Hagerty Drivers Foundation

10/02/2026

Did you know the iconic design of the second-generation “coke-bottle” Dodge Charger was almost thrown away?

Bill Brownlie, chief designer for Dodge at the time, wanted to keep the fastback profile of the first generation and ordered Richard Sias’s “coke bottle” design to be destroyed.

Brownlie then left for vacation, during which Sias’ managers told him to keep working despite Brownlie’s remarks. When Brownlie returned, he was none too happy to find the design still in progress, until Elwood Engel, design chief for Chrysler Corp. stated “That’s what a real car should look like”, leading the design to become the second generation of Charger!

Dodge expected to only sell ~20,000 Chargers for the 1968 model year, but the new design helped them reach sales of over 96,000 units!
We found this great Charger brochure on Over-Drive-Magazine.com. Check it out for many more pieces of period automotive literature.

09/30/2026

The 1921 Duesenberg Straight Eight was the supercar of its time. Fred and August Duesenberg brought their championship racing pedigree to the street, producing a car that left the competition a decade behind. The first buyer was Samuel Castle, a seven-foot Hawaiian sugar baron who commissioned custom coachwork to fit his frame, making this the most unique Duesenberg ever built. After decades in storage, the Castle family restored it and donated it to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum , where it lives today.
The 1921 Duesenberg Straight Eight is NHVR No. 27. It is currently on loan at the National Historic Vehicle Register exhibit at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan — and it won't be there long.�

09/29/2026

This 1963 Studebaker Avanti has just 13,000 miles on the clock — and the original owner kept it nearly untouched. Nearly. Even he couldn’t resist the siren call of a glass pack muffler.
Beneath that swooping golden fiberglass body, the Studebaker 289 V8 idles with confidence, fed by a four-barrel carburetor and breathing through a dual exhaust. In this form, it made 240 horsepower. Spring for the supercharged version and you got 290. A small number of “R3” cars were built, making 335 horsepower and setting a land speed record.
The Avanti was Studebaker’s last great swing — a space-age sports car designed to rescue a struggling Indiana automaker. It arrived as the fastest production car in the world, setting a record of 170 mph straight from the factory. It wasn’t enough. Studebaker built its final car in South Bend in 1963, and closed for good in 1966.

09/24/2026

The truck that took the Ridler Award, toured the country with Dodge, and became a Hot Wheels: the Dodge Deora!
In the 1960s, brothers Mike and Larry Alexander took a basic Dodge A100 truck and built this wildly customized vehicle from a design by Harry Bentley Bradley. They debuted the Deora at the 1967 Detroit Autorama, where it took the coveted Ridler Award. Dodge leased it and used it at auto shows as a promotional vehicle. AMT immortalized it in a best-selling model kit, and in 1968 Mattel featured the Deora in its popular Hot Wheels line.
The Deora is NHVR No. 36. You can see it at the “National Treasures” exhibition at the Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, through December 6.

09/22/2026

See this VW bus that made history, and seven other vehicles on the National Historic Vehicle Register at the Savoy Automobile Museum!

Business owners and civil rights activists Esau and Janie b. Jenkins worked tirelessly to improve the lives of African Americans on Johns Island, SC. Around 1967, Esau purchased this used microbus to support their community outreach initiatives The Jenkins launched a bus line that provided residents with inexpensive transportation. These vehicles were mobile classrooms where riders received reading lessons and vital information needed to pass voting literacy tests. Today this vehicle is number 26 on the National Vehicle Register List.

1966 Volkswagen Deluxe Station Wagon (Esau and Janie B. Jenkins)
NHVR No. 26
HAER No. SC-45
On loan from Esau and Janie B. Jenkins Family of Johns Island, SC

09/22/2026

On this day in 1893, The Duryea brothers took their homemade horseless carriage for its first test run through the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts. It wasn’t seamless, as the transmission gave out after just a few hundred feet. Frank tweaked the design on the spot and they were rolling again, covering half a mile before the day was done. The event is often regarded as the first time an American-manufactured, gasoline-powered car was driven in the country. The brothers didn’t stop there: Frank went on to win the first automobile race in America: the 1895 Chicago Times-Herald Race. Afterwards, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company sold 13 identical vehicles, making them pioneers of American auto manufacturing.

09/18/2026

A Ford-powered Bugatti sounds like a contradiction, but for this 1931 Type 37 Grand Prix car, it’s part of the story. When the original engine blew while racing, new ones weren’t growing on trees. The fix was simple, and quintessentially American: drop in a hopped-up Ford Model B four-cylinder. Easy to source parts for anywhere, and plenty of torque to complement the car’s French Grand Prix suspension. It’s been running that way ever since. An eye-searing yellow paint job applied in the 1930’s earned the car the nickname “Scrambling Egg.”
ARCA was a gentleman’s racing series founded by the Collier brothers during the Depression, running from 1932 through the start of World War Two. It drew wealthy enthusiasts and exotic machinery to circuits across the northeast, and this car was a regular competitor throughout the series. It wasn’t the most decorated car on the grid, but it survived when so many others didn’t.
Owner Sandy Leith spent years tracking this car down before acquiring it in 1995. He chose not to restore it. The patina, the worn paint, the original 1930s leather — it’s all still there. Dr. Fred Simeone, founder of the was one of the great champions of exactly this philosophy: that important cars should be preserved, understood, and driven, not stripped down and made to look new. It’s a fitting tribute that the Scrambling Egg received the Hagerty Drivers Foundation and Preservation Award in his honor at the 2026 .

09/17/2026