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vendredi 17 janvier 2014 -
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As this car was originally intended to be Studebaker voltage , the motor is under slightlyhigher than normal - too high, in fact, the air filters to climb to the top of the carbs. It takes about three minutes to realize that under the old automotive standards , this thing is an absolute sweetheart to drive .
There are plenty of torque, enough to pull 2300 pounds Kurtis actual 20 mph in third . At 30 mph , it's humming a relaxed 1,350 rpm . With Studebaker supercharged six under the hood - by Kurtis powered fan production by 40 percent over stock , so it was probably releases 120 horses - Tom McCahill reported 0-60 mph in 11.5 seconds and speed on the measured mile 104.6 mph. Pretty impressive figures for 1949 , a regular sedan Ford took over 19 seconds to reach 60 and a MG TC more than 21 seconds.
1949 Kurtis sports car front end to the three-speed transmission is the light of your fingertips, if you do not want to rush the second third change , and you will need to master a good double-clutching , heel-toe downshift if you want return to the first moving without grinding gears. Fortunately, the pedals are well placed , and I quickly put to use a skill I have perfected while learning to drive a Land Rover in 1960. The car is equipped with the optional overdrive Borg - Warner for relaxed highway cruising. According to the story in the self-examination sport, Kurtis used to cruise at 90 mph regularly through the Mojave Desert in the car en route to the Colorado River to fish for black bass, much to the dismay of local cops. "I'm really pay attention , " Kurtis is quoted as saying. "The car will do 140 mph as easily as 90 . "
1949 Kurtis Sport Car Rear Lights Drum brakes are a bit of a shock , after years of hard and ABS, but I was warned that they needed a double pump before they start to bite properly , then the first is not unique " t quite as exciting as it could have been .
I do not expect all the slop in the steering, however. There must be 30 degrees freeplay around the position from center to center , and control of Kurtis along the straight sections of the two channels is like steering a ship in a storm. Parks have been very busy 142 mph , even on large areas of Bonneville .
The biggest revelation is the ride. By the standards of the time, Kurtis feels agile and responsive as a sports car , but it is not hard rock . As with its racing cars , Frank Kurtis listening carefully suspension to keep the wheels following the contours of the road as much as possible, while keeping roll , dive and squat to a minimum. Accordingly, Kurtis displays a rare quiet on indifferent surfaces , like a early 60's Alfa Romeo . "The car is much more comfortable than most foreign cars," writes Tom McCahill , " and takes the bumps smoothly. " 1949 Kurtis Sport Car combination Wheels The easy Kurtis , American V - 8 muscular frame and setting European style must have seemed sensational 1949 Frank Kurtis showed a convincing formula for an all-American sports car : The . Kurtis sports car has been well designed , well detailed, and well built.
So why were only 16 ever made ? Arlen Kurtis DeWayne Ashmead said that while his father was a talented and nice man , he was a poor man of business . funding promised by Ed Walsh as part of the agreement Kurtis sports cars never materialized , leaving the company grossly undercapitalized.
Thus, when serial entrepreneur and customer Kurtis Earl " Madman " Muntz offered cash-strapped Kurtis $ 70,000 to $ 200,000 (figures are disputed ) for the rights of the sports car at the end of 1949, it was an offer he could not refuse.
L ' bitter irony is that Frank Kurtis was , perhaps , the right man in the wrong place with an idea that was just too big for him . Within two years of the Kurtis Sport Car on the cover of Motor magazine Trend, a high officer of GM in Detroit initiated a secret program called Project Opel scenes , a proposal for a car fiberglass sports handicap two security uses many regular production car components under his skin well done. name the exec GM's Harley Earl. And the car well, he came to public attention as the EX- 122, one of the stars of the Motorama at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York in January 1953 Date first . But we know better than the Chevrolet Corvette.
From Motor Trend
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