Teenage Hotrodders #6

Rick Roberts races against the clock to make a crucial appointment with his wealthy boss, Cyrus B. Eagle—only to be fired on the spot for his tardiness and, more seriously, for driving a competitor's car without permission. Blackballed from every professional team, Rick's only path back to the driver's championship is to pilot an experimental Ferguson with unconventional 4-wheel drive, a car that will demand he master an entirely new racing technique. With his future on the line and a score to settle, Rick prepares to take on the world's best drivers in a long shot bid to reclaim his career.

This non-fiction feature traces the evolution of the hot rod, from the early days when modified Fords served double duty on street and lake, to the purpose-built dragsters that dominated the quarter-mile strips by the early 1960s. Through detailed illustrations of specialized components—slicks, racing cams, aluminum rods—the piece explains how dragsters became the ultimate acceleration machines, capable of nothing else but moving you from standing start to the finish line faster than anything else on wheels.