27 replies to this topic

[dmj]

Being a long time fan of spectactular Kurtis racing and road cars I was delighted to find an article about two Kurtises in September issue of C&SC. And my delight, obviously, went even stronger after reading the following: Frank anglicised his Croatian name Kuretich when working at the Don Lee Coach and Body Works because staff couldn't spell it.

My short Internet search wasn't successfull in confirming the information stated above, even if I found about a TV presenter called Kurtis who was also born as Kuretich. But I found this very interesting link abouth some other lesser known (at least to me) people from golden era of American racing, that might be interesting for some of you here, I do hope. Nick Brajevich

Back to Kurtis: a few questions.
Can anyone confirm his Croatian ancestry?
Can you recommend me some books about the man and his cars?
Does anyone know about reasonably priced 1/43 models of Kurtis cars, especially roadgoing ones?

Of course, any additional stories or pictures are welcome, as I would really like to find out more about Mr. Kuretich.

[Cris]

DMJ,

The Kurtis-Kraft Story by Ed Hitze
1974
Library of Congress no. 74-81545

Something tells me there was a book done within the past 5 year also but I don't have it. I know that around the time of Frank's death, Dr. Dick Knudsen (founder of the NEMGTR) was gathering materials for a book on him...he was even Frank's guest at the 500 during one year.

I don't know how much help some of the early info in this book will be...it says thinks such as "...had chosen to settle from their native Croatia, Austria." and "...had the long trip from Czecho Slovakia." It states that Frank was born on 25 January, 1908 in Colorado where his parents had settled for the time being.

The "Frank" that changed and anglicized the name, as well as worked at Don Lee's, is, in the words of this particular book, his father Frank, but it is impossible to tell how much of the info in this book is accurate. The pictures are great, though.

Cris

[WDH74]

"Kurtis: Masterworks of Speed and Style" by Gordon Eliot White is a pretty recent book on Kurtis.

Cris is correct, I think, in that Frank's dad changed the family name. I'm not at home right now otherwise I'd go look it up. Will try to do so later!

-Wm.

[Frank S]

Son Arlen is a Fabulous 50s 'non-member'.
I'll bet you could contact him by way of Art Evans at
agevans atsign yahoo dotsign com

Here at Willow Springs 50-Years-Of-Racing reunion, April, 2003:









They'll make a road car to your order.


Plenty of Kurtis Kraft roadster models in Goooogle ...

--
Frank S

[Jerry Entin]

In about 1966 or so I went with Max Balchowsky to meet Frank Kurtis. His shop was in the Glendale area of Los Angeles. He was a very good looking guy.He looked very much like Clark Gable. I looked at his shop. I think it was about 5,000 square feet. I said to him where did he make the Indy cars. He said right here. I couldn't believe this is where all those Indy cars were made. He also made midgets and sportscars there. And I believe the go-kart as know in America was invented there. He was a very humble guy and very nice to meet. Photo below lent site by Gordon Eliot White. This is the Kurtis shop in the day.

[A E Anderson]

Originally posted by Cris
DMJ,

The Kurtis-Kraft Story by Ed Hitze
1974
Library of Congress no. 74-81545

Something tells me there was a book done within the past 5 year also but I don't have it. I know that around the time of Frank's death, Dr. Dick Knudsen (founder of the NEMGTR) was gathering materials for a book on him...he was even Frank's guest at the 500 during one year.

I don't know how much help some of the early info in this book will be...it says thinks such as "...had chosen to settle from their native Croatia, Austria." and "...had the long trip from Czecho Slovakia." It states that Frank was born on 25 January, 1908 in Colorado where his parents had settled for the time being.

The "Frank" that changed and anglicized the name, as well as worked at Don Lee's, is, in the words of this particular book, his father Frank, but it is impossible to tell how much of the info in this book is accurate. The pictures are great, though.

