American Sports Cars 1946-1953

The 1953 Chevrolet Corvette is often cited as America’s first mass produced sports car of the post-war era. It is true that the Corvette, now entering its 77th model year, is America’s longest running sports car. And at 1.75million sold and counting, it is the nation’s best seller by far. But it was not the first.

Here is a selection of America’s abundance of sports car makers that made their debut prior to the Corvette’s on June 30, 1953 - even if those many makers didn’t make very many cars.

Woodill Wildfire

The Wildfire roadster was the creation of B.R ‘Woody’ Woodill, a successful young Southern California Willys dealer. Woody, like many well to do young men of the time, was enamored with the Jaguar XK-120 and considered buying one. Hanging out after work one day with some of the guys in his service department, he was appraised of the Jag’s high maintenance nature, the delays in getting parts when it would inevitably break, and the difficulties of working on the car. If only there was a great looking nimble handling sports car that used reliable American components, they lamented. Well, as a large dealer, Woody had access to all the Willys parts he needed, including the excellent new Lightning F-head 6-cylinder engine. Why not build one himself? All he needed were bodies.

And those could be had right down the freeway in Santa Anna. Boat builder Bill Tritt had begun a few years earlier using fiberglass to build low cost high style bodies that could be attached to an existing chassis, creating a sleek fast sports car at a fraction of the price. Tritt was contracted to make 2 of his bodies for Woodill, incorporating a Willys grill and taillights. With the help of a nearby fabricator the prototypes called Wildfires were ready in time for the Los Angeles Motorama. Several Willysexecutives and dealers happened to be in attendance - at Woody’s invitation of course. They went wild for the Wildfire. Negotiations to produce and sell it under the Willys name were well along when the company’s finances turned south. Willys was forced to sell itself to Kaiser Motors, who was already committed to building its own fiberglass sporty car, the Kaiser-Darrin. Disappointed but not dissuaded, Woody elected to go it alone.

Woodill Wildfire (www.UndiscoveredClassics.com)

The first Woodill Wildfires, out of an initial production run of 7, were sold in May of 1953 - Beating the Corvette to market by a month! It is unclear how many more of the roadsters were made before the high cost of low volume production forced Woody to change his plans, quickly pivoting to selling his cars in kit form. He now marketed the Wildfire as “the 14-hour car,” because he claimed it could be built over a weekend “with a buddy and a couple of cases of beer.” Quality be thy name.

Woody Woodill and a soon to be Wildfire (www.UndiscoveredClassics.com)

Woody Woodill estimates he sold about 300 Wildfires from 1953 to 1956 when he folded his hand. The actual number is thought to have been closer to 200. Perhaps as many as 10% of those were factory built, presumably without the aid of beer.

Glasspar

The invention of low cost fiberglass body technology, combined with the Southern California hot rod scene, gave birth to a local cottage industry of homemade sports cars makers. The formula for becoming a branded carmaker had suddenly become simple. Sculpt a swoopy fiberglass body, mate it to the engine and chassis of the customer’s choice and voila, instant sports car. The Woodill Wildfire is probably the best known of these - probably because Woody Woodill told the best story. Fiberglass pioneer, Bill Tritt, besides casting many of the Wildfire bodies, also built his own sports car - the Glasspar G2. Some Glasspars used fabricated chassis that could be mated to a Willys powertrain. Others were mounted on older Ford chassis and powered by flathead V8s. As many as 200 G2s were made, though it is unlikely that more than a hand full were sold factory-assembled.

Victress

The only other fiberglass kit manufacturer to surpass the century mark in production was Victress of North Hollywood, California. The Victress S1A was designed and built by Doc Boyce-Smith and Hugh Jorgenson. They were apparently no slouches when it came to automotive design. An early Chrysler hemi-powered S1A topped 203mph at the Bonneville time trials in 1953. Admiring the Victress’ wind tunnel-sculpted body, it would be hard to argue that it wasn’t one of the most beautiful American cars of the 1950s. That is if you could find someone who has heard of the Victress to argue with. Only about 100 (or 200, depending on the source) of these roadsters (and a few coupes) were made from 1952 to 1961. An unknown but likely very small number of them were sold fully assembled.

