In keeping with our NASCAR references of the past few days, with the exception of an awesome Weekend Edition, this olelongrooffan thought I would share with my fellow Hoons some of the vintage NASCAR real stock race cars I spotted a whiles back.

Every year on the Tuesday before the Daytona 500 a bunch of members of the Living Legends of Auto Racing gather at the Daytona Drive In Church down on A1A near where the old beach course was. Yeah my fellow Hoons, you read that correctly, the Daytona Drive In church.

It would appear that even Studebaker was involved in NASCAR in its early days. Although how they were able to find the budget for that exercise is beyond this olelongrooffan.

Most of the racecars that show up are vintage stock bodied NASCARs but there are a few one off race cars such as this VW powered racer built in 1977.

Hudsons were represented that year with not one but two of their examples. I am certain this olelongrooffan does not need to relate that Paul Newman’s “Doc” in the movie Cars was one of these.

The cool number 6 with a prominent racing history

And its sister car. This olelongrooffan saw these up at Amelia Island with the Kid a few years ago.

It is my understanding the number 92 has returned to its rightful home up in Michigan after spending a couple sun drenched years down on the World’s Most Famous Beach.

I never did figure out what races this rare 65 Ford Galaxie coupe ran in but it appeared to be without sponsorship or a roll cage.

There was a pair of ’59s, one appeared to be a Biscayne while the other possessed a bit more trim possibly making it a Bel Air or Impala?

I really thought the license plate was pretty cool though. The one on the ride below reads 1959 348 representing the year and engine I would presume.

This cool old “bubbletop” Poncho is a real favorite of this olelongrooffan. My Uncle Frank had one this year but his was a ragtop. The last four cars my Uncle owned were all Pontiac and all convertibles.

This one apparently was driven, at some point, by the legendary David Pearson.

NASCAR racecars have had extra long lug bolts dating way back to the early 60’s.

Even a couple of beach racers showed up for the event.

There were a few civilian vehicles present also. This one I spotted out at the track later and it belonged to Ryan Newman’s parents. I thought it was in pristine, yet modified, condition.

I struck up a conversation with the owner of this open wheel race car. He was wearing that US Flag bearing jacket and sitting on the rear wheel.

Apparently this car won the Canadian Grand Prix back during the year this olelongrooffan was born and the Daytona International Speedway was built.

I was told it has Chevrolet underpinnings.

I strolled over to catch a sight of this topless 55 Ford.

The ignition switch on this is located in the same spot as on my olestationbus.

It is a pretty sharp looking ole race car.

Well, after looking around a bit, this olelongrooffan struck up a conversation with one of the dudes wearing a “Living Legends of Auto Racing” jacket.

Are my fellow Hoons surprised?

Anyway, I inquired about the event and was informed it has been going on, since 1993, on the Tuesday prior to the Daytona 500 and at low tide.

I was curious about the low tide part.

He mentioned that in about 10 minutes all these cool old cars would be heading down to get on The World’s Most Famous Beach for a brief parade.

Well Hoons, this olelongrooffan immediately headed back to my olestationbus and made my way down to that beach to hang for a bit.

A few images of those sweet, nostalgic automobiles follow.

And a shot of my perch on that overcast Tuesday a couple Februarys ago here in, mostly, warm and sunny central Florida.

Postscript:

It seems like I received an email from the Hooniverse Overload to instruct my fellow Hoons to take a gander at my personal blog over at By The Numbers. So here is that prompt to see even more of the frivilous stuff this olelongrooffan tends to post to post to clog up these interwebs.

Also:

Images: Copyright Hooniverse 2012/longrooffan.