I need to point out that it's "brakes are good", not "breaks are good". This is a car, not an egg. You have a car street race with an amalgam of 2 time periods: directly when cars first started being made (the Model A) and some time later, when roads were paved and marked, probably Prohibition, when fast cars were needed by rumrunners. Our Model A driver is a young man, probably still in high school, out joy-riding with his buddies. There have to be at least 2 others in the car with him ("the fellas"), he's speeding ("passin' cars like they was standing still") and he's challenged by the Cadillac. If the driver of the Cadillac knew where the cops were - verse 12, he set up the Lincoln driver (verse 11, last line.) Probably ruined the Lincoln's motor, too, if everything was "knocking"; last car I heard knocking threw engine rods. And, let's face it, our storyteller is known to the police: Son, you're going to drive me to drinkin'/ If you don't stop drivin' that hot rod Lincoln'.