Victrss S1A (www.UndiscoveredClassics.com)

Maverick

John Bond, founder of Road & Track magazine, once described a sports car as being “built for sports motoring, rather than mere transportation, with higher than average construction and engineering, preferably with 2 seats and open bodywork.” Using that definition, it is hard to say if the Maverick Sportster could be called a sports car. It is an open 2-seater, and it sure as hell isn’t mere transportation. But what the hell. This car is way too cool not to include.

The Maverick was created by H. Sterling “Smoke” Gladwin, a retired aeronautical engineer from Mountain View, California. Gladwin had worked for Boeing and Lockheed - where during the war he helped develop the triggering device for the atomic bomb - and later for NASA. In his spare time Smoke was a dedicated hotrodder. He modified a 1937 Hudson Terraplane to hit 113mph at Muroc dry lake. A very smart man with a fierce curiosity, he became interested in fiberglass. Starting with a chassis and drivetrain from a 1940 LaSalle, Gladwin spent nearly 1200 hours crafting a voluptuous boattail body for a roadster of gargantuan proportions. At over 16 feet long and 6 feet wide, it is thought to be the world’s largest fiberglass bodied car.

Pleased with the prototype, and encouraged by the attention the Maverick received wherever he went with it, Smoke decided to go ahead with the Maverick Sportster in 1954. The production version used a period Cadillac Eldorado chassis. Weighing in at 3100lbs the 210hp Cadillac OHV V8 could propel what Gladwin called his “land-based Pegasus” to 130mph. Promotional materials described it as “An all-Western long range commuter for the Western highways.” Thinking of using a Maverick as your daily driver? Think again. It offered no top, nor even windshield wipers, and doors were optional. Bodies were fabricated by Industrial Plastic Services of Oakland, CA, with final assembly done down the peninsula in Los Altos. They were priced from $3850 to $5440, depending on the customer’s engine choice. A total of 6 Maverick Sportsters were built - in addition to the prototype and a few bodies - before Smoke called it quits. At least two Mavericks are known to exist today (though rumors tell of 2 or 3 others still out there) The original was spectacularly restored by Fred Roth, noted collector of post-war American sports cars.

Some years after he had sold the rights to the Maverick name to the Ford Motor Company, Gladwin told John Lamm in an interview with Special Interest Auto, that he was “sorry to see his name on the nose of such a tin can.” Argue all you want whether the Maverick is really a sports car, but it is sure no tin can.

Restored Maverick prototype (www.VCStar.com)

Kurtis Sports Car

Easily one of the most beautiful American cars of all time was the Kurtis Sports Car. Frank Kurtis was one of the best known race car builders of his day, perhaps of any day. From his shop in Glendale, California, Kurtis produced five of the Indy 500’s first 6 winners of the 1950s. His company, Kurtis-Kraft, built hundreds of sprint and midget racers that would dominate the nation’s dirt track ovals during the post war decade and beyond. Kurtis’s cars were not only fast, they were attractive. Frank learned early on about body design from the best. First was the soon to be legendary Harley Earl, while they were at Don Lee Cadillac in the 1920s doing coach-built customs for Hollywood’s elite. He then worked with Howard “Dutch” Darrin, crafting Packard-Darrin specials in the 1930s, before venturing out on his own to sell sporty customs to finance a budding racing car business.

The spark for a production sports car was ignited over Memorial Day weekend in 1948. Frank Kurtis drove one of his street customs, a ’41 Buick with a voluptuous roadster body called the Comet, out to Indianapolis to attend the Big Race. There he met Ford Motor Company scion, Benson Ford - who would father the 1956 Continental Mark II. Benson went gaga over Kurtis’s roadster - perhaps even inspiring him toward that future Mark II. Benson is said to have told Frank he ought to build more of these. All his fellow scions would love it. Less than a year later, Kurtis was offering the sleek and impossibly low slung Kurtis Sports Car. This beautiful machine was a perfect harmony of function and form. A superbly proportioned steel and fiberglass body stretched seamlessly over a light weight unit-body space frame. Power came from a modified Ford Flathead V8, mounted aft of the front axle for balanced weight distribution. The result provided the speed, power and roominess Americans love, while sacrificing none of the nimble responsive handling that make Europe’s finest roadsters such a joy to drive. Famed speed demon, Wally Parks, propelled a specially prepared Kurtis to 142.515 mph at the inaugural Bonneville National Speed Trials in 1949. Frank Kurtis understood where sports stood in the sports car equation.

