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First Drive: 1949 Kurtis Sport Car (part: #2)

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vendredi 17 janvier 2014
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For the first cars, fenders, hood and trunk lid are fiberglass . While Kurtis considered switching to the production of aluminum as ramp up later cars had steel wings , which were much less expensive to
manufacture . The dashboard and rear deck around the cockpit were cast aluminum , and the doors were made of steel. The simple coating , clean and elegant, and good proportions , with the front wheels and pushed forward to give a nice long - axis report relates . Rear wheels in keeled added to look modern and efficient , and full body defenses on the main track , he gave a muscular look compared to the more delicate European sports cars of the time.

Two prototypes were built. KB003 is the first production car , completed in early 1949. Well, sort of. According to contemporary reports, Kurtis played with the idea of offering a choice of different engine in the car. Tester Tom McCahill legendary road , which led to what appears to be an unfinished KB003 for Mechanix Illustrated in early 1949 , said Kurtis considering Offenhauser racing engines and British Lea - Francis tailor and least - expensive U.S. production V-8 with and without compressor.

McCahill tested the car was powered by a supercharged Studebaker Champion with side -valve six-cylinder , and KB003 was designed to have a Stude engine. There was also Studebaker suspension - independent front with a transverse leaf spring differential , brakes, and wheels, all from Champion . But when Studebaker was not coming through a tender engine to enable the production , Kurtis took the offer Benson Ford Parts Ford, and installed a flat V - 8 instead.

KB003 had a difficult life. After reaching 142 mph at Bonneville , its engine at full stroke , built by Bobby Meeks Edelbrock , was removed and a flat more streetable installed. The car was used as a promotional vehicle Kurtis and Ed Walsh for a number of years before being sold to a rider on the East Coast that destroyed the engine in the early 1950s. KB003 was then sold again , shipped to Colorado, and equipped with a Cadillac engine and then sold again and crashed in Kansas in 1960. The car went through a chain of ownership to Salt Lake
City collector DeWayne Ashmead received a call five years ago that Kurtis was almost completely restored in the market .

Although Kurtis had enough fresh air when it came to the shop Ashmead outside Salt Lake City , he was , he said, " desperate " cases under the new paint. A large part of the frame was rusted and need to be changed . and find the identification number during removal , which is clearly the single from this car that does the job more difficult. "It was a real pleasure to discover that we had the car Bonneville " DeWayne said , " but then we realized the previous restorer had tried to force all Ford parts on it. We had to go buy a Ford car parts , and a Studebaker car parts . " And again.

1949 Kurtis Sport Car Rear In Motion A number of parties , such as the exhaust of three single output and badges Kurtis had to be made from scratch, referencing photographs published in Motor Trend and Hot Rod. The hardest part was to find a framework windshield - the original, a piece of chromed cast bronze, was destroyed in the accident Kansas 50 years ago . Ashmead had located a windshield of a Muntz Jet ( see box) and was about to use it when he finally finds a Kurtis element.

Ashmead is a maniac to detail - each bolt on Kurtis is good time , for example, from cars and junkyards parts. He frequently communicated with parks and the son of Frank Arlen Kurtis during recovery , gleaning nuggets of information to get the car as close to how it was back in 1949. An essential fact emerged from a conversation with Parks on his racing Bonneville . Parks Ashmead said : "I am in [ the car ] and Bobby Meeks said, ' Do not drive over 6000 rpm . I returned from the first leg and said there must be something wrong that I could not get 3500 rpm . I discovered Kurtis had put a marine speedometer in the car [ a 2:01 drive] , and it was only playing at half speed . "

" That's when we realized the speedometer unit has been changed," said Ashmead . "We run the generator, but we realized that it should have come from the crankshaft. We had all built engine and a photo arrived and proved that we had built properly. "

1949 Kurtis Sport Car Overdrive I slip into the spacious cockpit - the Kurtis feels as wide as Wyoming contemporary British and Italian sports cars side. The bucket seats are wide and flat , more like a cross bench in half something kiss your hips to the Stelvio Pass . You sit near the ground, comfortably installed in the high Kurtis body size, flying giant Ford Crestliner close to your chest . An array of sparkling guilloche edge features what appears to be the entire Stewart- Warner catalog smaller empty water temperature , fuel pressure , fuel level , ammeter and oil pressure gauges complete a tachometer 8000 rpm and 140 mph speedo . The odometer indicates only 28.4 miles , the total distance traveled by the car from its two-year restoration was completed .

I twist the key to the standards of today seems fragile and tiny, and a punch on the start button . Fires flathead instantly moved to a regular idle. I come back to me before and the handle which germinates from the left side of the transmission tunnel . Pull the clutch and feed in some regimes, and former Kurtis pulls gently away , just like that.