Hot Rods and Racing Cars #79

Clint Curtis and his friend Alex clash with the wealthy and arrogant Smedley Boggs when the showman's prized Bugatti forces their hot rod off the road, leaving it badly scratched. When Clint confronts Boggs and demands compensation, the millionaire brushes him off with condescension and legal threats, smugly retreating to his car. As Clint and Alex leave the parking lot, Boggs roars back onto the highway with darker intentions, setting up a reckoning between the self-made hot rodder and the pampered collector.

The legendary Mille Miglia of 1952 sees Europe's greatest racing teams—Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Porsche, and more—converge on the brutal 1,000-mile Italian course, with drivers memorizing every turn as thousands of passionate spectators line the roads to witness history. When the race begins on May 4th, a fierce battle unfolds between a Ferrari piloted by Bracco and the German Mercedes-Benz entry driven by Kling and Klenk, with fog, rain, and treacherous Alpine foothills claiming lives and testing man and machine to their absolute limits.

Clint Curtis lands a job with a fast-growing auto parts company, impressed by his hotrodding background, and is paired with a brash, high-pressure salesman who teaches him the cutthroat tactics of the trade. When his mentor's reckless driving habits spark an unexpected crisis, Curtis faces a hard choice about the kind of operator he wants to become.

Clint Curtis wrestles with a tough choice when a smooth-talking salesman offers him a lucrative job—but Curtis's misgivings about the man's reckless driving and cutthroat tactics force him to walk away. Meanwhile, young racing driver Mel Marlin faces his own crossroads after a critic challenges him to prove his skill by winning in an inferior car, a decision that will test his nerve and determination over the next decade of his career.