1951 – 1954 Muntz Road Jet
Posted by David Kinney
Frank Kurtis was a well-known builder of Indianapolis and Championship style race cars as well as “Specials,” which were built on a limited basis. Perpetual entrepreneur Earl Muntz bought a Buick-powered special from Kurtis, and consequently became intrigued by an ongoing Kurtis project for creating a more mass-production oriented car with flathead Ford V8 power and an aluminum body. Muntz bought the rights and tooling (reportedly for $200,000) for the Kurtis car after just 38 were completed. Thus the Muntz Road Jet was born. Muntz stretched the Kurtis wheelbase from 100 inches to 113 inches, and the flathead gave way to a Cadillac 331-c.i. V8 with 160 hp. A back seat was added and the production at the former Kurtis plant in Glendale, California, was underway.
Major changes were not far behind, as the Muntz factory was quickly moved to a plant in Evanston, Illinois, after a reported 28 cars were built. The Jet was stretched an additional three inches, the aluminum body gave way to steel, and the Cadillac powerplant was changed to a Lincoln flathead V8 modified with solid lifters. Muntz had taken a real, live American sports car and turned it into an odd-looking boulevardier. Think steel-bodied Cobra with room for the kids in the back seat and a hopelessly out-of-date motor.
All Muntz Jets were built with a removable “Carson” top; no soft top was offered. The Jet came with factory-installed seat belts and a padded dash, and a faux reptilian vinyl seat treatment. Instrumentation included a fuel pressure and vacuum pressure gauge, as well as a tach and speedometer. A GM Hydra-Matic transmission was standard; a manual Borg Warner unit with overdrive was an option. The very last Muntz Jets had Fiberglass fenders for weight savings and a Lincoln overhead valve V8. Muntz claimed that he lost $1,000 on every Jet he built. Production ended in 1954 after fewer than 400 units (estimates range from 300 to 394) were built.
The Muntz Road Jet is just a whimsical footnote in automobile history. Orphan cars and limited production cars are always a roll of the dice when it comes to value and continuing collector interest. For many of a certain age, Earl “Madman” Muntz represents a more innocent time and place, and a part of a lost past, whether real or imagined.
His car is the embodiment of that time and place, and even though they are a footnote in automotive world, they are an interesting one at that.
(From the September 2001 issue of Sports Car Market magazine.)