Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival - Muntz
Sonoma CA, May 18-19 2013 - The Muntz Jet scene@ the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival and the Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance.
The Muntz Car Company was created in Glendale CA by Earl “Madman” Muntz, a well-known local used car dealer and electronics retailer. It was in existence from 1950 to 1954. In 1951, Frank Kurtis (who built Indy cars, Formula 1 cars, and Quarter Midget race cars) sold the license to manufacture the cars to Muntz, who quickly rebadged them as the “Muntz Jet”, extended the body to make it a 4-seater, and exchanged the Ford engine with a larger Cadillac V8. The car, a sports convertible was manufactured in Chicago, and featured its own unique design, with aluminum body panels and a removable fiberglass top that were manufactured in-house. Other parts (such as the engines) were sourced from other manufacturers. It was capable of 112 mph, a significant achievement for a road car at the time.
1950 Muntz Jet, parade to Sebastiani Winery at Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival
The company managed to produce only about 200 cars during 1951 – 1954, and due to the high manufacturing cost, Muntz himself estimated that his company lost about $1,000 on each car; this financial drain eventually caused him to close the company. Collector’s Museum: marindirect.com/sd/
1953 Muntz Jet – Originally built for Gloria de Haven at Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance
The company managed to produce only about 200 cars during 1951 – 1954, and due to the high manufacturing cost, Muntz himself estimated that his company lost about $1,000 on each car; this financial drain eventually caused him to close the company. Collector’s Museum: www.marindirect.com/sd/
Photos by Randy Berg
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