1948 Kurtis-Omohundro Comet

13 Vintage Publications The timing and debut of the 1947 and 1948 Kurtis - Omohundro Comet place it at the inception of the sports car movement in postwar America. The first Comet was designed in 1945, built in 1946, and debuted in early 1947. The second was designed in 1947 and debuted in 1948. No earlier coachbuilt sports car has been documented in postwar American sports car magazines or car enthusiast literature. In researching this aspect of the car ’ s history, it was necessary to establish key publications that were available to the American public in the early postwar years. The first American postwar automobile enthusiast magazines weren ’ t published until mid 1947. The ‘47 Comet had already debuted by this time. The first magazine to appear was Speed Age in May, 1947. The next was Road & Track in June, 1947. Hot Rod Magazine would debut in January 1948, and Motor Trend would follow in September, 1949. Prior to and subsequent to these dates, sports and custom cars appeared in magazines such as Colliers, Argosy, Popular Mechanics , and Mechanix Illustrated . In establishing the heritage of the “ Comet ”, we looked deeper, and spear - headed a three year project to document the earliest wartime and postwar custom and sports car literature in print in America and abroad. This culminated with a seminal article published by The Rodder ’ s Journal titled “ Customs in Print ” that appeared in the Fall of 2009. In this article, the author (Harold Pace) and I revealed the full breadth and depth of booklets published about American custom cars and sports cars. This literature started in 1944 with Dan Post Publications, and continued with booklets published by Ed Almquist in 1946. Both publishers continued publishing literature in this area through mid ’50 s. Taking this further, we identified other customs and sports cars in print using booklets produced by early speed and custom companies such as Newhouse Automotive Industries and California Bill ’ s. At the end of this project, we created the first chronology and history of early postwar American sports and custom cars starting from 1947 and moving forward. This included a class of cars first titled in print by Dan Post in 1947 called “ Sport Custom Cars .” These were cars that embodied elements of both “ sports ” and “ custom ” cars, and are the earliest known sports cars built in postwar America. Points of Interest: Paul Omohundro and his “ Comet sports cars ” appeared in—and were featured in—many early automotive magazines including: the February, 1949 issue of Road & Track (R & T ’ s fifth issue ); May 13th, 1949 issue of Autocar (UK); December, 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics ; October, 1950 issue of Motor Trend ; 1951 Trend Book 101 on Custom Cars ; September, 1951 issue of Motor Trend ; and August, 1952 issue of Motor Trend .