about our collection

A walk through automotive history you won’t soon forget.

history

From the moment you enter the grounds, carefully crafted design details honor auto racing history. The first eye-catcher is our original 76-spotter ball from the Daytona Speedway. The board track walkway and guardrails along our roadways are reminiscent of the tracks of a bygone era. The surrounding brick pays tribute to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway known as “The Brickyard”. The building itself is inspired by the Ford assembly plant built in Jacksonville in 1926, with red brick, large sweeping front windows, and skylights that mirror the original design.

innovation

Our Forerunners exhibit sets the stage for racing and automobile innovation as we know it today. Featuring open cockpit racers and automotive innovations as early as 1894, you can explore the ideas of trailblazers such as Peugeot, Duesenberg, and Bugatti, follow daring drivers like Rickenbacker, Oldfield, and Foyt as they push to the edge of possibility, and commune with the immortal design trio of Miller, Offenhauser, and Goossen.

immersion

As you walk through the museum, you can explore each car through a digital kiosk that dives deeper into the milestones, the automotive accomplishments, the engineering innovations, and the pioneers associated with them. You can scroll through stories, view historic photographs or dive into the list of technical specifications. With no ropes or red tape, we removed the barriers so you can explore the evolution of automotive innovation from the 19th century to today.

legacy

Our Forerunners exhibit brings to life Porsche design and engineering, tested in the crucible of racing. You can relive Jacksonville’s own Brumos racing triumphs at races like Daytona and Sebring, and hold on tight as you experience the risks and rewards of racing through the stories of top drivers such as Siffert, Gregg, and Haywood.

passion

If there’s one thing we want you to take away from your visit, it’s a newfound appreciation for the drivers, the mechanics and the innovators who helped usher in such an exciting era in automotive racing and design. You’ll be able to discover their work through memorabilia, vintage racing equipment, driving gear, trophies, and engines.

preservation

Walking through the building, you’ll also get a glimpse of what it takes to maintain the cars in our collection as you pass our workshop. At any given moment, you’ll likely see one or more cars being serviced. Our cars may be displayed in a museum, but our shop crew works daily to ensure every car in our collection is preserved meticulously so they can do what they were made to do: drive.