The Unusual Muntz Jet: 1 Of 198 Made

When it was released in 1949 the Muntz Jet was one of the most unusual production cars in the USA during its production run. It was fast for the era, capable of 112+ mph, and when ordering you could choose options that included a liquor cabinet and an ice chest under the armrests.

The Muntz Jet was the brainchild of Earl “Madman” Muntz, a successful entrepreneur who made and lost many fortunes over the course of his life. The Jet was based on the Kurtis Sport Car (KSC), a vehicle developed by Frank Kurtis – a well-known racing car designer.

Fast Facts – The Muntz Jet

• The Muntz Jet was created by serial entrepreneur Earl “Madman” Muntz, he had bought the rights and tooling for the Kurtis Sport Car (KSC) from Frank Kurtis, then modified the car before putting it into production.
• Unlike the more sports-oriented KSC, the Jet was intended to be more of a personal luxury car. It was powered by a 160 hp American V8, it had seatbelts, a padded dashboard, an opulently appointed interior, additional options included a liquor cabinet and an ice box for cooling drinks.
• The Jet has been called the first personal luxury car, beating the Ford Thunderbird by six years. Muntz himself claimed the Thunderbird was directly inspired by the Jet.
• The Muntz Jet was built with body-on-frame construction, it had independent front suspension, a live axle rear, and hydraulic drum brakes at each wheel. Power was provided by either a Cadillac or Lincoln V8, both of which produced 160 hp.

Earl “Madman” Muntz

Earl “Madman” Muntz was indisputably one of the most interesting men in the automotive world of the mid-20th century. Muntz was an American businessman and engineer who made a name for himself selling both cars and consumer electronics from the 1930s well into the 1980s.

Earl “Madman” Muntz became a celebrity across California at first, then across the whole country thanks to his whacky TV and radio advertisements.

One of his most enduring legacies is almost certainly his quirky “Madman” television persona that he would use in advertisements, a persona that has been copied widely around the world. He also invented the concept of “Muntzing” – simplifying complex electronic devices to reduce their cost.

Muntz had started his first used car dealership at the age of 20 in Elgin, Illinois. He became a remarkable success, eventually moving his operations to California at the age of 26. He created his “Madman” character while selling used cars and became a celebrity in the process.

He had a lifelong fascination with electronics and electronic devices. He developed the simple but effective Muntz TV in 1946 and offered it for sale from 1947 onwards. It was the first TV to sell for less than $100, the cheapest model previously had retailed for $445.

Muntz would later invent the Muntz Stereo-Pak 4-track tape cartridge, the original predecessor of the Stereo 8 cartridge, better known as the 8-track.

The interior of the car is beautifully appointed, it’s as good as any other mass-production car in the United States at the time.

By the 1980s Muntz had become the leading retailer of cellular phones in Los Angeles, a good indication of his ability to adapt to new industries and technologies.

The Kurtis Sport Car (KSC)

Given the importance that cars had had in the life of Earl Muntz it wasn’t surprising that he harbored a dream of developing and selling his own car. He already had the funding and the advertising acumen, then in 1949 when he met Frank Kurtis and saw his unusual Kurtis Sport Car (KSC) he realized he could take it over and fulfill his dream.

The Kurtis Sport Car (KSC) had been developed after WWII, it was a high-performance two-seat sports car developed by Frank Kurtis and the team at Kurtis Kraft, a company better known for their open-wheel racing cars.

The difficulties of selling low-volume sports cars profitably had nearly financially crippled Kurtis, so when Muntz appeared offering him $200,000 for the right and tooling to the design it must have seemed too good to be true.

The styling was closely based on the Kurtis Sport Car (KSC), though the Muntz Jet had a longer wheelbase and was notably more luxurious.

The Muntz Jet

Muntz realized that the two-seater layout of the KSC would restrict the sales potential of the car, so he lengthened the wheelbase by a few inches and added a second row of seats. Ultimately the Muntz Jet would be 400 lbs heavier than the KSC, but it was more roomy and luxurious which appealed to a certain clientele.

