OceanofPDF.

com
 Copyright © 2010 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
“Off the Fast Track” adapted by Paula Richards, illustrated by the Disney
Storybook Artists, based on the movie Cars. Copyright © 2006 Disney
Enterprises, Inc./Pixar. Disney/Pixar elements © Disney/Pixar; Hudson
Hornet is a trademark of Chrysler LLC; Volkswagen trademarks, design
patents and copyrights are used with the approval of the owner,
Volkswagen AG; Model T is a registered trademark of Ford Motor
Company; Fiat is a trademark of Fiat S.p.A.; Chevrolet Impala is a
trademark of General Motors; Porsche is a trademark of Porsche; Jeep®
and the Jeep® grille design are registered trademarks of Chrysler LLC;
Mercury is a registered trademark of Ford Motor Company; Cadillac
Ranch background inspired by the Cadillac Ranch by Ant Farm (Lord,
Michels and Marquez) © 1974.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without written permission from the publisher. For information
address Disney Press, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-
5690.
ISBN: 978-1-4231-4396-3
Visit [Link]
[Link]
Beep! Beep! Lightning McQueen, the fastest race car around, awoke with
a start. Cars were honking at him. Suddenly, he saw the headlights of a big
truck. It was headed straight for him! Lightning panicked but managed to
veer out of the way. He realized he had been driving the wrong way on the
Interstate!

Earlier that day, Lightning had ended up in a three-way tie for first
place in the biggest race of the year, the Dinoco 400. He got into his trailer
and took off with his driver, Mack, for California right away. That was the
site of the tiebreaker. Lightning was a rookie race car and this was his shot
at fame and fortune. He wanted to get there as quickly as possible.
So he made Mack drive all night instead of stopping to rest.
Along the way, Lightning had dozed off. Now here he was, careening
down the wrong lane of the Interstate.
Lightning began to search for Mack. He saw a truck going down an
exit ramp and followed it. But when he caught up, he realized it wasn’t
Mack, after all.
 He drove back toward the Interstate. Then he heard sirens wailing
behind him. Woo-woo! He slowed down, thinking the Sheriff could point
him in the right direction.
But when the Sheriff’s tailpipe backfired, Lightning thought he was
being shot at!
 Lightning zigged and zagged as fast as he could, trying to avoid the
bullets he thought were headed toward him. The next thing the race car
knew, he had driven into a sleepy-looking town.
“What?” he cried. “That’s not the Interstate!” He realized he’d been
going the wrong way. He raced into the quiet town with the Sheriff still
chasing him.
Suddenly, Lightning saw a line of traffic cones in front of him. He
swerved to avoid them, which caused him to spin. Then he smashed into a
fence, some tires, and a statue, and ended up dangling from two telephone
poles. Along the way, he’d done all kinds of damage, including ruining the
town’s main road.
The Sheriff rolled up to him. “Boy, you’re in a heap of trouble,” he
said.
When Lightning woke up the next morning, he was locked in the
local impound lot. He tried to move but couldn’t. A yellow parking boot
was on his tire!

Lightning looked up and saw a rusty tow truck. “Where am I?” he

asked.
“You’re in Radiator Springs, the cutest little town in Carburetor
County!” replied the tow truck, whose name was Mater.
Lightning looked around. The town looked old and run-down to him.
And this tow truck didn’t seem very smart.
“You know,” said Lightning, getting an idea, “I’d love to see the rest
of the town, so if you could just open the gate, take this boot off, you and
me—we’ll go cruisin’, check out the local scene.”
 “Cool!” cried Mater. He started to open the gate until a loud, stern
voice stopped him.
“Mater! Quit your yappin’ and tow this delinquent road hazard to
traffic court.” It was the Sheriff.
Before long, Lightning was standing in front of Doc Hudson, the
town’s judge. The Sheriff had told Lightning to expect to be put away for
good.
“I want him out of our town!” Doc yelled, when he found out
Lightning was a race car.
Just then, a sleek, blue sports car rolled in. Lightning thought she was
from his lawyer’s office. “Thanks for coming,” he told her, “but we’re all
set. He’s letting me go.”

“Letting you go?” she asked in disbelief. It turned out she was Sally,
the town’s attorney, and she wanted the road fixed. She convinced
everyone that the town’s survival depended on it.
In the end, Doc told Lightning that he had to repair the damaged road
before he could leave.
Lightning was not happy. When he saw Bessie, the massive,
steaming, dripping, road-paving machine he’d have to pull, he decided to
make a run for it.
 As soon as Mater took off his parking boot, Lightning sped away.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get too far—his gas tank had been emptied.
With no other choice, Lightning got to work. The Sheriff hitched him
up to Bessie, then the race car inched along as hot tar oozed onto the road.
Lightning hated it.

