History 1955 Kurtis KK500

I wrote a short bit about the prettier version of the 500KK here.

 

Don't forget Dan Gurney and the All-American Racers Eagle. He only ran one season but won the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix. This was the only American car to win an F1 race. Ever. Gurney was one of three drivers in history to win an F1 race in a car of his own design and construction. The Eagle is also regarded as one of the most beautiful F1 cars produced and I agree. Gurney was a hot rodder through and through and I consider him an American hero. He built and competed in very successful Indy cars, had a very successful GT career, and tore up British Saloon racing in his '61 409 Impala. That's just the high points, not enough room here to do justice to his accomplishments.

 

My uncles road racers built in the Philippines circa late 50’s early 60’s. If uncle buddy was still with us I’d ask what powered it. Alas my cousin Edna just p***ed.

 

Several most read books to have. Also picked up a book called Touch Wood ( found it is an autographed version) for $2 on Sunday. It’s the autobiography of Duncan Hamilton who raced all throughout Europe and a stint at Sebring. While he was British and raced primarily Jaguars, it is an excellent read on just how wild the racing (& dangerous) scene was in the 1950’s.

 

I've been getting re acquainted with some of these American road race specials through a series of articles run in Vintage Motorsport magazine back in 1992-93. They ran a 10 part series featuring all sorts of really cool (and famous) American (home)built sports car specials that terrorized the snooty 'furrin' cars. Does the Kurtis book have any good photos/ technical data on the Kurtis 500 series of sports cars?

 

The 1st footage is from the short movie "The Sound of Speed" made by Bruce Kessler. The Scarab at that point had one of their small block Chevy engines built for the sports car. If I knew how to get the video on here, I'd post it. But I'm a computer illiterate...

Look up that short movie The Sound of Speed, it's 20 minutes long give or take, and crank up the audio, it's amazing.

BTW Kessler became a big deal in Hollywood, and was involved with the movie Grand Prix a****st others. He helped develop a lot of the camera technologies used for years in movies.

 

Fantastic thread!

 

I haven't perused my copy of the Kurtis-Kraft book in awhile, so I can't answer your question right now, but a point of interest in that book is a rather large photo of a very. very youthful (at the time) fellow HAMB member behind the wheel of a Kurtis 1/4 midget ... Dean Lowe
He spent a considerable amount of time with his dad in Frank's shop.

 

There is a basic dimension drawing of the 500kk ch***is.

 

I'd just like to say we were certainly on the right track, although "behind the rest of the world", but on
the right track with production Sports cars in the 50's. Then in steps the insurance companies, to put
big figures on anything connected to a Sports car. This saw the end of the two place Thunderbird. The
big three had to do something, because the American public were clamoring for performance cars. They
had to convince the public that the huge family sedan was a Hot Rod and we know where that went. The
insurance companies had an answer for this as well. If it had more H.P. than 10% of the cars weight, it
was a Hot Rod and you were going to pay. Anyway that's my take on Sports cars in the U.S.

 

It's not just the insurance companies, they are taxed by C.I. also.