Dearborn, MI — Driven to Win: Racing in America, the first comprehensive exhibition to cover American auto racing, including stock car, sports car, drag racing, IndyCar, hillclimb and land-speed racing, will open March 27 inside The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.
Photo: The Henry Ford
Presented by General Motors, the 24,000-square-foot permanent exhibit will offer an in-depth look at the people, experiences, culture, spectacle, risks and innovations centered in the world of American auto sports.
“Racing is such a multisensory experience,” said Patricia Mooradian, president and CEO, The Henry Ford. “With Driven to Win, we hope to bring to life the excitement fans get at the race track and inspire our guests with the passionate stories of those innovators who have dedicated their lives to this exhilarating and game-changing sport.”
Photo: The Henry Ford
The exhibit offers an unprecedented collection of some of the most important and significant vehicles in the world of racing, including the 1967 Ford Mark IV that earned an all-American victory at Le Mans with Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt at the wheel; the 1988 Chevrolet-powered Penske PC-17 driven by Rick Mears for the third of his four Indy 500 wins; the 1906 Locomobile “Old 16,” the first American car to win a major international road race in the United States; the 1965 Lotus-Ford, the first rear-engine car to win the Indianapolis 500; the 1965 Goldenrod, which held a land speed record of 409.277 mph for wheel-driven cars until 1991; and a 2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, a track-ready performance car used in engineering tests at Germany’s Nürburgring racing circuit.
Also featured are several interactive zones including Motorsports Performance Training, where visitors can see what drivers go through before hitting the track. The Sports Car Race Shop shows how experts design and engineer winning race cars through planning, problem-solving and testing.
1958 Moore/Unser Pikes Peak Hill Climb Racing Car. On Loan from Bobby and Lisa Unser. Photo: The Henry Ford
Through six interlinked full-motion racing simulators, visitors can drive the world’s fastest cars on the most challenging tracks in wheel-to-wheel competition.
A 4D film, “Fueled by Passion,” offers an all-access look into the hopes and dreams, successes and failures of those who live and breathe racing every day. The film includes exclusive footage and interviews with drivers, crew members and engineers from five different forms of racing.
“Our motorsports heritage goes back to the days of Louis Chevrolet and beyond, and it has always remained a big part of who we are and what we do, especially in terms of driving engineering excellence and implementing the transfer of technology and innovation from the track to the street,” said GM president Mark Reuss.
