You shouldn't have to unzip the files at all - the installer does that automatically for you. If you have the zip.flmod.zip file, remove the last .zip and run the resulting file.
I *believe* the Tarsus is the ship you start out with, but I haven't done anything Freelancer for a long time. There were plans to import the more impressive model BradMick did for the Gemini Gold project, but nothing really came of that.