Klassix Car Museum Brings Past Alive Race Track Legends - The past is alive at Mark Martin's Klassix Car Museum in Daytona Beach, Fl. Of the many special cars on display in this modern car museum there is one that for a moment in 1959 lead the fastest gathering of auto iron on earth. This example of American racing is a special factory built Ford Thunderbird known as a "zipper top" racer. It was called this because the top could be easily removed so that it might race in the popular NASCAR convertible class. It was an unusual car for other reasons including the fact that it was one of only eight assembly line race ready Thunderbirds distributed to the general public. The famous Holman-Moody Racing prepared the machines by installing a Lincoln V8, roll cage, racing chassis and oversize fuel tank. The cars sold quickly with a high price tag of $5000 plus. The one featured at Klassix Cars had a special destiny, to lead the 1959 running of the Daytona 500. This was the first race held on the now famous high banks of Daytona. Driven by a rookie, Fritz Wilson, the car took the pole and for a brief 15 laps was the class of the field. In the end, a burned piston forced the car out of the race. The car shown here stayed in NASCAR for three more seasons being driven by racers from the past like Cotton Owens. It finally moved to the dirt track circuit and ended it's racing career in a weed field in South Carolina. It might have rusted away in that field, had it not been for Billy Cooper, a true lover of the sport of stock car racing. He found the old beauty and lovingly restored it to the state it is today, race ready. It cost thousands of dollar and hundreds of man hours to complete the task. The finished product is something to see. Thanks to Cooper and the folks at Klassix Car Museum, you can view this machine in better shape today than that day long ago when it paced the field at Daytona.