Newport Car Museum Goes Viral on TikTok, Brings New Visitors From Outside Rhode Island

PORTSMOUTH, RI — Michael Beard, Yurcel Paredes, and Jose Rojas drove almost five hours from Patterson, New Jersey to Portsmouth to check out the Newport Car Museum.

How did they find out about it? It turns out the museum has gone viral because of a Tik Tok video Beard, Paredes, and Rojas all saw. The three of them all viewed Andrew Raudabaugh's TikTok video about the Newport Car Museum, which has more than 1.8 million views. Though self-proclaimed car fanatics, the New Jersey trio had never visited a car museum.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Paredes said. "We thought if we were going to go see one, we might as well go big."

Museum officials said the museum had been averaging about 1,000 visitors per week, but that number has grown by the hundreds since the viral moment.

"We love that we're trending on TikTok and have reached a younger generation of car aficionados," Newport Car Museum head Docent Vincent Moretti said, "However, we’ve pretty much always attracted an equal mix of men, women, and children of all ages, from all over the world as well as driving distance away. We are constantly evolving and growing, and there are plenty of reasons to come visit for the first time or return to enjoy something new."

Learn more about the Newport Car Museum here.