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If you’re one of the truly fortunate gents who owns a convertible and lives in Florida or SoCal, you can cruise year-round while your snowed-in friends send seething text messages after viewing Instagrams of your sunglass-bespectacled driving grin. And if you’re the (still pretty fortunate) cooler-clime convertible owner shooting off those angry texts? Well, you’re fast running out of time to enjoy the benefits of your soft (or retractable hard top) steed. But don’t fret.

If you prep properly, you can still squeeze in a few more chilly weekends. We’ve got all the gear you need to keep warm(ish) and stylish as you top-down drive to your heart’s content. MORE GEAR KITS: .

Many old timers bemoan the state of “stock car” racing–noting how cars that race in NASCAR today are anything but “stock.” It’s a common gripe but it is doubtful that many people know how much NASCAR has evolved since its first race in 1949. Quick: Guess how many cars were in the largest field ever to see the green flag drop in a cup race? Yes, 82 cars started the 1951 Southern 500 and other races that year routinely ran more than 43 cars. But that’s not the craziest thing NASCAR did in the 1950s. Prithviraj Chauhan Star Plus Serial All Songs.

From 1956 to 1962, NASCAR had a division for convertible stock cars. Digu Dasa Dutuwama Tamil Mp3 on this page. And yes, they raced with the tops down.

It was apparently an afterthought for promoters who thought that spectators wanted a better look at the drivers on the tracks without that pesky opaque surface on the top of the car getting in the way. Roll bars were used by some racers but were apparently not required. While the idea of convertible racing seems bizarre by today’s standards, it was quite popular for a time. And many of the biggest names showed up in the convertible contests. Richard Petty picked up one of his 200 NASCAR wins in one on July 18, 1959 at Columbia Speedway. Also, the track was dirt. Spectators at dirt tracks often got caked in mud and dust by the end of the race.

What do you suppose the drivers looked like after driving in the dust storm with no roof for 200 laps? Granted, the cars were going a bit slower on that small track than we might expect for a NASCAR race. The pole speed of the race Petty won was a tad over 66 MPH and the winning average clocked at 56 MPH. But again, that’s on dirt in a convertible.

Many drivers pulled double duty, racing in the convertible division as well as the Grand National division. And, to save money, many of the drivers simply built a car with a removable roof. Slap it on for the GN and remove it for the convertible division. You know, the same way actual stock cars work. Convertibles no longer race in NASCAR but they left one major artifact behind. In 1959, when Bill France unveiled the Daytona International Speedway, he wanted the Grand Nationals and the convertibles both to compete in the big race.

So he held two qualifiers: one for the hard tops and one for the convertibles. That race consisted entirely of 21 convertibles racing to gain entry into the big show two days later. Both types of cars raced in the 500 on the 22nd of February.

However, the convertible division was dropped from NASCAR shortly after, probably because France wanted to focus on the Grand Nationals with their hard tops.