Cris

In the late 60's and early 70's, Frank Kurtis made an annual pilgrimage back to Indianapolis for the Oldtimer's Club stuff, and those trips always included a day at Ed Hitze Sr's house in Lafayette. I had the distinct privilege of meeting Kurtis in 1974, by Hitze's invitation--Ed had a pair of old midgets under restoration in his fascinating backyard garage/racecar ship, one of them a Kurtis, which he was doing for the Hall of Fame Museum at IMS. Ed Sr. was a fanatic about Kurtis Kraft race cars--he had literally thousands of pictures he'd taken at racetracks across the midwest from the 40's through the 60's, nearly all of the pics were of midgets, and the bulk of them were Kurtis Krafts.

Frank Kurtis, physically, was a giant of a man, even by 1970's standards--something like 6' 6" or so, looked like he couldn't possibly fold up into Ed's Impala for a ride downtown, but he did. I found him to be a very gracious man, more than willing to discuss his cars with me, as at the time I was building scale models of Indianapolis cars almost exclusively, for an annual window display in the show window of our local hobby shop (this project was a feature in the 1977 Carl Hungness Yearbook--my ugly mug is in there, working on a model race car--written and photographed by Mark Wick).

Kurtis had with him a full set of engineering drawings for a USAC Championship car that would meet the then-current 1974 rule book--of course, it was all Kurtis, tube frame and all, with a full tapered tail--Kurtis fairly spat out his distaste for the 70's era cars with only minimal body work--said they "looked like something Hitler would have sent over England".

My old friend Chris Etzel, when running Etzel's Speed Classics, making exquisite resin & white metal Indianapolis cars in scale model form, spoke at great lengths with Kurtis shortly before he passed away--I remember Chris telling me what a fascinating person to speak with as well.

Art

[Richard Jenkins]

Originally posted by dmj
Frank anglicised his Croatian name Kuretich when working at the Don Lee Coach and Body Works because staff couldn't spell it.

My short Internet search wasn't successfull in confirming the information stated above, even if I found about a TV presenter called Kurtis who was also born as Kuretich.
Back to Kurtis: a few questions.
Can anyone confirm his Croatian ancestry?

Well, I can confirm he was definitely born Frank Kuretich. The 1920 US census confirms that. It says his uncle was from "Austria" and his parents, Frank Sr. & Katherine, from Hungary.
Looking at Frank Kuretich Sr.'s draft card from WWI, he was born in Razdrto, Austria, as was his brother

Of course, the boundaries were different then, but as you well known Razdrto is now in Croatia.

So, yep, Frank Kurtis was a son of a Croatian.

[Wolf]

Richie, thanks for confirmation, but IIANM it was in Croatia even back then (Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia was the correct name). Basically, I'm nit-picking, since situation was not unlike UK nowdays, and I'm being a Scot- so-and-so wears our crown, we have our parliament, &c....

[dmj]

Thank you guys for clarifications and suggestions. There is a Razdrto in Croatia and one in Slovenia but quick glance through phonebooks confirm that out of 31 Kuretic(h) with a phone in Croatia two are from Razdrto, small village with, presumably, no more than a few dozen households - that's it for me! I'm planning a short vacation in neighboring area later this month so I think I'm going to visit the village as well.

[Richard Jenkins]

Originally posted by Wolf
Richie, thanks for confirmation, but IIANM it was in Croatia even back then (Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia was the correct name). Basically, I'm nit-picking, since situation was not unlike UK nowdays, and I'm being a Scot- so-and-so wears our crown, we have our parliament, &c....

All I'm saying is the US census & WWI records had it down as Austria, as opposed to Croatia. Not saying they're right, as they're not, just stating what is actually on the records, for clarification.

[corsaresearch]

Talking about Frank Kurtis and his sports cars, can anyone identify where this image was taken?
Historian Ron Cummings recognized this car as the first 500SX, first owned by Al Hosking. Later, it was owned and raced by
Land-Speed-Record-man Mickey Thompson.

Apparently, it looks brand new here and this slide comes from a collection that has quite some images taking during practice
at the Pebble Beach races in the 1950s. Does anybody know if this car did practice at PB, but did not compete during race day?

[David M. Kane]

There quiet a few of these cars in the Sexton Collection in Indianapolis BTW.

[Wolf]

Originally posted by Richie Jenkins



All I'm saying is the US census & WWI records had it down as Austria, as opposed to Croatia. Not saying they're right, as they're not, just stating what is actually on the records, for clarification.

