As part of its mission to “Preserve, Celebrate and Share Automotive History,” the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, RI, is thrilled to announce that the Nicholas Begovich Collection has been acquired for future display. Comprising 14 post-war sports and grand touring cars, the collection represents the vision, fascination and lifetime passion of Nick Begovich, a brilliant and accomplished electrical engineer and physicist whose professional accomplishments and success allowed him to realize his love of engineering and design excellence in cars. Begovich, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 98, donated the collection to California State University, Fullerton. The […]
As part of its mission to “Preserve, Celebrate and Share Automotive History,” the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, RI, is thrilled to announce that the Nicholas Begovich Collection has been acquired for future display.
Comprising 14 post-war sports and grand touring cars, the collection represents the vision, fascination and lifetime passion of Nick Begovich, a brilliant and accomplished electrical engineer and physicist whose professional accomplishments and success allowed him to realize his love of engineering and design excellence in cars.
Begovich, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 98, donated the collection to California State University, Fullerton. The university is making the cars available for display in Newport.
“We are so grateful to be able to share Nick Begovich’s wonderful and historic cars with our visitors here in Newport, and through our digital initiatives with the world.” said Audrain CEO Donald Osborne. “The collection includes some of the most important, rare and desirable cars in the world and together with other cars our Museum exhibits, including the 1907 Renault 35/45 “Vanderbilt” racer, the Schumacher/Irvine 1997 Ferrari F310B F1 car, the 1927 Isotta Fraschini 8AS Fleetwood Roadster, 1901 Winton Runabout, 1948 Tucker to name a few, allows us to make the stories we tell in our exhibitions and events even more compelling.”
Begovich purchased many of the cars new or lightly used, which makes them outstanding original examples.
The 1969 Lamborghini Miura was picked up at the factory in Italy and driven only 3,758 km (2,335 miles).
The 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster was bought new in Los Angeles and shows just 10,441 miles.
The ATS 2500 GTS coupe is one of only six existing.
There are two early 1950s Pegaso coupes. Pegaso is an ultra-exotic Spanish sports car, and only 84 were made.
One of the most-original example of Porsche’s iconic 904 sports racing coupe. This Porsche 904 was in Nick’s hands from new in 1964, and was driven only 2,837 km (1,762 miles).
In the future, a special exhibition is planned featuring the cars of the Begovich Collection together to show how his spirit and personality was so vividly expressed in the cars he gathered and so lovingly cared for over decades.
For more information visit: https://www.audrainautomuseum.org
3 responses to “Audrain Automobile Museum to Display Begovich Collection”
This is extraordinary. Will people be able to visit and view these automobiles?
Donald Osborn hits another homerun. !! Yay, Donald. Do you need a gofer ? I can be available
I am curious how it is that the $10M collection of autos belonging to a Fullerton, Calif., resident, and donated to Cal State, also in Fullerton, end up being displayed in Rhode Island? No slight intended to the Audrain Automobile Museum, Mr. Osborne, or Cal State, but California seems to have no shortage of adequate venues where these cars could be displayed and appreciated closer to the college. I suppose these matters are full of complex details.