Kurtis was able to produce 16 of his Sports Cars before the cruel reality of limited production in a mass-produced world made itself apparent. His operation was severely undercapitalized. Kurtis was forced to sell the rights to the Sports Car to Southern California inventor, entrepreneur and outsized personality, Earl “Madman” Muntz. The price was $70,000, according to Kurtis - $200,000, according to the Madman.

Muntz soon moved production to Evanston, Illinois. Along the way, he extended the car’s wheelbase, added a rear seat, switched to a bigger Lincoln-sourced V-8, and changed the name to the Muntz Road Jet. Now emphasizing luxury, the Road Jet really wasn’t a sports car anymore. In fact, you could probably call it the first personal luxury car. But adding luxury was expensive. The Road Jet was now even less profitable than when it was a Kurtis. Madman Muntz claims that he lost over $1000 on each of the 394 Road Jets he sold before he threw in the towel in 1954.

Cunningham

After the Corvette, probably the best known post war American sports car is the Cunningham C-3. Much of that fame was not earned on public roads.

Briggs Swift Cunningham II dedicated much of his life living up to his middle name. After the war, he set his sights on being the first American racer to win the 24 hours of LeMans driving an American car. Oh, Americans had won before, driving European cars, and Europeans had won with American iron. But never had the stars ‘n stripes appeared on both the helmet and the fender of a winner at LeMans. Cunnigham’s first attempt was at the 1950 race, with a pair of specially prepared Cadillacs. Briggs finished 11th, with his teammates Miles and Sam Collier placing 10th. Not the result he had hoped for, though enough to launch a more committed plunge into international sports car racing. The first true Cunningham car to make the trip to the Circuit de la Sarthe was a C-2R in 1951. This Chrysler hemi-powered roadster piloted by Briggs would set the fastest official lap at practice. Unfortunately, the car proved to be too heavy for its brakes and finished 18th.

Cunningham C2R (www.BriggsCunningham.com)

The next year, a rule change -probably motivated by moneyed sponsor’s desire to push out the independent specials - required that a manufacturer must plan to produce at least 50 road cars in order to compete. Cunningham was ready with an upgraded C-3, the first and only Cunningham offered to the public. In order to keep costs down, Italian coach-builder Carrozzenria Vignalewas contracted to fabricate the bodies. These were then shipped back to Florida for final assembly using otherwise all-American power and components. Even with the savings, each C-3 Continental road car still cost over $15,000 (about 4 times the price of a Corvette) The Continental’s Italian body sure was beautiful though. And it was fast. A Cunningham C-3R was able to place 4th in 1952 with Briggs behind the wheel. Sadly, that was the best showing he was personally able claim at LeMans (although a Cunningham C-4R driven by John Fitch and Phil Walter placed 3rd in 1953) The results were better this side of the pond. Briggs Cunningham won the 12-hours of Sebring three straight times from 1953-55, plus countless wins at Watkins Glen and elsewhere.

Briggs Cunningham with a C3 Continental Coupe (www.Hemmings.com)

On the production front, Cunningham built a total of 26 C-3 Continental street cars (plus at least 8 racing cars) from 1951 to 1955. That’s when the Internal Revenue Service came a calling. They determined that the B.S. Cunningham Company was not a viable business, but merely a rich man’s hobby, and thus Cunningham’s losses could not be deducted. And with that ruling, the era of the gentleman racer came to a close.

It is sometimes said that failure is necessary to earn wisdom. If so, the next group of cars provided a great deal of wisdom about where the all-American sports car was not headed.

