Kurtis Sports Car...info says it used 1950 Ford running gear with a trim 100 inch wheelbase. I don't know if I've ever seen something like a shoebox roadster...any ideas?
Kurtis sold the company/design to Muntz. They're even neater. Muntz produced from 50-55 then Kurtis started again. Kurtis was an indy car builder, so he understood building for speed.
Muntz only created 194 of their Muntz Jets........all came with a carson top. They have a MASSIVE Muntz club here in California. All cars are accounted for and registered with some sort of Muntz foundation. This car is #168 of the 194 made. It's near and dear to my heart, as is the man who owns it. You can see it's carson top on the wall in the second picture......complete car, just sitting. xxx
Weeeeeeeeell, tell ya what..........if yer a REAL good boy, maybe, just maybe you can find one of the televisions Muntz made for the 5 bones you were gunna throw away on this car. xxx
Brandy- What year is that Muntz? It has to be between 51 and 54 with that top. Does it still have the original L-Head Lincoln engine? Talk about a switch, a caddy 331 in '50 to a Lincoln L-head!
It does have the original drive train still............the car has NOT changed since it was built. I believe if I remember correctly it was a 52......but I usually have my head stuffed in it's garage mate.
Nah I lied, there are only 194 SURVIVING Muntz Jets out of 394 made. This is a photo from here in Tehachapi. They dropped the Caddy mill because they weren't selling. Muntz then made an agreement with Benson Ford to use Lincolns, you could even have your Muntz serviced at a Ford dealership. Personally, Ed Muntz had a vision that just didn't make it off the ground.......a bit like Tucker sadly enough.
Mad Man Muntz! I can still remember the TV ads in the 50's for his TV sets. Creative engineering making most tubes perform multiple tasks thereby reducing the parts count. But they were horribly unreliable, overstressed and virtually impossible to fix as every one was hand built and tweaked. I wonder if the Muntz Jet was related in any way to the short lived Hudson Jet of 53-4? The Hudson used a tiny 202 inch 6 and was another forerunner of the compact car along with the Henry J.
And then Mad Man Muntz came out with the 4 track, then the 8 track and then the 4 / 8 track combination cassette stereo tape decks - endless tape - in the '60's for installation in cars. They were short lived because dust in the air would wear the tape and the head(s) very quickly. (so the tape could "slip" it had a lubrication in it that acted like a valve grinding compound when dust got on it) I was a service manager for one of his dealers (for about 4 months) and constantly was having to replace heads and tapes. I'm not sure, but if I remember correctly, radio stations used the transport part in the early days of stereo radio and still do in older stations for ad spots because they could be setup to self que.
There's actually a pretty significant Muntz custom lurking out there. It was done by Joe Bailon in the '50's. The car is currently being restored and supposedly headed for Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale auction in January. Start saving your pennies now!
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