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The True High Rollers

Ritchie Clyne's Auto Collection

Las Vegas has been remade so many times, regular visitors need a scorecard or a nav system to keep track of everything going on. Look overhead these days and a sleek new monorail glides ever so quietly past key casinos—just another addition to the city that never sleeps.

Fun for All

And, as anyone familiar with Sin City knows, Vegas was originally designed with an "adult" theme for its gaming sites. Over the years, however, as the city became increasingly well known and as the various individual and corporate owners searched for new customers, the focus centered more frequently on families, with themes targeted to attracting younger people in the hope that their parents would gamble the night away. But it hasn't worked out quite that way.

So today, Vegas has decided that it really needs to concentrate on what it knows best, and that is to cater to the high rollers and keep the adults entertained with shows, events and an attitude that upholds the city's universal appeal and its true founding principles.

But the best high rollers are not in Bellagio, The Venetian or Caesar's Palace. No, they reside in the Imperial Palace, comfortably resting on the fifth floor as part of The Auto Collections.

The Collection

And like the rest of Las Vegas, the Auto Collections plays more than one role. While the environment and amazing display of automobiles say "museum," most of these beautiful vehicles are in fact for sale. Typical Vegas, but this tremendous assortment of automotive history is far from ordinary. Housed in the Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino, located in the middle of the famous "strip," the Auto Collections is managed by Richie Clyne and Don Williams, who together form a dynamic duo in the world of classic, vintage, antique and collector cars.

Williams is best known for his involvement with the Blackhawk Museum, based in Danville, CA, having assumed the mantle of president within the past year at owner Ken Behring's request, while Clyne can arguably be called the "father" of modern motorsports in Las Vegas, owing to his vision and desire that resulted in the construction of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1996. Located a short eight miles north of downtown, LVMS served notice to the racing community that big-time motorsports had a home in Las Vegas. The Indy Racing League ran its first event at the facility the year it was built, and within two years, Clyne had convinced NASCAR that both the facility and the city was good enough to add a 33rd event to the former Winston (now Nextel) Cup race season. Clyne subsequently sold out to O. Bruton Smith, owner of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which runs Lowe's Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway and other key racing facilities around the country, leaving Clyne without much need for a social security check, and more time to concentrate on his enthusiasm for prestigious and desirable cars.

As a result, he and Williams have focused on building the Auto Collections at the Imperial Palace as well as the Blackhawk collection, and managing a number of high profile collector car auctions throughout the country.

Indeed, something on the order of 350 vehicles are circulated through the Auto Collections at the Imperial Palace, with 160 cars currently available for sale. The balance are either permanent exhibits or tucked away within the Imperial Palace garage (and restoration center) or other locations. The vintage facility and the Auto Collections office space are currently going through a construction phase as the new Monorail prepares to open a stop right outside this 2,700-room casino, hotel and museum.

What the visitor and possibly potential buyer will immediately notice is the high number of low mileage cars available for sale, some at reasonable prices. Forty-year-old Volkswagen Beetles with less than 15,000 miles cozy up to multi-million dollar Duesenbergs and an astonishing number of Rolls Royces, virtually all painstakingly and lovingly restored.

Music, Too

Surrounding the vehicles are dioramas and a large assortment of automotive collectibles, with many also for sale. The Auto Collections also boasts a significant exhibit of juke boxes, including several previously owned by actors such as Steve McQueen.

More than 2,500 people pass through the museum each day, looking, "shopping," taking a break from the tables, or just simply admiring the automobiles of yesterday. For auto enthusiasts especially, the Auto Collections at the Imperial Palace offers something a little different for visitors to Vegas, but the underlying premise of the city is in full swing at this facility—it may well be the best form of adult entertainment, for all kinds of "rollers."