The 1941 Packard originally belonged to Alta Rockefeller, the third daughter of American businessman and philanthropist John Davison Rockefeller.
He founded the Standard Oil Company and had an estimated net worth equivalent to $US340 billion ($NZ435 billion) in today's dollars when he died in 1937, making him the richest person in history.
The car was bought for Alta Rockefeller by her husband Ezra Parmalee Prentice, the family's lawyer.
''It makes you want to touch it when you know its history,'' an impressed Kimberley Archer, of Auckland, said, while touring the Warbirds and Wheels museum with her family yesterday.
The car's current owners are Queenstown-based Americans Lee and Paul Garlington, who have two other vehicles on display at the Wanaka attraction.
The Packard is one of 22 classic cars owned by the self-confessed ''car nuts'', who favour Packards.
''I started out loving classics when a banker friend of my father lent me his 1936 Packard Convertible to take to a fraternity costume party when I was 19. I was hooked,'' Lee Garlington said.
As well as its distinguished history, the Rockefeller Packard car is rare. It is believed to be the only 1941 Packard to feature a Rollston all-weather cabriolet body.
Mr Garlington said the car had come through tough times, after mistakenly being unloaded at Dakar, Senegal, when being shipped to Dunedin from Florida two years ago.
''The people on the dock thought it would be nice to steal things off it. They trashed the car.''
It was rolled into a post, plastic - mistaken for ivory -was pulled off the dashboard, and the bonnet was pried open with a crowbar.
''It's like having one of your children beat up at school. It was heart-wrenching to see the car come off the ship.''
Repair work cost the insurance company more than $NZ26,000, but made the Rockefeller Packard look like new again.
''It's a survivor, like you New Zealanders,'' he said.
When asked what the car was worth, Mr Garlington said the current owner of a 1941 Packard Rollston Limousine Convertible, also originally bought by Ezra Prentice and up for sale at present, had set an asking price of $US275,000.
''My car is worth about half that.''
The car has a special connection for the Garlington family.
''My great grandfather was an entrepreneur and purchased kerosene from John D Rockefeller after the Civil War in Atlanta Georgia to provide the first street lights for Atlanta.''
