At level 25 your class trainer sells you the Speeder license, for 40k credits. It allows you to drive speeders that run at 90% more than your default running speed (without Sprint). Speeders for that level are 8k each, and you can buy them in the fleet or in every planet from Tatooine onwards, until Quesh (that I have seen). At level 40 your class trainer sells you the advanced Speeder training, for 210-220k, can't remember which one. It allows for speeders running at 100% more than your default running speed. Speeders of this class cost 25k each, with some with more interesting looks costing 55k. At level 50 you can get another license, the price I can't say because I've yet to achieve level 50 (I'm close). This one allows for 110% speeders, as far as I've seen they can cost from 55k up to 99k, but there may be even more expensive ones...

Jedi Knight is the one that most surely will know earlier. One of the companions for the JK, Scourge, is involved with Revan very intimately. (Read the Revan novel for references, I'm not going to spoil anything else)

Yes, patience indeed, I am one of the december pre-orders, and even though I keyed the code last friday, site issues made it so I hadn't (even though the code had been used -by me) and yesterday I got confirmation of being pre-ordered (with my code, no less). I have actually got myself around to the thought of playing just from saturday onward. Anyway, good luck for those of november for today ^^