[herr_oberst]

I read every car book that the little school library had when I was a kid. There weren't very many of them, so I re-read 'em a lot....

There was another one where the kid (who had a twin brother who played the piano) built up a 55 chevy dragster, went racing, and eventually graduated to a rail dragster.

Then there was another one where some kids who lived in Detroit went to the soap box derby,

But "The Red Car" was the best. The kid bought a wrecked MGTC and fixed it up with the help of a grizzled old mechanic, "Frenchy", and entered a road race in his town. He couldn't drive it in the race because he was too young, so Frenchy (who it turned out was a famous racer back in the day) raced it while the kid rode shotgun...They raced against Oscas and Porsches and Simcas and the like. It established a romantic love of furrin cars in me!
(In a fit of nostalgia, I went on ebay to find it but copies are between 75 and a hundred bucks, so I shelved that urge to relive my yoot..)