Vintage car clubs, from the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club and the Bugatti Owners' Club to the Ferrari Owners' Club and the Aston Martin Owners' Club, maintain registers of cars and their owners that are, in some cases, the most complete personal asset records that exist for the people they describe.

The registers track every car of the marque, by chassis number, by engine number, by date of manufacture, by sequence of owners. A car of significance is followed across decades, with each change of ownership recorded against its history. The owner is named in the club's publications; the address is held in the membership records; the car's appearances at the major events (Goodwood, Pebble Beach, Villa d'Este) are recorded in the relevant year books.

These records are not, in their primary form, particularly secure. The club's journal is distributed to the membership and, in many cases, sold to the wider public. The published records are copied by the trade and form the basis of the price guides, the historian's reference works, and the auction catalogues. A determined enquirer can establish, for many of the famous chassis, who currently holds the car and where it is kept.

The auction record adds further depth. A car of significance at a major sale carries with it a published provenance that lists the named former owners; the description of the car often references the club's records. The buyer at auction is named, in most cases, in the results. Subsequent commentary, in the trade press, repeats the chain.

The work in this category is rarely to reduce the visibility, which the clubs and the trade exist to preserve. It is about consideration at the moment of acquisition, lending for exhibition, or consignment for sale, so that the principal's preferences for discretion are understood by the parties to the transaction and reflected, to the extent feasible, in the descriptions they produce.