The first Muntz Jets were built in Glendale, California before production moved to Evanston, Illinois. The first series of cars were fitted with a 160 hp Cadillac V8, with later cars getting the Lincoln V8, also capable of 160 hp.

Power was sent to the live axle rear end via either a General Motors Hydramatic automatic transmission  or a 3-speed Borg-Warner manual transmission. Front suspension was independent with A-arms and coil springs, the live axle in the rear rode on leaf springs, and the car had hydraulic drum brakes on all four corners.

The Jet was said to be capable of 112+ mph, Earl Muntz claimed the car could reach 150 mph but he was known to exaggerate a little here and there, particularly when marketing was involved.

The Jet was exceedingly costly be the standards of the day, retailing for $5,500 when you could buy a new Cadillac convertible for $3,987 or a Lincoln for $3,600.

The car is powered by a Lincoln flathead V8 producing 160 hp, it gave the Jet a top speed of over 110 mph – a heady figure at the time.

Earl Muntz realized that he was losing over $1,000 per car, as they actually cost closer to $6,500 to build. He kept the Jet in production from 1949 until 1954, though he claimed to have made over 400 of them its believed that closer to 198 were actually made, and at least 125 of them have survived to the modern day.

The 1952 Muntz Jet Shown Here

The car you see here is a 1952 Muntz Jet that was discovered in the back of a barn in New Castle, Pennsylvania. The man who discovered it wasn’t even there looking for a Jet, he had been planning to inspect a Lincoln Zephyr, but he left with all the Muntz Jet parts on a trailer after striking a deal.

The car kept its original chassis, engine, and gearbox. Many of the body panels had rusted significantly and needed a lot of work, but the car eventually came back together and was finished in the original color of Colorado Red over a Snow White vinyl interior.

The car is now due to roll across the auction block with Worldwide Auctioneers in late April in Auburn, Indiana. The car is being offered with no reserve and you can click here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.

Images courtesy of Worldwide Auctioneers

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Full Documentary – Fiero: A Car is Born

Fiero: A Car is Born is a film from 1984 about the development, testing, and construction of the first Pontiac Fiero – a mid-engined American sports car that today enjoys a cult following in the United States.

This film offers unique insight into the Pontiac Fiero including period interviews with project manager Hulki Aldikacti, a number of the project’s engineers, and some of the people who worked on the production line actually building the final car.

Given the fact that this film was paid for by Pontiac and used for promotional purposes it can be a little fawning in places, it was actually originally released as a laser disc in the 1980s that dealerships would play on the showroom floor.

The film includes a slew of behind the scenes footage, including scenes from the crash testing program.

The Pontiac Fiero remains a somewhat controversial car, it was originally developed as an economical and sporty commuting car with two-seats – partially as an answer to the market’s changing demands after the 1973 Oil Crisis.

Historically the Fiero remains significant, it was the first two-seater Pontiac since the 1930s and the first mass-produced mid-engine sports car by an American manufacturer. Cars of this type almost always came from Europe, typically from Italy or Britain.

General Motors would keep the Fiero in production for just five years, selling over 370,000 of them between 1984 and 1988. For a sports car these are good sales figures, by way of an example Toyota sold just 163,000 MR2s in its first five years.

The Fiero has a unibody spaceframe and it relied on composite outer body panels to help keep weight down and reduce future rust issues.

Today, decades after it left production, the Fiero has become a cult classic. For many years it was the unloved Pontiac step child and many were scrapped or turned into low-budget Ferrari replicas. For many, the small, lightweight nature of the Fiero combined with its unusual styling and sports car handling make it an ideal retro classic.

The shortcomings that the Fiero had, engine reliability and handling issues, have largely been addressed and the aftermarket has developed a slew of upgrades and performance parts for the model.

