Street Rod

Sixteen-year-old Ricky Madison is the only boy in Dellville without his own hot rod, and he is tired of bumming rides from his friends. Going against his parents' wishes, he uses his savings to buy a car of his own: a junker that he is determined to turn into the fastest, sleekest racer on the road. Wild nights of highway racing, pranking unsuspecting drivers, and competing with his buddies quickly turn the town against him and the other teenage drivers. But Ricky has an idea that will redeem himself and his friends in the eyes of the town, all while showing them how far he can really go with his coupe.

Street Rod captured the heart and soul of 1950s hot rod culture. This carefully crafted edition presents the beloved story of Madison’s hard-driving path to rodding redemption. Dig in and learn what millions of readers already know; the world’s most popular hot rod series is a hopped-up high-horsepower thrill ride.

After struggling financially during the Depression, Felsen sold nine books and hundreds of stories in his first eighteen months of full-time freelance writing in the early 1940s. After war service with the Marine Corps, during which he edited the Corps magazine Leatherneck and wrote magazine articles while stationed in the Pacific, he returned to Iowa where he lived for most of the rest of his life. His best-selling book was Hot Rod, one of a rodding series that also included Street Rod and Crash Club and sold about eight million copies in all. He wrote about 60 books, many of them moralistically exploring the evils of drugs, sexism, and racism.