Below the tip of the Audrain iceberg

As the Audrain organisation grows, we take a look behind the scenes at the huge car collection that feeds it

-  David Lillywhite

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD about Audrain. You might have been to its prestigious Motor Week and Concours on the US East Coast, seen its sponsorship of the Goodwood Members' Meeting or maybe even visited its museum in Newport, Rhode Island. But behind the scenes, there's so much more. And so many cars! It's the kind of set-up that needs a tour guide, and who better for that than Audrain CEO Donald Osborne: classic car valuer, writer, presenter and, of course, expert sidekick on Jay Leno's Garage. We arrive at the museum outside of opening hours, Donald is on his way, and director and curator David de Muzio is on hand to give us a whistlestop history lesson of the museum.

It's housed in a stunning building on one of the main shopping streets of desirable Newport, Rhode Island. If you've not been, you might be surprised by the town's history, its dramatic coastline, and rows of historic shops, housing and uber-mansions, which date mostly from the turn-ofthe-century Gilded Era, with connections to the Vanderbilt family.

The museum building was originally built as a row of six shopfronts at street level and 11 offices above, by art and antiques dealer Adolphe L Audrain so there's the question of the name answered. Born in California in 1859 to Parisian parents, Adolphe got to know Newport when he summered there, and later speculated that New Yorkers also spending ten weeks every year in Newport could be in need of retail therapy. New York architect Bruce Price was commissioned in 1902 to design the building, drawing inspiration from the Florentine Renaissance with huge arched windows and a roof balustrade crowned with stone lions it sounds preposterous but it worked, attracting dressmakers, jewellers, Brooks Brothers clothing and Pierce-Arrow and Indian Motorcycle dealerships.