This is my understanding so far, hope folks here willing to fill in the gaps and correct me where I’ve gone wrong. My understanding is that Pontiac actually did 2 separate tribute projects regarding the John Zink 1957 Daytona Beach speed record. The 1st tribute was the 2-minute video with narration by Patrick Stewart. The video was produced in 1989 and the car used in the video was provided by John Thropp.
John Zink at Daytona Beach 1957 Tribute Video
John Thropp was a member of POCI and also a member of the Safari Chapter. According to the chapter briefs section of the October 1982 issue of Smoke Signals magazine, a new Safari chapter officer for 1983 was chapter vice president John Thropp. John also had quite a career as a drag racer and was runner up in Stock Eliminator at the 1969 Dallas World Finals driving a F.I. Pontiac.
John’s drag racing car was altered to match as closely as possible the appearance of the original John Zink record setting car. Since the drag car was a hardtop and the Zink record setting car was a post, fake posts made of wood and painted white were attached to the car on either side to make the car appear like a post model to the casual observer. Is it possible that John Thropp himself was the driver of the car for the video? He would have certainly been qualified to do so.
Sadly, John passed away on November 18, 1994 and the following announcement appeared in the January 1995 issue of Smoke Signals.
Hopefully that car has survived and it would sure be interesting if any memorabilia from the tribute video project has stayed with the car and could be recovered and shared.
The 2nd tribute was this photo that appeared inside front cover of 1991 Pontiac full line brochure. This photo was taken in spring 1990 and as far as I know there is no video from this tribute, just the photo. This is not the John Thropp car, this car was restored by John Fitzgerald and Pontiac Restorations of Jupiter FL back in the late 1980’s. At the time of the photo the car was owned by Gerald Adcox. When the assets of the ’57 Heaven Museum in Branson Mo were auctioned off in October 2009, this car was the 8th most expensive sale at $192,500. I presume the buyer was satisfied that the documentation that came with the car confirmed it is the actual car driven by John Zink at Daytona Beach back in 1957. John Zink passed way in February 2005.
