The prototype for the 1964 Shelby Daytona Coupe lands on the new Historical Vehicle Registry.
The Library of Congress has launched a national registry of historically significant vehicles, each one of which will be arrived at and certified by The Department of the Interior through collaboration with the Historical Vehicle Association.
The announcement came at the Washington D.C. Auto Show Day. The first vehicle to be entered onto the registry will be displayed for the public at the show—the 1964 Shelby Daytona Coupe—number CSX2287—one of six such race cars produced by Carol Shelby to take on Ferrari in the GT Series.
The Shelby was the first car on the Registry, said HVA President Mark Gessler, because it “so perfectly” fit all the criteria the group will use going forward to get vehicles certified by the Dept. of Interior for the Library of Congress. “It is historic, iconic, associated with one of the great car producers, Shelby…it’s a prototype and it is unrestored.”
This week also happens to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Shelby Daytona Coupe’s debut on the track.
The Shelby Daytona shown on track.
The car on display in Washington is owned by the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia. Fred Simeone is part of the HVA team that will work with the Dept. of Interior in clearing vehicles for the Registry. Other members include Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance founder Bill Warner, former chief judge at Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance Ed Gilbertson and preservation consultant Bruce Judd.
“Isn’t it amazing that the Library of Congress has never established a Registry for automobiles when they are so much a fabric of the country?” Gessler remarked. There are registries for film, books and buildings among other categories.
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The HVA has more than fifty vehicles it is currently considering for nomination to the Dept. of Interior. It plans to clear at least ten of those to announce this coming October. Among those, said, Gessler is the very first Willys Jeep to roll off the assembly line for service during World War Two.
A process by which any member of the public, museums, collectors and car companies can nominate a vehicle will soon be up and running, said Gessler. Those nominations will be considered by a joint committee of the HVA and Department of Interior before final clearance and submission to the Library of Congress.
The vehicles to be included are not merely examples of classic cars. They have to have unique and documentable associations with people, events, or represent special design and craftsmanship. Gessler said the HVA would not, for example, just submit an early Volkswagen Beetle for the registry, but one of the first two Beetles exported to the U.S. and delivered by Dutch automotive magnate Ben Pon. The Shelby, one of six, was chosen because it was the prototype model.
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Each vehicle must be documented with records, line drawings and photographs. The complete file will reside at the Library of Congress for the public to study for future generations. Each vehicle will be subjected to the Dept. of Interior’s rigorous Standards of Heritage Documentation.
“We look forward to working with the Historic Vehicle Association to promote the cultural and historical significance of the automobile, protecting the future of our automotive past, and making a record of this rich history available to the public,” said Richard O’Connor, Chief, Heritage Documentation Programs, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
Gessler says he hopes to be able to clear dozens of vehicles each year and expects there to eventually be thousands on the Registry—from racing cars to production cars, commercial and military vehicles, custom cars, purpose-built vehicles, novelty vehicles. “There are a lot of historically significant vehicles out there and we have had over 2,500 makes of cars old in the U.S.