National Historic Vehicle Register

Explore a rotating collection of culturally significant vehicles from the National Historic Vehicle Register, powered by the Hagerty Drivers Foundation, at Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.

The National Historic Vehicle Register was created in 2013 in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Historic American Engineering Record. The register is a thorough record of the nation’s most significant vehicles based on the association of four criteria at a national, regional or local level. Archived in the Historic American Engineering Record at the Library of Congress to ensure the perpetuity of our automotive past, the register has four major components:

• Written histories detailing significant provenance and condition
• Detailed photography
• 3D scanning
• Documentary videos

How are 3D scans of each vehicle on the National Historic Vehicle Register created? Watch this clip from The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation to find out.  
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Current Featured Vehicle:

1964 Meyers Manx "Old Red"

Added to the National Historic Vehicle Register: 2014

"Old Red" was the second vehicle inducted into the National Historic Vehicle Register and has been credited with sparking the dune buggy phenomenon during the mid-1960s. Designed by dune buggy pioneer Bruce Meyers, it helped catalyze the industry with its design and construction techniques, most notably as being the original fiberglass dune buggy.

"Old Red" and the subsequent production of Meyers Manx dune buggies shaped the rise in popularity of the dune buggy, off-road vehicles and kit cars in the United States and abroad beginning in the mid-1960s.

This vehicle was the first in a series of approximately 7,000 Meyers Manx dune buggies originally built by B.F. Meyers & Company. The Meyers Manx design was also the inspiration for an estimated 250,000 copycats that were manufactured by other companies, making it likely the most replicated car in history.

"Old Red" isn't just a historic prototype, it's a record-setting off-road racer! In 1967 Bruce Meyers used the vehicle to set one of the early records across the Baja California Peninsula, setting the stage for the famed Baja 1000 motorsport race in Mexico.

The Meyers Manx company lives on through the leadership of lifelong Manx enthusiast Phillip Sarofim and legendary designer Freeman Thomas. Together, they continue the legacy of Manx heritage products and have launched the next generation of the brand with the Meyers Manx 2.0. Learn more at meyersmanx.com.