The Vanderbilt Museum has honored William K. Vanderbilt II’s automotive legacy by hosting classic-car shows on its grounds for more than three decades.
Photo courtesy of Jaguar Drivers Club of Long Island
Two automobile clubs have scheduled shows on the Great Lawn next to the Vanderbilt Mansion – antique American cars in August, and Jaguars and MGs in September. The events are an opportunity to see beautiful examples of classic American automobile design.
For each, visitors need only to pay general museum admission at the door: $7 adults, $6 seniors (62 years and older) and students with ID, $3 children 12 and under. There is no additional charge to attend the car shows. The Vanderbilt Museum is located at 180 Little Neck Road, Centerport, N.Y.
(Note: General admission includes estate-grounds access to the Memorial Wing natural-history and ethnographic-artifact galleries, Nursery Wing, Habitat Room, Egyptian mummy and Stoll Wing animal-habitat dioramas. For a Mansion tour or a Planetarium show, add $6 per ticket.)
Mr. Vanderbilt, a pioneer race driver who competed in Europe, brought auto racing to the United States. He inaugurated the famous Vanderbilt Cup Races in 1904. That same year, he set a new land-speed record of 92.3 miles per hour in a Mercedes at a course in Florida. He also spurred the development of the American auto industry and built the prototype for the first toll road, the Vanderbilt Motor Parkway on Long Island.
Photo by Wayne Hedlund
Sunday, August 20
Antique Auto Club of America, 11:00 to 4:00
The Vanderbilt Cup Region chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) will display dozens of classic cars on the Great Lawn. Owners of any car at least 25 years old are welcome.
Sunday, September 10
Jaguar-MG Concours d’Elegance, 11:00 to 4:00
The Jaguar Drivers Club of Long Island and the MG Car Club-Long Island Centre will hold their annual Concours d’Elegance and All-Marque Concours Sanitaire, a show of vintage and new automobiles. (Rain date: September 17.)