Pricing now varies from under $9,000 up to over $20,000 USD depending on year, mileage, and condition – with the 1988 manual V6 cars typically commanding the highest prices.

If you’d like to see the Fieros currently for sale on Hemmings you can click here, and if you’d like to read more about the history of the car you can click here.

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The Ducati 750SS: The Superbike That Saved Ducati

This Ducati 750SS, or 750 Super Sport, is a rare breed. Just 401 were made in 1974, the first year of production, as road-legal replicas of the bikes that took first and second place at the 1972 Imola 200 with Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari behind the dials.

To say that the 1-2 finish at the Imola 200 saved Ducati is almost undeniable. It made the Ducati 740 one of the most desirable superbikes in the world, and gave the Italian motorcycle manufacturer a fighting chance against the onslaught of Japanese competition.

Fast Facts – The Ducati 750SS “Super Sport”

• During the late 1960s and early 1970s Ducati was a company attempting to recreate itself to better compete on the global stage. Fortunately for them, they had hired Italian engineer Fabio Taglioni who would almost single-handedly turn the company around with a new motorcycle design in 1972.
• Taglioni’s now legendary design included a new 90º L-twin engine with a single overhead cam per cylinder, a desmodromic valve train, a displacement of 748cc, 72 bhp at 9,500 rpm, and 5-speed gearbox.
• This new engine had its work cut out for it, it was set to compete with superbikes from MV Agusta, BSA, Norton, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Triumph, and Suzuki.
• In 1972 at the Imola 200 Ducati shocked the motorcycle world when Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari took a dominant 1-2 victory on their Ducati 750 GTs. In late 1973 the road-legal Ducati 750SS was shown to the world and sales began in 1974 – just 401 were made that year.

Ducati – From Radios To The Cucciolo

It isn’t widely known that Ducati started out in 1926 making vacuum tubes, condensers, and other radio parts.

This 750SS was modified in-period with a slew of go-faster parts. It now produces 90 hp at the rear wheel, significantly more than the 72 bhp of the original.

During WWII the company was frequently targeted by Allied bombers due to the importance of radio communications on the battlefield, and the fact that Ducati was supplying many of the critical components for Italian radio manufacturing.

No one knew it at the time of course, but less than 30 years later the Allied nations would still be fighting with Ducati, though this time on the race tracks of Europe and North America.

Five years after the war had ended Ducati would release their first motorcycle. Companies were springing up across Italy and the rest of Europe offering cheap scooters, small motorcycles, and small cars.

Demand for motorized transportation was high but European economies were struggling, so it was the smaller, cheaper, and more fuel efficient motorcycles that tended to sell in the highest numbers.

Ducati’s first motorcycle was the Cucciolo, it was essentially a motorized bicycle with a bought-in 48cc “Cucciolo” engine – the Italian word for “cub” or “puppy.”

This Ducati was ridden to wins by Tony Guest at Road America and in the Daytona BOTT Amateur Modified class.

Over the coming years Ducati would develop their own engines in-house, and release larger and more complex motorcycles.

The Ill-Fated Apollo And A New “L-Twin”

By the early 1960s they were working on a Fabio Taglioni-designed 1200cc V4-engined motorcycle with over 100 bhp. It was going to be called the Ducati Apollo but tragically the project was cancelled after just a few prototypes had been made.

Rising from the ashes of the Apollo project was a new Fabio Taglioni design, it used some of the design concepts from the V4 but instead used a narrower V-twin design.

Ducati would call this engine layout the “L-twin” to because the engine has a 90º V-angle – also because they wanted to differentiate themselves from the American V-twins from across the Atlantic.

Unusually for V-twin designs at the time, this new Ducati engine used a desmodromic valvetrain – no springs were needed to close valves as both the opening and closing of both valves is controlled by the cam directly.

This does add a certain amount of complexity to the engine, it was chosen due to the fact that metallurgy was less advanced then than it is today.

Ducati call this 90º V-twin engine design an L-twin, to help differentiate it from the narrower and more well-known American V-wins.