The race car pulled Bessie along as quickly as he could. Soon he had
finished, but the road was all bumpy.
“The deal was, you fix the road,” Doc said sternly, “not make it
worse. Start over.”
Lightning couldn’t take it anymore. “Hey, look, Grandpa, I’m not a
bulldozer. I’m a race car,” he replied.
“Then why don’t we just have a little race, me and you?” Doc
challenged him. “If you win, you go, and I fix the road. If I win, you do
the road my way.”
This was it—Lightning’s chance to get to California in time for the
big race! All he had to do was beat this old clunker. “You know what, old-
timer?” he replied confidently. “That’s a wonderful idea. Let’s race.”
Lightning, Doc, and all the cars from town drove to Willy’s Butte.
“Speed. I am speed,” Lightning repeated as he revved his engine. The
flag dropped and the race car bolted.
 When the dust cleared, Doc was still at the starting line. “Come on,
Mater,” Doc said. “Might need a little help.”
Mater and Doc started after the race car, taking their time.
Meanwhile, Lightning had zoomed ahead and was approaching the turn
around the butte. But then, just as he started into the sharp left turn, he lost
control and went soaring over a steep ledge—straight into a cactus grove.

A few minutes later, Doc and Mater peered down at the race car.
“You drive like you fix roads!” Doc yelled down to him. “Lousy.” Then,
he drove away and left Mater to tow Lightning out.
 Later that night, Lightning was angrily scraping the bumpy asphalt
off the road. “You race like you fix roads,” Lightning sputtered to himself,
repeating Doc’s words. “I’ll show him. I will show him.”
The next morning, the cars of Radiator Springs woke up to find a
brand-new, perfectly smooth section of road. Even Doc was impressed. He
looked over at Bessie, who was sitting quietly. Where was Lightning?
Just then, Doc heard the sound of a race car in the distance.
Doc headed over to the butte where Lightning had wiped out the day
before, and saw the race car practicing that sharp left turn. Lightning was
determined to find a way to make the turn. But he just kept crashing.
Doc decided to give the young race car some advice. “This is dirt,” he
told him. “You have to turn right to go left.”
Lightning thought this was bad advice, especially since it came from
an old car who didn’t know a thing about racing. But the next time he got
to the turn, he tried Doc’s suggestion at the very last minute—and sailed
off the cliff into the cactuses. He hadn’t done what Doc told him early
enough to make it work.
 Later, Lightning got back to work. But he noticed a change in the
other cars. They were nicer now that he had started to fix the road. They’d
started sprucing up their stores, too.
That night, Mater decided Lightning needed to have some fun. So
they went to a field filled with sleeping tractors. Then Mater snuck up to
one and honked his horn. Beeeep! The tractor woke up with a start, tipped
over, and snorted. Mater laughed and laughed. Then he said it was
Lightning’s turn. The race car didn’t have a horn, so he revved his engine
loudly. Vroom, vroom! All the tractors tipped over at once. Snort! Snort!
Snort!

On the way home, Mater showed the race car how to drive backward.
Lightning couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun.
The next morning, Lightning peeked into Doc’s garage and
discovered that Doc had once been a Piston Cup champion. When Doc
found Lightning there, he got angry and wouldn’t talk about his racing
days.
Later, Sally took Lightning for a drive. They stopped for a rest at an
overlook, and Lightning noticed that the Interstate bypassed Radiator
Springs. “They’re driving right by,” he said sadly. “They don’t even know
what they’re missing.”
Sally told him she dreamed of the town becoming prosperous again—
the way it had been before the Interstate was built.
When they returned to town, Lightning realized what a great time
he’d had. “Thanks for the drive,” he said. “It’s kind of nice to slow down
every once in a while.”
A little while later, Lightning caught Doc secretly racing at the butte.
He looked amazing. Doc told the rookie how the racing world had
forgotten about him after he’d had a big crash.
“Hey, look, Doc, I’m not one of them,” Lightning said.
“When is the last time you cared about something except yourself,
hot rod?” Doc demanded.
Lightning was speechless.
The next morning, the road was completely finished.
The Sheriff offered to escort Lightning out of town so he could get to
his big race on time, but Lightning wasn’t ready to leave yet. First, he
needed a new set of tires. Luigi, the tire shop owner, was thrilled!
Lightning was the first customer he’d had in years.
After getting a new set of whitewalls, Lightning stopped at every
store in town. He got gas at Fillmore’s Organic Fuel, tried out some night-
vision goggles at Sarge’s Surplus Hut, and got a brand-new paint job at
Ramone’s body shop.
“Ka-chow!” Lightning said with a laugh. He was glad he’d gotten to
help all of his new friends.
 That night, Lightning and the rest of the town surprised Sally. They
had fixed all the neon signs, and when she arrived, they turned them on.
Sally watched delightedly as the cars cruised along Main Street. The town
looked like it had in its heyday.
Lightning was happier than he’d ever been on a racetrack. The town
had taught him that winning races and being the fastest car weren’t as
important as having good friends and enjoying life.
[Link]