D.A.D Garage is a strange name for a building hidden away in Westchester County, N.Y. which contains one of the most comprehensive collections of luxury cars in the world. If a garage is defined as a place to store cars then this is a garage. It is, more realistically, a museum for the automobiles acquired by Ralph Lauren during his lifetime. Unsure what to name the installation, he decided on using the names of his three children, David, Andrew and Dylan.
The building, originally a luxury car storage facility was redesigned by Alfredo Paredes, the vice-president of Ralph Lauren and Mark Reinwald, automobile technician, now the curator of the museum. The museum is entered via a glass enclosed lobby, behind this is a room named the library where meetings are held and fastidiously kept records are stored. The walls are adorned with awards and trophies won by the cars at international events. The maintenance is carried out in the workshop. Resembling a laboratory, this room is kept in pristine condition and cars are cared for with an attention to detail usually encountered in the renovation of a work of art.
The perfectionism with which Ralph Lauren designs his clothes has been employed in the way in which his cars are kept and lovingly maintained and restored, in some cases, even improved by a slightly more pleasing shade for the paintwork or a finer quality of leather on the seats. The cars stored include a 1938 Bugatti coupe, a 1938 Alpha Romeo Mille Migla roadster and a 1930 Mercedes Benz SSK “Count Trossi” roadster, a unique one off production. His recent acquisitions are three 2010 Lamborginis, including a carbon fiber Reventon-640 horsepower. Only 15 of these cars were manufactured and sell for around $2m, this is the only one in the USA. All of the cars are roadworthy and at the disposal of Ralph Lauren to drive whenever he desires.
Entrance to the museum is purely at the discretion of Ralph Lauren and his staff.
