Being a team owner in the NASCAR Cup Series for 40 years comes with some incredible benefits. One of those is the ability to boast about a car collection that very few others in the world can match. Rick Hendrick’s 58,000-square-foot Heritage Center in North Carolina is home to many of the most prized cars that he has collected over his long tenure in the automobile industry.
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Occupying a part of the floor is the first Corvette that he owned. He bought the 1963 model in 1971 and took his wife in it on their first day together.
It was one of the assets that the couple later sold to purchase their first car dealership. Hendrick tracked it down many years later and bought it back. Although the car’s exterior originality is maintained, its interiors have been upgraded.
This is not the only Corvette that he owns. A big fan of the maker, he has 122 of them in the garage and most of them are 1967 models. In another corner of the floor are the cars that were used for the Transformers movie franchise. Who else can say they’ve got Bumblebee resting behind the shutters? A 2023 red Ferrari SF90 adds further allure to his collection.
But the list doesn’t end there. He brought out the best behind the doors during the recent unveiling of the Ten Tenths Motor Club track.
Some of the cars that were displayed were the 2024 Mercedes Benz AMG Project One, the 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder, the 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and a 2020 McLaren Senna GTR. The Garage 56 entry that raced in the Le Mans is also a part of the pride.
Rick Hendrick about his legendary car collection
Following a garage tour that he gave the Detroit Free Press in 2023, Hendrick stated, “When my son [Ricky Hendrick] died I had these cars scattered all over dealerships, warehouses and I said, ‘I want to build a building. A Heritage Center.”
“Because the guys here had restored his trailer and brought all of his helmets back and his uniforms that he had given them. Presented me with the trailer. So, I said, ‘Okay I’m going to build the building.’” Ricky was 24 years old when he passed away in an airplane accident.
He’d been an upcoming racer in NASCAR at the time. His father uses the collection and the building in which it stands as a means to pay tribute to his life and that of his other family members.