Getting small motorcycle valve springs that could handle a redline in excess of 9,000 rpm reliably was a genuine challenge – the use of a desmodromic system eliminated the issue all together.

The Ducati 750SS “Super Sport”

After Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari’s now legendary 1-2 finish at the 1972 Imola 200 Ducati was inundated with demand for a road-legal version of the race bike. Work was already underway in 1972 and by late 1973 the production-ready design was shown to the world at the Milan Motor Show.

Ducati wasn’t a particularly large motorcycle manufacturer at the time and so they struggled to build the bike in numbers that would even come close to satiating demand. It’s believed that just 401 were made for 1974, the design changing significantly from 1975 onwards.

Fabio Taglioni’s design for the 750SS was every bit as clever as his earlier design for the Imola 200-winning race bikes.

It featured a tubular steel frame that used the engine as a stressed member, the engine was oriented with the forward cylinder almost vertical to the ground as it helped provide better cooling for the rear cylinder and it lowered the center of gravity.

This 748cc L-twin engine has a single overhead cam per cylinder operating two valves, as a desmodromic system the cam has lobes and rocker arms for both opening and closing the valves, removing the need for springs.

The 1974 750 Super Sport is known as the “Round Case.” A new version appeared in 1975 with a “Square Case” design and a slew of other changes – the earlier Round Case bikes are more highly sought after by collectors.

This engine is of unit construction with a 5-speed gearbox included. Power was rated at 72 bhp at 9,500 rpm and the top speed was listed as 220 km/h (137 mph).

Unusually for the time the 750SS featured twin front disc brakes and a single rear disc, together offering exceptional stopping power by the standards of the era. A distinctive fuel tank design similar to the Imola bikes was used, along with a half faring, and a single seat with a small rear cowl.

The Ducati 750SS was so close to the race bikes that many modified them for competition and won races on them. The fact they could also be ridden on the road made them all the more appealing.

The 1974 Ducati Super Sport Shown Here

The bike you see here is one of those examples that was modified for racing in period. It was remarkably successful too, competing in the AMA “Battle of the Twins” (BOTT) during the 1970s and 1980s claiming a number of victories in the process.

Rider Tony Guest rode this machine to wins at Road America and in the Daytona BOTT Amateur Modified class. It was later purchased by Jerry Roman, going on to win several Concours events.

This bike was modified in-period by the Woods Motor Shop, it has a 905cc big-bore conversion, an 11.5:1 compression ratio, modified 40mm Dellorto carburetors, Imola high-lift cams, cylinder heads ported by C.R. Axtell, and a total output of 90 hp at the rear wheel.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Collecting Cars.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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For Sale: A 1967 Shelby GT500 – “Police Interceptor” V8

This is a 1967 Shelby GT500, it’s from the first year of Shelby Mustang production that the GT500 was offered, and it was powered by the 428 Ford FE V8 “Police Interceptor” engine capable of 355 bhp.

The Shelby Mustangs are still the most famous special variant of the original pony car, the first was introduced almost 50 years ago in 1965 and Ford is still building modern versions of them today.

Fast Facts – The 1967 Shelby GT500

• When the Mustang was first introduced in 1964 it proved immediately popular, but Ford Division General Manager Lee Iacocca realized it was missing one critical thing – racing pedigree. He approached Carroll Shelby and the two men hashed out a plan to build a race-winning version to compete in the SCCA B Production Class.
• A former racing driver and Le Mans winner, Shelby knew his way around a racing car. With his team he developed a stripped back, higher performance Mustang and called it the Shelby Cobra GT350.
• Competing against the likes of the Corvette, Jaguar E-Type, Sunbeam Tiger, and others, the new GT350 dominated the field and won the 1965 SCCA B Production National Championship.
• In 1967 Carroll Shelby introduced a new model, the GT500. It was fitted with a larger, more powerful 428 Ford FE V8 “Police Interceptor” engine with 355 bhp.

