Ford's New Vault Holds 125 Historic Cars, and Fans Can Browse the Collection Online

Ford Unveils Its New Vault

Ford Motor Company showed its new Ford Vault to reporters on Thursday, November 12. The Vault is the new home of the company's collection of historic cars and trucks, which Ford calls its Heritage Fleet, and it sits inside a former Amazon warehouse on Hannan Road in Romulus, Michigan, just outside Detroit. Ted Ryan, Ford's archives and heritage brand manager, led members of the media through the building.

The building covers 79,000 square feet and holds 125 vehicles from Ford's collection. They run from a 1910 Model T and Jay Leno's 1934 Ford pickup to the Mustang from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and concept cars that never reached production.

The Vault is not open to the public, but it may be in the future. Ford says it eventually plans to open the space to the public, although it has not set a date.

How to See the Collection Online

The way to see Ford's historic cars today is the company's Ford Heritage Vault website. Ford describes it as a collection of more than 20,000 brochures and photographs of Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Edsel vehicles from 1903 to 2026. It also holds press releases on nearly a century of concept cars and more than 300 issues of the old Ford Times magazine.

The site now has its own section for the Heritage Fleet, with photos of the cars and trucks in the collection. To reach it, open the website and click "Click here for Heritage Fleet" just below the search box. The photos run from a replica of Henry Ford's 1896 Quadricycle to Model Ts, Mustangs, Broncos, F-150 trucks and GT40 race cars, along with British Fords such as the Anglia and the Cortina. You can narrow the list by year, model or color, and each photo has a download button.

In 2023 Ford added more than 1,600 images and brochures covering over 300 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury concept cars to the site, going back to that 1896 Quadricycle. For the stories behind the cars, Ford's From the Road website has an Archives and Heritage Vault section with articles from the company's past, several of them written by Ryan.

Some of the Cars in the Collection

Among the vehicles Ford has gathered in the Vault:

• The 1910 Model T. This right-hand-drive Model T was built in the United Kingdom and stayed there until 2025, when it was added to Ford's collection.
• Jay Leno's 1934 Ford pickup. Leno's 1934 Flathead Ford pickup truck is part of the collection.
• The Mustang from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." This 1973 Mustang convertible was used on the show. It was sold in 1974 and stayed in private hands until Ford bought it in 2025. Its body was restored in 1999, but the interior is original.
• A 1941 Ford GP. This early military vehicle recalls Ford's role in America's World War II production effort. Ryan said Ford went on to build roughly 282,000 of the military vehicles known as GPWs during the war.

The collection also holds Mustangs, Navigators, ambulances, fire trucks and police cars, a 1998 Stewart Formula One race car and a Mustang that Ford engineers fitted with a 10-cylinder engine.

How the Collection Came Together

Ford had not kept its production vehicles in North America. Cars that reporters borrowed for reviews were generally sold afterward, the company donated its vehicle collection to The Henry Ford Museum over the years, and most of its classic concept cars were sold at auction by Christie's during the company's 100th anniversary in 2003, with the money going to charity. Ford did keep collections in England, Australia and Germany, totaling more than 300 vehicles.

Ryan says that began to change about three years ago, when CEO Jim Farley pushed the company to build an American collection like the ones it kept overseas. "The email came into senior management and me basically saying, this is great. Why don't we do this in the United States," Ryan recalled. His team searched across the company and found vehicles that had slipped through the cracks or that engineers and program managers had saved. Until now those vehicles were stored in several places around southeast Michigan, including the garage at Ford's former headquarters.

Why Ford Keeps the Old Cars

Ford designers, engineers and other employees will use the collection to study earlier designs and draw ideas for future vehicles. Ryan points to the Bronco and the Mustang, saying designers can study what made earlier generations distinctive without simply recreating them. "It matters because to look forward, you always have to know where you've been," Ryan said.