1949 Kurtis Sport CarBASE PRICE,
1949/2019 EQUIVALENT $3,495/$37,450
PRICE AS TESTED,
1949/2019 EQUIVALENT $5,000/$53,575
VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, RWD,
2-pass, 2-door convertible
ENGINE 3.9L/160-hp/225-lb-ft (est)
side-valve 16-valve V-8
TRANSMISSION 3-speed manual
CURB W EIG HT
(F/R DIST) 2,835 lb (54/46%)
WHEELBASE 99.3 in
L X W X H 169.0 x 68.0 x 51.0 in
0-60 MPH 15.3 sec
QUARTER MILE 20.0 sec @ 68.3 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 370 ft
L ATER AL
ACCELERATION 0.50 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT 35.3 sec @ 0.37 g (avg)
EPA CIT Y/ H W Y
COMB FUEL ECON 8/10/9 mpg (est)
ENERGY CONS,
CIT Y/HW Y 421/337kW-hr/100 miles
CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 2.21 lb/mileFlathead Ford
whisperer Paul Gommi
diagnoses the Kurtis’
spark advance woes.field, goalpost to goalpost. At least there’s
no steam from under the hood this time.
One good thing about the brakes
terrifying you around the figure eight
is that they distract you from the car’s
awful ergonomics: The driver’s seat is too
low and barely adjusts, and the wheel’s
rim is too close and has the diameter
of a manhole cover. The pedals hover
so far off the floor that you have to lift
your feet in the air to operate them. And
the arthritic three-speed manual is an
H-pattern with first gear being left and
back and reverse a fearfully close miss as
you shank the lever to the right and then
far away up to the right to snag second.
It’s a strange Kabuki dance for a car from
a guy like Frank Kurtis, who must have
known perfectly well how to build cock-
pits for finicky race car drivers.
Building speed on the figure eight,
I spin the helm through its initial 45
degrees of play and into the right corner.
The car starts to sway and then, grad-
ually, corner; the rear suspension is a
conventional live axle on longitudinal
leaf springs. But the front is independent,
sprung by a lateral leaf spring and lever
shocks that are oddly integrated into
the upper A-arms. I can’t see the right
corner’s cones for the windshield frame,
but the tail slightly drifts at 0.5 g. At what
point will the tire’s willowy 5-inch-wide
tread and 6-inch-tall sidewalls peel right
off their rims? I stand on the gas out of the
corner, and the flathead roars. I quickly
lift to start a several-second press against
the brake pedal, though its slowing seems
more like air drag than brake lining.
I spill the wheel to the left. The world
tilts counterclockwise, and I start to
laterally slide across the slippery flat-
bottom cushion, onto the center tunnel’s
carpet, and partway onto the passenger
seat. On the next lap, I stay on the throttle
a second too long. The Kurtis isn’t stop-
ping, the corner’s turn-in point passes
me on the left, and the curbing and fence
are 100 feet dead ahead. I’m the lookout
in the Titanic’s crow’s nest, begging this
bastard to stop as the iceberg grows.
I’m palpitating. I’ve driven more
expensive cars—though the Kurtis is
pretty pricey, to be sure—but this is a
piece of history.
Time slows as the distance to disaster
shrinks. In my mind’s eye, I envision the
Kurtis, tragically redisplayed in the center
of the MotorTrend building as a cautionary
warning about hubris, awkwardly tilting
on its crumpled right-side suspensions, itsChris Walton ensures the GPS-based
acceleration and braking data were
properly recorded for posterity.
When art deco and
automobiles commingled,
this was the result.fiberglass bodywork cracked, its chrome
cladding half-peeled away.
Right thigh aching, I bend the Kurtis
into a big, arcing drift and skirt the curb
by a few scant feet.
Note to MT ’s 2049 test team: When
you retest this thing for the 100th anni-
versary issue, fix the brakes. nSEPTEMBER 2019 MOTORTREND.COM 49