Race Cars Or Chicken Farming

Former racing driver Carroll Shelby had hung up his racing boots after winning the 1959 24 Hours Of Le Mans alongside British co-driver Roy Salvadori.

Shelby had a serious heart condition, and was known to chew his heart medication while racing to alleviate his chest pain, this forced him into an earlier retirement than he might have otherwise liked.

The interior of the car features a number of additions to let you know you’re driving something special, including the wood rimmed steering wheel with the yellow “Shelby Cobra GT500” center cap.

Earlier in his career he had raced a British-built Allard sports car that was fitted with a powerful American V8 engine, it was an experience that stuck with him and would eventually result in the creation of one of the most loved sports cars in history – the Shelby Cobra.

After retiring from racing, Shelby needed to find something to do. As a former chicken farmer he really only had two choices: Go back to farming chickens or find something to do in the world of motor racing.

He chose that second option.

The Shelby Cobra

After having seen the good-looking though perhaps underpowered AC Ace roadster in the Le Mans paddock in 1959 Shelby began to formulate a plan.

If he could source an engineless Ace and fit a powerful American V8 he knew he would have a highly competitive sports car on his hands.

This is the 428 Ford FE V8 “Police Interceptor” engine capable of 355 bhp and 420 ft lbs of torque.

To cut a long story short, that’s exactly what he did. In the early 1960s he had an AC Ace sent over from England, he worked out a deal with Ford to supply engines, and working with a small team he built the car and dubbed it the “Shelby Cobra.”

These cars were initially powered by the Ford 260 V8 which was later changed to the Ford 289 V8. The Shelby Cobra would prove dominant on race tracks across the United States, and the car helped earn Carroll Shelby the title of racing car manufacturer – not just former racing driver.

Ford, Iacocca, And The New Mustang

When Lee Iacocca, Ford Division General Manager, oversaw the release of the new Ford Mustang in 1964 there was one thing that concerned him – as a new sports car the Mustang had no racing pedigree.

Iacocca already knew Shelby and he’d seen the success he’d had with the Shelby Cobra – a car that was powered by the same Ford 289 V8 that was used in the Mustang.

The car was differentiated from the regular Mustang with a new fiberglass front and rear fascia, a fiberglass hood, special alloy wheels, and a decal and badge package.

The two men got to talking and struck a deal for Shelby and his team to build a road legal racing version of the new Mustang with the target of winning as many races and championships as possible – to give the new car the racing heritage it so needed.

The new Shelby GT350 was released in 1965, it featured a slew of go-faster modifications and despite the fact that it was the car’s first full year of racing, it went on to dominate the 1965 SCCA B Production Class winning the championship that year – perhaps most importantly of all, it beat the Corvettes.

Ford had estimated they might sell 100,000 Mustangs a year, but they would actually shift over 1,000,000 in the first two years.

The car would likely still have been popular without Carroll and his winning Shelby GT350, but it certainly didn’t harm the sales figures.

The 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500

By 1967 something new was needed to spice things up. Shelby and his team set about fitting the 428 Ford FE V8 “Police Interceptor” engine into a 1967 Mustang.

The two inset spotlights became a distinctive feature of this car, a version of this look was used on the 1967 Mustang from “Gone In 60 Seconds” starring Nicholas Cage.

The engine was topped with two 600 CFM Holley four-barrel carburetors on a mid-rise aluminum intake manifold. The car was given a longer fiberglass hood, new front and rear fascias, and a pair of high-beam headlamps inset into the grille.

With 355 bhp at 5,400 rpm and 420 lb ft of torque at 3,200 rpm the GT500 was a quick car, despite the fact that it was larger and heavier than the preceding version.

The 1967 GT500 you see here is Shelby no. 00586, it was shipped new to High Performance Motors, Inc. in Los Angeles, California and it’s particularly notable as it’s an early production example with inboard fog lamps.

A full restoration was completed two years ago and the car is now for sale through Mecum, if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Mecum

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