1947 Kurtis-Omohundro Comet

32 Phil Fleming Remembers … The following story is written by Phil Fleming who initiated the research discussed in this book. He was kind enough to document his memories of both Kurtis - Omohundro Comets as a young man in ’50 s Detroit. Kurtis - Kraft Sports Cars at Cranbrook School Background: I attended Cranbrook School for Boys in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan from the 6 th grade through the 12 th grade, graduating in June, 1957. Cranbrook is a boarding school, but also has day students attending it. I was a day student. The boys ’ school student body is primarily from the families of automobile executives and the owners of businesses that support the automobile industry. In brief, the people in the area are entirely consumed with the automobile business. The day students drove unusual cars. Two of the most interesting cars in the day - student parking lot were then referred to as “ Kurtis - Krafts ” and were driven by a sophomore, Kent Walter. The two cars each had Kurtis - Kraft emblems above the front grill. Kent attended Cranbrook from February, 1953 through June, 1954. Remembering the Cars: I vividly remember the “ Kurtis - Krafts ” in 1953 - 1954: • Color: The cars were nearly identical, except for color. I remembered one of them as metallic bronze. The other I remembered as metallic dark blue. • Power Train: The bronze car was powered by a Cadillac V - 8 with an automatic transmission. The blue/ black car was powered by a flathead Mercury and had a standard transmission. • Accessories: Both cars had “ flipper ” hub caps and very distinctive tires (US Royal Masters with a very thin white wall) at the time. I mentioned the hubcaps in a letter to Geoff Hacker dated February 6, 2007, predating his discovery of an illustration of the same hubcaps found on a virtually identical car in Custom Cars Trend Book 101. • Windshield Wipers: I remember Kent once talking about getting caught driving one of the cars in the rain, and having a terrible time seeing through the windshield because of some problem with the windshield wipers. See comments below re: windshield wipers in photographs. • Two Cars, Not One: Kent told us that his uncle was the owner of both cars, and let him drive them. Kent would alternate between the cars, what seemed like, every few weeks. Phil Fleming at Amelia Island, Florida, 2009.