Hot Rod Comics #5

When Jim's country cousin comes to town and impulsively buys what he thinks is a finished hot rod for a bargain price, Clint Curtis smells something fishy—and his quick thinking saves Jim from a costly mistake. After exposing the seller's con, Clint and the Road Knights band together to help Jim build a real hot rod from scratch, pouring weeks of sweat and know-how into transforming a bare chassis into a genuine street machine. But their handiwork attracts unwanted attention when the car proves faster than anyone bargained for.

In 1952, Hot Rod Comics showcases the nimble Class H sports cars that are capturing the racing world—compact, lightweight machines from France, Italy, and beyond that prove displacement means nothing when engineering and ingenuity are on your side. From the record-breaking French D.B. to the agile Italian Bandini and Nardie, this non-fiction feature explores the technical innovations and specifications that make these tiny engines deliver outsized performance on road and track.

When Mid City High completes an ambitious hot rod project, Clint Curtis pushes to hold a driving contest to select the test pilot—but first has to convince Principal Dusenberry to approve it. After a chance collision with a new student named Betty Banker damages his own car, Clint finds an unexpected partner to get back in the race, and the contest grows into a school-wide sensation.