There are plenty of wealthy car collectors with fantastic and exotic collections of all things on four wheels, but the National Museum of American History has something just a bit more dramatic. It's a 112-year-old collection of 217 vehicles and 73 automobiles between the years of 1894 and 1997 that symbolize great leaps in the history of mobility.

Roger White, who looks over the collection, says the vehicles are stored deep down within the Smithsonian as "a kind of doom's day thinking" in case there is a 40 day flood or some other sort of Mad Max scenario. That's a bit depressing, but the good news is that some of the vehicles will soon see the light of day. Over 24,000 voted online to determine which vehicles should be brought to the surface, and the rear-engine 1948 Tucker and a supercharged 1929 Miller race car (shown above) took the top prize. The Associated Press captured video of the Noah's Ark of car collections, and you can watch at your leisure by hitting the jump. Thanks for the tips, all.



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