就是知道自己能为一辆根本不会开的汽车花多少钱罢了。