{"id":1190,"date":"2020-08-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/muntz-jet-2\/"},"modified":"2020-10-06T18:29:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T18:29:56","slug":"muntz-jet-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/muntz-jet-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Muntz Jet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost exactly one year ago we reported about the work of Frank Kurtis from California. His love for automobiles broke through at the age of 14 when he began an apprenticeship with Don Lee Coachbuilders in Los Angeles. Later he successfully produced racing cars for the midget, sprint and Indy car series in his own company Kurtis-Kraft. Whether on the muddy bullring circuits or the paved oval, Kurtis racers collected one success after another. Besides, Frank built one-off cars for special customers and vehicles for Hollywood movies. After he had built a sports car in 1948 based on a 1941 Buick that had had an accident, he came up with the idea of making a small series out of it. For this purpose he revised the platform of the then current Studebaker Champion, into which he wanted to implement the newly developed Studebaker V8 engine. Above, he drew an independent, as simple and light as possible bodywork made of aluminium, steel and glass fibre reinforced plastic. As the engine was delayed in coming to market due to some development difficulties, Kurtis turned to Ford and purchased their flathead V8 instead. After only 15 units he lost interest in this project and sold the rights to Earl Muntz, whom many called just ‘Madman’.

He had earned this reputation as a used car dealer by repeatedly running TV commercials in which he himself appeared. This turned his showrooms into tourist attractions, which at the same time generated good sales figures and thus profits. Muntz later proved his business sense and engineering spirit as a developer and salesman of consumer cars, stereo systems and TV sets. In the early 1950s, however, he wanted to draw attention to himself and his business with his own sports car. To this end, he had the wheelbase of the chassis extended by 33 centimeters (13 inches) by Frank Kurtis in order to install an additional rear seat. Meanwhile, a 5.4-liter V8 engine from Cadillac was installed under the hoof, with a Lincoln V8 also being offered as an alternative. Thus the Muntz Jet became one of the fastest American cars of its time. The pontoon-shaped body with covers in front of the rear wheels was semi-unitary.<\/p>\n\n\n

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