Sorry if it sounded as if I was correcting You, Richie- I was trying to give 'some perspective'. So, contemporary sources are of course right when refering to Austia (we were the part of Austro-Hungarian empire*), but I was hoping to make clear that it's not the case like Andretti who was born in part of Croatia which was at that time part of another country (given to Italians by Entente powers in London Pact of 1915).

* as a matter of curiosity, had there been no Sarajevo assassination of Franz Ferdinand + susequent war and break-up of Austro-Hungarian empire, I've read it in many sources that chances were that it would have become Austro-Hungarian-Croatian empire. Aforementioned Franz Ferdinand was quite keen on the idea (we had more independance than 'crown lands' like Czechs, &c, but he was in favour of even more).

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by corsaresearch
Talking about Frank Kurtis and his sports cars, can anyone identify where this image was taken?
Historian Ron Cummings recognized this car as the first 500SX, first owned by Al Hosking. Later, it was owned and raced by
Land-Speed-Record-man Mickey Thompson.

Apparently, it looks brand new here and this slide comes from a collection that has quite some images taking during practice
at the Pebble Beach races in the 1950s. Does anybody know if this car did practice at PB, but did not compete during race day?

I believe this is the car now owned by Kerry Horan and featured in the C & S article

[Cynic]

DMJ,

To my knowledge, there was only one 1/43 scale model produced of a Kurtis road car.

I've attached a photo of the Mikansue number 9 in their American range, probably at least 25 or more years old. It was a white metal kit produced in England for Mike and Sue (Richardson?), cast as I recall by John Day. This one was built for me by Mike Arensdorf, in California. I haven't seen one in years, but I suppose eBay is the most likely source.

This particular model was finished in the color of the Jack Ensley Kurtis 500S, although the front fenders on his car were substantially different (and of Jack's design).

This was the first sports car I ever rode in in late 1952 (at the age of 11); the second was Jack's Siata 208 SV. Jack bought the Kurtis to replace his Allard J2, and raced it in the Carrera in 1953. It was originally fitted with a Cadillac engine, replaced later by a Chrysler Hemi when he was associated with a Chrysler dealer in Indianapolis (before becoming the Jaguar distributor in the Midwest U.S.). Jack taught me to drive in 1953 or '54, in an MG T.C. on a golf driving range he owned in the area.

Those really were the days....

Cynic

[Cynic]

Originally posted by Dutchy


I believe this is the car now owned by Kerry Horan and featured in the C & S article

And I believe it looks much better in the original, clean form, rather than with the pipe organ exhaust pipes presently on the car.

Cynic

[Dutchy]

Most things usually do look better in their clean original form

[dmj]

Cynic, I think you're right about Mikansue model. I have an old, late 80s Danhausen catalogue at home (being at the seaside for a holiday can't check it at the moment) and clearly remember a roadgoing 500S model in it - now when you mentioned it, yes, probably a Mikansue one. Ebay is one of sites I banned myself from while on holiday, as I'm spending far too much on models there, both in terms of time and money. But I am going to check - just hoped that someone knows about some more easily obtainable model...

[gewhite]

RE: Frank Kurtis. My book on Kurtis, published by Motorbooks in 2001, goes into Kurtis' Croatian background. His original name, "Kuretich," was anglacized to Kurtis by the personnel office at Don Lee Coach & Body Works because it was easier to spell. Frank's cousin, Bill Kurtis, is a host on TV for the A&E Network. My book, still in print, goes into Frank's family background and early life as well as his building race cars for 30 years. Available from me at PO Box 129, Hardyville, VA 23070 for $39.95 + $4.95 s&h. Also my books on Offenhauser, Harry Miller, Kurtis' Indy Cars, Lost race Tracks and Ab Jenkins. - Gordon Eliot White
gewhite@crosslink.net

[WDH74]

Originally posted by gewhite
RE: Frank Kurtis. My book on Kurtis, published by Motorbooks in 2001, goes into Kurtis' Croatian background. His original name, "Kuretich," was anglacized to Kurtis by the personnel office at Don Lee Coach & Body Works because it was easier to spell. Frank's cousin, Bill Kurtis, is a host on TV for the A&E Network. My book, still in print, goes into Frank's family background and early life as well as his building race cars for 30 years. Available from me at PO Box 129, Hardyville, VA 23070 for $39.95 + $4.95 s&h. Also my books on Offenhauser, Harry Miller, Kurtis' Indy Cars, Lost race Tracks and Ab Jenkins. - Gordon Eliot White
gewhite@crosslink.net

Mr. White-

I've read the Kurtis, Offenhauser, and Lost Race Tracks books, and they are excellent. Thanks for writing them!

