After the death of his father, high school student Adam Cummins moves with his mother and sister and maybe other children from their Wyoming sheep ranch to Los Angeles. Country comes to town. Kind of like in Foolin' Around. Soon after arriving, Adam gets mixed up with Clyde "Clutch" Turner, a mannerless bully who enjoys pulling pranks on Adam and putting him down for his rural image. Clyde has an old pre-'69 Ford Econoline van. Adam, in turn, gets back at Clyde on a number of occasions, and the two soon become rivals. Adam gets a job in a service station. The station has a tow truck. I remember it as a '55 or '56 Ford. Adam has a friend named Beaner who has a mo-ped which Clyde demolishes. Adam's sister goes out with Clyde to a drive-in theater. Adam and one of his friends tow them out with the tow truck. I guess Clyde's girlfriend abandons Clyde for Adam. Adam has a 1965 or 1966 Ford pickup. Clyde and Adam race their vehicles on the street illegally. You'd think Clyde's van would have a six and would be a dog, but I guess it would beat Adam's pickup. Adam tells his boss he wants to put a bigger engine in his pickup. So he gets about 400 cubic inches. He beats Clyde's van in a street race. Clyde gets mad and wants to race on the beach along the ocean. So they do, and Clyde has a wreck and is trapped in his van, and the tide is coming in. Adam steals a tow truck off the road, an ex-military ragtop Jeep truck. He maybe could have winched it out of the water, but he tries pulling it, and the wheels just spin in the sand. Will Adam save Clyde's life? Would Clyde and Adam become friends if he did? Will Adam stay in California or go back to Wyoming?
Review of Rivals
