1948 Kurtis-Omohundro Comet

9 Frank Kurtis — The Man Frank Kurtis, born in Colorado in 1908, began building race cars in the early ’30 s and then established the Kurtis - Kraft shop in 1938. His great success in building race cars first came in the immediate postwar era (1946 — 1948). By 1949 he began using the advertising slogan: ” World ’ s Largest Manufacturer of Racing Cars. ” Kurtis designed racing midgets which were the first race cars to use full torsion - bar suspension. As early as 1936 Frank Kurtis built racers with an offset engine—an innovation not seen at Indianapolis until 1952. In addition to making over 800 midgets and selling several hundred midget kits, Kurtis built 58 Indianapolis cars, including the 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, and 1955 Indianapolis 500 winners. In the 1953 race, 24 of the 33 cars in the race were Kurtis roadsters. Also built by Kurtis were the famed Novis powered race cars. While failing to win, they were great crowd pleasers at the Speedway. Kurtis also constructed the Cummins Diesel powered race car in which Freddy Agabashian earned the pole at Indianapolis in 1952 establishing one - lap and four - lap qualifying records. On the West Coast, Bill Stroppe, later to become associated with Holman Moody as well as other Ford Motor Company high - performance efforts, successfully drove Ford powered Kurtis sports cars. And in 1954, Jack Ensley won the Sports Car Club of America “ B ” modified national championship driving a Kurtis - Kraft Special. Kurtis was also noted for building sports cars. The first one he built was for Tommy Lee and was a dual - purpose sports and race car. The second one constructed started in 1939 and was commissioned by Bill Hughes of Denver, Colorado. In the postwar years, Kurtis provided the design and collaborated with Paul Omohundro in the production of two sports cars manufactured by Paul Omohundro ’ s Comet Company. Frank Kurtis then set out to create his next sports car which was the Kurtis - Buick—an all aluminum coachbuilt beauty that he debuted in 1948 on a cross - country trip to watch the Indianapolis 500. Ultimately, the 1948 Kurtis - Buick led to Frank ’ s creation of America ’ s first production sports car—the Kurtis Sport Car—manufactured in 1949 and 1950. Earl “ Mad Man ” Muntz bought the rights to produce this car in 1951 and lengthened the car to accommodate two additional passengers. The car was rebadged as a “ Muntz Jet ” and sold through 1954. Kurtis built over 2000 race cars and sports cars between 1938 and 1962 when he made his last Indianapolis roadster. He was elected to the Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1983, and passed away on February 17, 1987 at the age of 79.