-William

[A E Anderson]

Originally posted by Cris
DMJ,

The Kurtis-Kraft Story by Ed Hitze
1974
Library of Congress no. 74-81545

Something tells me there was a book done within the past 5 year also but I don't have it. I know that around the time of Frank's death, Dr. Dick Knudsen (founder of the NEMGTR) was gathering materials for a book on him...he was even Frank's guest at the 500 during one year.

I don't know how much help some of the early info in this book will be...it says thinks such as "...had chosen to settle from their native Croatia, Austria." and "...had the long trip from Czecho Slovakia." It states that Frank was born on 25 January, 1908 in Colorado where his parents had settled for the time being.

The "Frank" that changed and anglicized the name, as well as worked at Don Lee's, is, in the words of this particular book, his father Frank, but it is impossible to tell how much of the info in this book is accurate. The pictures are great, though.

Cris

Well,

Considering that Ed Hitze Sr. knew Frank Kurtis personally, and quite well, I might add, the stuff in his book being mostly anecdotal information from Kurtis himself, most of it might well be pretty accurate. I knew Ed for many years (he was from Lafayette IN, where I have lived for all but a few of my 62 years, and his book reflected pretty much Frank Kurtis' own words, opinions, etc.

Art Anderson

[Jerry Entin]

This is what it looked like around the Kurtis shop in the day. Midgets and Indy roadsters were all made in this small work area. By the greatest craftsman of their day.photo lent to site by Gordon Eliot White.

Jack Hinkle's Kurtis Indy Roadster in the garage. The Great Jack McGrath is behind it on the bench. photo lent site by Rex Dean.

[David M. Kane]

Jerry:

Almost incomprehensible, as a kid on the East Coast, it was hard to follow the California scene except on the radio every Memorial Day...been listening since 1950.

[Jerry Entin]

Vukie: Bill Vukovich in his Kurtis at Indy.
Dave I also listened on the radio in my youth to the Indy 500. I couldn't believe how small Frank Kurtis's shop was when I saw it. In 1955 the first 10 cars were Kurtis cars. He also made 21 of the 33 cars in that field. They were truly gorgeous pieces of work. If you want to see a great book on Frank Kurtis write to the author: gewhite@crosslink.net
above photo lent site by Rex Dean

[antonvrs]

Cynic wrote:
"This was the first sports car I ever rode in in late 1952 (at the age of 11); the second was Jack's Siata 208 SV."

Cynic- please tell me more about the Siata "208SV" Was it a roadster? coupe? stock? modified? chassis number? final drive ratio? (just kidding about the last two).
Anything you can remember would be of interest.
Thanks,
Anton

[Cynic]

Hi, Anton,

I wish I remembered more (or knew where the car was still hidden!), but this was well over 50 years ago.

The car was definitely a Siata, definitely the (Fiat) V8, and was a roadster. Frankly, that's all I remember about it, other than I found the ride in the car quite exciting. As with the Kurtis 500S, Jack was not particularly bothered about being on public roads, nor about speed and noise limits. I don't believe he kept the car long, and perhaps may have taken it in trade for one of his other cars; he had sold his Allard J2 at about this time.

I would also love to know if anyone knew more about this car.

David

[Jerry Entin]

This is the earliest street version Kurtis known to exist.
This car was commissioned by Jack Hinkle in 1948.
photo L.A. Ward from the Darrin McKim collection.
scanned for site Bob Lawrence.

[Scuderia SSS]

My contribution.
Not sure on the year or the other car in the photo, but i am guessing around 1959/60