Hot Rods to Hell is a 1967 American suspense film, the last by director John Brahm. The film was based on a 1956 Saturday Evening Post story by Alex Gaby, "52 Miles to Terror", which was the working title of the film. ABC bought the broadcast rights and aired the film as part of its ABC Sunday Night Movie series in 1968, using a 100-minute print. When Turner Classic Movies bought the rights to MGM's extensive film library, they acquired the 100-minute print. Plot Traveling salesman Tom Phillips (Dana Andrews) is driving home to Boston, Massachusetts for Christmas when he encounters a drunken driver on a rain-streaked road. He cannot avoid a collision, and is hospitalized with spinal damage. Since he can no longer be a traveling salesman, his brother arranges for Tom to buy a remote motel in the desert town of Mayville, California. Tom is reluctant because he has never been an innkeeper before, but he decides that he must travel in order to get as far away from the site of his accident as possible, as soon as possible. Tom sets out for California with his wife, teenage daughter and son. But when they reach the desert, they are accosted by a pair of drag racers and a "party girl" in a modified, high-performance 1958 Chevrolet Corvette who jokingly force them to swerve and avoid a collision. A series of escalating encounters with the local youth ensues. Teenage children of relatively well-to-do local farmers, they are bored and constantly seeking thrills. The adults, including the owner of a local filling station, are fed up with them. However, one of these adults owns the motel that Tom Phillips has bought, and he is selling out after having let the wayward youth use the motel as an illicit trysting place for years. When Tom tells the filling-station owner that he has "just bought himself a motel," one of the kids named Ernie (Gene Kirkwood) overhears. Soon after, he tells his friend Duke (Paul Bertoya), who is the driver of the Corvette. Duke organizes a campaign of harassment against Tom and chases the hapless family all the way to the motel. Matters come to a dangerous head when Tom's daughter (Laurie Mock), fascinated by Duke, goes to see him in the motel bar and grill, called the Arena. Duke's current girlfriend Gloria (Mimsy Farmer), in a jealous rage, informs Tom,