Frederick Simeone's father was a general practitioner who ran his practice from a rowhouse in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. When his father died in 1972, Simeone inherited $8,000 and four cars stored in a garage on Clearfield Street. Over the next four decades he grew the collection significantly. From 1982 until the museum's opening in June 2008, the cars were stored in a garage near 8th and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia. In 2008 Simeone donated the entire collection to the museum's foundation, which took ownership of the titles to the cars. Frederick Simeone was ranked the number one car collector by the Classic Car Trust Registry. He died on 11 June 2022 at the age of 86.
The museum applies strict criteria for inclusion. A car must be a sports car with headlights and fenders, must have a history of road racing rather than solely circuit racing, must be considered significant based on superior racing performance, and its important components — chassis, engine, and body — must be original to the car.
The permanent collection comprises approximately 70 cars arranged in 21 exhibits displayed chronologically and in diorama vignettes representing notable racing venues including Le Mans, Nurburgring, Sebring, Bonneville, Watkins Glen, Brooklands, Mille Miglia, and Targa Florio. Nearly every car in the collection retains its original body. Most of the cars are maintained in drivable condition, and the museum uses aviation gasoline rather than standard pump fuel because of its greater stability and lead content, which is essential as an anti-knock compound for the older engines.
The museum runs a Demonstration Days programme twice per month, in which several cars are moved to the three-acre parking lot behind the museum. Each session consists of a themed educational presentation followed by a driving demonstration where the curator operates the selected cars. After the demonstration, guests may inspect and photograph the cars.
The museum maintains a library containing automotive literature, documents, and sales brochures dating back to 1892. The collection was formerly held in boxes in a Center City Philadelphia building and was moved to the museum's newly constructed library in 2013. Due to the fragility of the materials the library is not open to the public.
The museum and its collection have received significant recognition:
2011 International Historic Motoring Awards "Museum of the Year"
2012 International Historic Motoring Awards "Publication of the Year" for The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles
2014 International Historic Motoring Awards "Car of the Year" for the 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe
2014 Historic Vehicle Association — the 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe became the first automobile added to the National Historic Vehicle Register
2017 International Historic Motoring Awards "Museum or Collection of the Year"
2019 ranking as number one in the Top 100 Classic Car Collectors by the Classic Car Trust Registry
The museum has published two books: The Spirit of Competition (Coachbuilt Press, 2009) and The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles (Coachbuilt Press, 2012).
The "Spirit of Competition" serves as the thematic identity of the museum and the title of an annual award presented to a figure from the world of motorsports. Past recipients include Mario Andretti (2008), Janet Guthrie (2009), John Fitch (2010), Craig Breedlove (2011), Sam Posey (2012), Hurley Haywood (2013), Bobby Rahal (2014), David Hobbs (2015), Peter Brock (2016), Derek Bell (2017), and Roger Penske (2018).