The consummate Florida beach town, with its T-shirt shops, amusement arcades and wall-to-wall motels, DAYTONA BEACH owes its existence to twenty miles of light brown sand where the only pressure is to strip off and enjoy yourself. Once a favorite Spring Break destination when half a million college kids would indulge in underage drinking and libido liberation, Daytona Beach now discourages such activity, leaving it free to focus on its true love: motor sports. Life in this down-to-earth resort now revolves around three major festivals: February's Daytona 500, Bike Week in early March, and the relatively new Biketoberfest .
Pioneering auto enthusiasts, including Louis Chevrolet, Ransom Olds and Henry Ford, came to Daytona's firm sands in the early 1900s to race prototype vehicles beside the ocean. The land speed record was smashed five times by the British millionaire Malcolm Campbell who, in 1935, roared along at 276mph. When high speeds made racing on the sands unsafe, the Daytona International Speedway , an ungainly configuration of concrete and steel, was built three miles west of downtown along International Speedway Boulevard (buses #9A and #9B).
Opened in 1959, it seats 150,000 and hosts several major race meetings each year, starting in early February with the Rolex 24 , a 24-hour race for GT prototype sports cars. A week or so later the qualifying races start for the year's biggest event, the Daytona 500 stock-car race in mid-February. Tickets sell out well in advance (a weekend package from $220; tel 904/253-7223); book accommodation at least six months ahead. Though they can't capture the excitement of a race, guided van tours (daily except race days 9.30am-5pm, every half-hour; $6) take you around the remarkable curves, whose gradients make this the fastest racetrack in the world.
Immediately outside the Speedway, Daytona USA (daily 9am-7pm; $12) exhibits one of Campbell's many Bluebirds, the car in which he broke the land speed record at Ormond Beach in 1931, as well as interactive displays on the great races. A mile west, the Klassix Auto Museum at 2909 W International Speedway Blvd (daily 9am-6pm; $8.50) displays pristine examples of every Corvette design from 1953 on, plus vintage motorcycles and a 1938 Woody Wagon that boasts a top speed of 50mph.
For all the excitement that racing generates, the best thing about Daytona is the seemingly limitless beach: 500ft wide at low tide and fading dreamily into the heat haze. Lined with an all-but-endless procession of enormous but surprisingly low-priced motels, oceanfront Atlantic Avenue holds little to lure you away from the water. At the landward end of Main Street Pier, a $3 ride up the candy-striped Space Needle enables you to look down on the surrounding morass of low-rent bars and tattoo parlors. You can't get to the far end of the pier, though, because Hurricane Floyd knocked out 280ft of it in 1999.