This Fireball Roberts 'tribute' race car on eBay will turn heads

Vintage race cars are red-hot in the collector-car market right now, especially ones with detailed racing history and proof of provenance. But even so-called "tribute" cars are getting respect if they're done right.

What's a tribute car? It's one with no racing history that was built to emulate a genuine race car of a bygone era. Which brings us to this beauty we found on eBay.

It's a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 tribute car that pays homage to the real thing that Fireball Roberts raced nearly 60 years ago in the old NASCAR Convertible Division that operated from 1956-59.

Roberts won in four of 16 Convertible Division starts he made, including the 1957 Rebel 300 at Darlington Raceway.

The seller describes his car thusly: "This car took a couple of years to build and is completely ready to go. We used the correct 312 Y bock motor (which was rebuilt), a 3 speed manual column shifter, the correct rear end. All the body molding, chrome and badging we all love from is correct from the '57 era. The paint is beautiful and the colors are exactly the same as Fireball Roberts drove for the convertible series of NASCAR. The car was never raced, but was purpose-built to represent this era of racing."

We don't know the seller or the car, but it sure is a neat-looking throwback to a bygone era.

Here's the link to the sale, and below are a few more photos of the car.