A young man named Speed Racer wants to become a professional racer, despite the lack of Pops Racer's (his father) approval. When Pops reluctantly quits his job after the corporation he was working for declined production of a modified engine for his new racing car, the Mach 5, he later thinks of creating his own family-owned company, Racer Motors (Mifune Motors in Japan). He realizes that he would need a great amount of money to make his idea work. Nonetheless, Pops conceals his plans for the Mach 5's new engine on a windshield. Speed, who values the welfare of his family, decides to take it upon himself to obtain the money for Pops. In hopes of using his unique driving skills to do so, Speed decides to do what he does best and enters a race.
Selected chapters of Tatsuo Yoshida's original Mach GoGoGo manga series were reprinted by Now Comics as Speed Racer Classics and by DC Comics/Wildstorm Productions as Speed Racer: The Original Manga (ISBN 1-56389-686-9). In 2008, a hardcover box set of the complete manga series was released by Digital Manga Publishing as Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go (ISBN 978-156970731-9).
The manga spawned an anime adaptation which became a bigger success than the manga which was created around the same time as its appearance. In 1997, Tatsunoko produced a modernized version of Mach GoGoGo which aired on TV Tokyo and lasted for 34 episodes. An English adaptation of this remake was produced by DiC titled Speed Racer X, which aired in 2002 on Nickelodeon, but only the first 11 episodes were adapted due to licensing disputes between DiC and the Speed Racer Enterprise.
In a 2008 interview with Chicago Tribune DVD columnist Louis R. Carlozo, Fernandez recalled that he landed the job working on Speed Racer after ghost-writing scripts for Astro-Boy and Gigantor. Simultaneously with Speed Racer, Fernandez also voiced the main character and wrote scripts for another anime series, Marine Boy, sometimes taping both shows in the same day in New York City. Fernandez also said he could not possibly have predicted Speed Racer's lasting appeal at the time or in the decades that followed. Reflecting on the series' staying power, he commented: There was the family relationship. You knew about Speed's family, you knew them well. They were all involved in each race. And we all play with cars as little kids, we love cars. The Mach 5 was a hot car, and there were all sorts of cars throughout all episodes. I still think the Mach Five is ahead of its time.
