A couple of weeks back again, I did a modest characteristic on a 1955 Kurtis KK500. You can study that in this article. Anyhow, that feature lead to email correspondence with a person named Jake Delhomme. Jake life in Prescott Arizona, has no time for technologies, and has owned a 1953 Kurtis 500S because the 1980’s.
“What you have to understand about these Kurtis cars and trucks is that they have been made with a singular objective – to be speedy all around a race keep track of. There was very minor compromise for any other targets. It is not comfortable. It’s not silent. And it’s not significantly superior at anything at all else, but it is so good at currently being fast that your brain has difficulties comprehending that you are driving an antique vehicle.”
“I also own a 1965 Corvette observe automobile that has been a race car or truck considering the fact that it still left the vendor in 1964. The Kurtis handles much better, brakes much better, and is faster about just about any track because when it was designed and designed (a 10 years earlier brain you) it wasn’t handicapped by the very same concessions the Corvette experienced to give toward creation.”
“You can compose about the Kurtis all you want, but you will hardly ever actually understand it until you travel it.”
Small of traveling out to Arizona and motor vehicle jacking Jake, I have no plausible potential customers of driving a Kurtis… Even so, I absolutely sure do yearn to expertise what Jake is preaching. So a great deal so, that I resolved to get on Youtube this early morning and see if I could discover any classic footage of a Kurtis in action. I uncovered a good deal, but what definitely intrigued me was a everyday ride-a-very long in a 1952 500S that was posted a number of years back. Verify it out:
The type of “Vlog” structure of the video clip gives you a serious sense of the beast, correct? The POV standpoint provides vibes of driving alongside in a ’29 roadster with goofy fenders. Now, picture that similar practical experience with first rate brakes and sans the standard early Ford understeer. It’s not challenging to relate all that again to what ole Jake is preaching, no?
The auto in the online video seems to have been modernized a bit, but I really do not see just about anything as well much eradicated from how Frank Kurtis up-to-date his individual automobiles. The injected SBC, for illustration, was something Frank did on a good deal of his cars and trucks soon after the motor debuted in ’55. And the fashionable gauges and awkward unique front fenders? These are just opportunities…