Speed Smith, the Hot Rod King #1

Speed Smith takes a globe-trotting tour of traffic laws and road rules from around the world, discovering everything from Sweden's abolished speed limits to Poland's unusual sound-based traffic signals. This educational jaunt reveals the quirky—and sometimes bewildering—driving customs that hot-rodders encounter in countries across Europe and beyond.

Speed Smith picks up two hitchhikers on the way to the Indianapolis Speedway—an elderly gentleman named Roscoe Roarback and his granddaughter Eve—and offers them shelter out of the kindness of his heart. When Roscoe learns about Speed's new triple-set-up invention and its winning potential, his old habits resurface, setting off a chain of deceit that threatens to cost Speed everything just as the big race begins. It's a story about how a good deed can backfire, and whether courage or mechanical advantage really wins the day.

When Elmville's hot-rodders are driven off the streets by a newspaper publisher's crusade against them, they seem destined for exile—until a catastrophic train wreck leaves the town desperate for the one thing only their souped-up machines can deliver. Eddie Brook and his crew race against time to save lives in ways no ordinary vehicle could manage, forcing the community to reckon with what it's cast aside.

Speed Smith rolls into a shabby local track run by the shady Lippy Lipton, only to discover the promoter has been using his name in false advertising to draw crowds. When Speed insists on racing as promised to protect the paying public, he finds himself behind the wheel of a battered jalopy on a dangerously neglected course—and learns just how far Lipton will go to line his own pockets. It's a gritty look at the con artists preying on stock car racing and the drivers willing to stand up to them.

Mel Tork, a hot-rod enthusiast dismissed as a meathead by nearly everyone around him—his classmates, his teachers, even Joan, the girl he likes—finds himself fired from his job and facing expulsion from school, all while pouring his real passion into building his custom car. When a mechanical failure forces automobile manufacturer Rick Wilton to seek out the fastest ride in town, Mel's hot-rod proves itself capable of saving Wilton's business and earning the man's respect in a single hour. Sometimes the people who don't fit the mold are exactly what the world needs.