Daytona is historically known for its beach where the hard-packed sand allows motorised vehicles to drive on the beach in certain area.  This hard-packed sand made Daytona Beach a mecca for motor sport including the old Daytona Beach Road Course which hosted races for over 50 years until replaced in 1959 by the Daytona International Speedway.

The hard-packed sand made it the ideal location for Land Speed Record attempts, the last being Malcolm Campbell in 1935 when he set the record at 276.816 mph.  This marked the end of Daytona's land speed racing days as it had become too small for the speeds being reached and the centre of activity moved to the Bonneville Salt Flats.

When I visited in 2009 I paid the modest fee (around $10) to drive slowly along and even park and walk on the sand. It is very strange because it feels like concrete underfoot (and under wheel) unless you drive onto the white fluffy stuff when you will sink up to your axles and get a recovery vehicle to pull you out.