Chris Keen driving his Silver, 1954, Kurtis 500S Corvette, down the Wellington Straight, during the RAC Woodcote Trophy For Pre '56 Sportscars.
The best sports cars have racing in their blood, and Frank Kurtis dominated the Indy 500 in the early 1950s. Bill Vukovich won the 1953 race, and the first seven finishers were Kurtises. In all, 21 Kurtis cars finished in the money, and an amazing 56 entries were Kurtis-Kraft, though not all qualified. Kurtis racers won Indianapolis in 1950, ’51, ’53, ’54 and ’55 and filled out the top 10 places in the other years. The story was the same at all the other tracks across the country. Frank Kurtis’s creative engineering had spread across the country through his dirt-track sprint cars. They bred a new generation of American drivers who went to SCCA, Indianapolis, NASCAR and Formula 1. He was obviously a force in the racing world, then, but could Kurtis sell a sports car to the public? In 1949, he had already built an aerodynamic two-seater and sold 36 cars before he sold his design to Earl “Mad Man” Muntz, who stretched it into a four-seater that became the Muntz Jet.
Size: 3378px × 2479px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 4600cc, 500, 1954, 2019, 500s, 56, chris, circuit, classic, corvette, indy, keen, kurtis, mcalpine, pre, rac, richard, silver, silverstone, sportscars., straight, trophy, wellington, woodcote
