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Cclassic Car Club Manhattan is in the business of making dreams come true. The fantasies we gearheads envision while we fall asleep at night (or while we’re sitting at our desks “working”) are de rigeur around these parts. Club members pay for access to a stable of lust-worthy drivers’ cars: a 1966 GT40, a 2015 Lambo Huracán, a 1989 Lancia Delta Integrale and many, many more. Since 2005 CCC had operated out of a 10,000-square-foot space in lower Manhattan, where the foot traffic was sparse and the space was tight. That’s not the case anymore.
From the outside, Pier 76 is somewhat unassuming. It’s situated on the far west side of Midtown Manhattan, against the Hudson River, and is the former home of the NYPD’s Mounted Unit. This week, however, the 38,000-square-foot space is trading in a decidedly more ferocious kind of horsepower. “As long as you have a pulse, when you walked in the door you were excited about it,” said Zac Moseley, co-owner of CCC Manhattan. “Even if you didn’t care about cars. So here we’ll be able to that more.”
We’re the only thing to come see, if you’re a car enthusiast in New York City.
Moseley and co-owner Michael Princhinello stood in their new space, surrounded by sports-car legends, describing their plans, like developing the old hay-storage rooms into a 3,000-square-foot clubroom overlooking the car showroom. “We’ve got the side lot that we’ll develop into a garden, open to the public seven days a week. We’ll give them access to the water and a cafe,” Moseley explains with a proud smile. “We’re a car club, but even Soho House doesn’t have a 160-foot river deck.”
Prichinello knows the cars themselves are happier with more space for their wide exhausts to echo: “They breathe better here, too. You can actually walk around. The other place — it was a bit of Jenga getting ‘em in there. But here people walk in, walk around and can appreciate more.” He’s eager to share his world with more than simply the members who pick up cars and drive away for a weekend. “There are a lot of people who want to be members, but they don’t have 40 days to mess around in our cars. So clubhouse memberships will make sense for them: all the privilege of [a full] membership except for driving on public roads. You’ll be able to come and hang out with people who are car minded, be able to take in some of the terrace; we’re going to build private glass conference rooms. A place you can call your own. You don’t have to be a driver, just love the culture that we create.”
