If you want to teach your children about race cars, not just about how they work, but about what they do, show them a 1964 Shelby Daytona. A Daytona coupe is nothing to glance at. It defies the cursory glance, the magnetic speed of its design and engineering requires more. It lingers there in your mind, drawing in bold, black, double lines the very idea of a race car. Only six of them were built, and they all remain, now outliving the man responsible for their creation.

Last Thursday, Carroll Shelby passed away at the age of 89, after complications with an illness. He leaves a wake of legend.

As you likely already know, this Sunday is the Great American Race: the Sprint Cup season opener at Daytona, NASCAR's Superbowl, the Daytona 500. And I couldn't be more stoked: it seems like it's been a couple of years since I got to watch the 500 from home instead of from the track, and while nothing beats being there, I'm definitely looking forward to breaking out my traditional Daytona race-day spread of Fritos and Bud Lite and watching the entire thing flag-to-flag in HD. Of course, there's already been a whole series this week of events, exhibition runs, and qualifying races at Daytona leading up to the big race. And judging from the chaos that's unfolded over the last week, including an electrifying Budweiser Shootout last Sunday, a cut-throat couple of Gatorade Duels on Thursday, and a wreck-filled Craftsman Truck Series race last night, I would guess that this year's 500 is going to be nothing short of mind-blowing. There've been some key changes made to both the cars and the rules, including the advent of fuel injection, and the cutting off of in-car radio communication between drivers. This latter move will short-circuit that two-sies tandem draft that characterized superspeedway racing last season, and break the pack up again so it'll literally be anyone's race. The second-tier Nationwide race is underway right now on ESPN: all I know is that Danica Patrick qualified on the pole, and I haven't let myself look at it since the start because I'm DVR'ing it to watch the whole thing later. So if you already know who won, don't tell me! The 500 itself will be on Fox tomorrow starting at noon Eastern/9am Pacific. Check out NASCAR.com for the latest.

Well it’s finally over. The 2011 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational and SEMA have now been put to rest and to be honest, I’m dead tired. As you may know we ran our 1969 Dodge Daytona tribute in the competition and while a bit outgunned, we still managed to do pretty damn good. We had a few issues like a broken shifter bolt and a thrown belt, but for the most part, we came through unscathed. Unfortunately though there was still the 600 + mile drive home yesterday that I had to endure and to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it. Running with a group of cars is one thing as you have some kind of back-up, but taking a 42 year Dodge Daytona through Death Valley on your own… well that’s another story entirely. Continue reading at RideLust

Muscle Cars at the Mansion is a yearly event where 40 or so of the coolest hot-rods, muscle cars and motorcycles gather for charity at the world famous Playboy Mansion. This year we were lucky enough to get an invite and with that a chance to cross off another item on the ole’ automotive bucket list. We brought our 1969 Dodge Daytona tribute car to display, and thankfully the big black beastie was pretty well received. Understand that this is not some backyard car show, but a gathering of some of the coolest cars on the planet. As for the Playboy bunnies… well, there was no shortage of them either. The Mansion was everything I expected. From the dark hidden paths that led to the game room, boom-boom rooms and zoo to the dim lighting of the fabled grotto, this place had it all. It also must have been an absolute riot back in its heyday. See all the pics at RideLust

You never know what you might find out in the middle of the countryside. A tip from a gentleman in Wisconsin lead me to one of the craziest barn finds you might ever see. A 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, one owner car!

The car was purchased new in 1969 and used as a daily driver. Unfortunately one day after getting a full tank of gas in town, the family came home, then swapped cars and went out to dinner. This was roughly late 1974. They got back, and the next day try to go drive the Daytona and the thing shuddered, there was a terrible noise and the car quit running. After tearing apart half the engine and taking the gas tank out, they discovered someone had drained all the gas out of the car and replaced it with water. Hydrolocking the engine.

The only major damage they found after dis-assembly was that some of the push rods were bent. But instead of fixing it during the gas crunch and with winter around the corner, they filled the engine with heavy duty oil, drained the entire cooling system and topped off the transmission. That's it. Read the full story and see all the pics at Cars in Barns Blog

There's been a ton of hoopla on the automotive blogs today about the unveiling of the 2012 Camry, as if anyone who's an enthusiast can be expectected to care about this car. But a secondary announcement which coincided with the big reveal was that a Camry would be the Official Pace Car for the Daytona 500 in February. This is apparently supposed to be a big deal as well, being that the 500 is such an iconic race and all: I guess the assumption is that red-blooded American racefans will be all sore and that Toyota will have further opportunity to gloat, and to again point to its few flagship factories in the South that help create the illusion that Toyota is "basically an American company." But whatevs! Toyota products have paced plenty of NASCAR races already, since who gets to pace is largely a product of which manufacturer has dumped the most money into sponsorship at a given track. And yes, if it's a race you're attending it's always a bit of a letdown to see a soulless commuter appliance put-putting along out in front of the field instead of some badass new muscle car. But it's not like the 500 won't be the 500. What's the big deal?

This car popped up recently on Speedhunters. I was curious about it, so I asked folks over on Moparts and got the scoop. Sean Machado owns a real Daytona but built this clone for play. Having driven Musto's car, I can say there is nothing more awesome or intimidating than a purpose-built Daytona clone. More pics after the jump, plus video of Sean's car running at Willow Springs--be sure to turn up the volume!

My pics from the Daytona 500 are live over in the Events section! I think I can now safely say that Daytona International Speedway is the one major track that I've literally been all over: I've watched races there from the grandstands, from the pits, and from the infield. Garage and pit-lane access is awesome at any track, and if you ever get the chance you should totally experience at least part of a race from the pits. But in a flat pit area with no structures to climb on, you really don't get to see a whole lot except what's going by right in your face on the frontstretch. So what vantage point is your best bet? I think I found the sweet spot. Continue reading...

The Pennzoil car has been the No. 29 Chevrolet for about as long as I've been into NASCAR, but I think I like it better as a Dodge. The redesigned Charger front clip looks hot, and I'm way into the new retro scalloped flames. Robbie Gordon's orange No. 7 was also a stunner as a Dodge at Daytona, and Trevor Bayne's 21 Ford looked retro-cool as well, though Jeff Gordon's once-proud Dupont car looked like a blob of maroon nothing, even if he was representing a great cause with the AARP's Drive to End Hunger. How about you, notice any paint-scheme wins or fails at the season's first race weekend?

There has to be a joke in here somewhere. Since when is Mater a rusty H1 anyway? Spotted in the Daytona merchandise area.