The very first American sports car of the post-war era likely is the Hewson Rocket. Unveiled in 1946, this space age-styled car was the brainchild of William “Shem” Hewson. Hewson’s Rocket was built in Hollywood, California, where it put on quite a show. It was billed as the most aerodynamic car ever made. The car never saw the inside of a wind tunnel, so the voracity of that claim was not verified. But it sure looked the part. The tapered body almost completely covers the wheels. It has glass-covered headlights and no protruding trim pieces or even door handles. This light-weight all-aluminum roadster road was built on a tubular molybdenum steel frame. Although Shem Hewson experimented with both a V-4 and V-6 engine of his own design, to keep costs down he eventually settled on a Ford “Baby 60” flathead V8, which was mounted in the rear. Its teardrop shape also led to the 2 rear wheels being positioned very close together. If that setup conjures images of truly evil handling, those images would be accurate. The only Hewson Rocket ever built resides in the wonderful Lane Museum in Nashville, TN. On a visit last Fall, the museum’s founder, Jeff Lane, called the Rocket the worst driving car he’s ever experienced (and he’s driven a rear-steering Dymaxion!) But thanks to the efforts of Mr. Lane and his crew, it still exists, has been fully restored, and is drivable - carefully.

The late 1940s was the start of the Jet Age. Any connection a car could make to jet airplanes would be a big selling point. The Gates Convertible Coupe was built in Dayton, Ohio. While it wasn’t made of the exotic materials of the day like aluminum or fiberglass, it did look a bit like a wingless airplane - or maybe an airplane-less wing. Either way, since it used the same 22hp Austin engine found in the tiny American Bantam, the Gates might have had trouble achieving takeoff velocity. Not much is known about what else lay beneath the futuristic-looking skin, except supposedly it had a set of hydraulic jacks that promised to raise one or all wheels at the touch of a button. Gates produced but one car, and it did not survive time.

Gates Convertible Coupe (AACA Facebook page/BobCunningham)

The Ronco Roadster was the creation of Bunny Ronco, whose day job was engineer for Mac Trucks. In his spare time, it seems Buddy’s mind lingered on smaller, lighter things than trucks. After the war, he scoured local junk yards looking for parts to build a sports car of his own design. It took nearly four years but Buddy eventually crafted his finds into a nifty little roadster. The sleek body was formed out of two pairs of Nash 400 rear fenders, artfully welded to a surplus aircraft drinking water tank. The car was supported by a 4-wheel independent suspension, which was quite advanced for the day. It is also said to have used a salvaged Volkswagen engine and transmission. This raises questions, however, since VWs didn’t appear on these shores much before the early 50s. If the 1949 Ronco was indeed Dub-powered, that would suggest it received an engine swap somewhere along the way. And whatever that way was will remain a mystery, as Buddy only built one car, and it no longer exists.

Ronco Roadster (AACA Facebook page/David Rodgers)

Crosley Hot Shot

And finally, there was the Crosley Hot Shot. When people mistakenly think of the Corvette as the first mass produced American sports car, it may be the “mass” part that throws them off. The diminutive Hot Shot, introduced in 1949, weighed in at just 1175lbs - less than half that of the first Corvette. The absence of mass was kind of the Hot Shot’s thing. Despite displacing only 44 cubic inches, the Crosley OHC 4-cylinder engine was a screamer. It powered a Hot Shot to the checked flag at the first 12 Hours at Sebring endurance race in 1950. A modified Hot Shot was leading its class at the 24 Hours of LeMans in 1951, before a makeshift alternator failed 8 hours into the race. Like the Kurtis, this sports car understood the meaning of the word sports.

In order to bring the sports car life to the everyman, the Hot Shot was built off the same relatively high volume platform as Crosley’s sedans and wagons. Thus a bare bones roadster could be purchased for under $900. The look and design of the car are pretty much what we think of when we think of affordable British sports - like the Austin-Healey Sprite or MG Midget - except the frog-eyed Hot Shot beat the famed “Frogeye” Sprite to market by a half dozen years.

Crosley Hot Shot (www.automobilecateloge.com)

Unfortunately for Crosley and the Hot Shot, as the 1950s began, Americans were buying in to the notion that bigger must be better. While the Hot Shot was certainly hot, sales of the subcompact sedans and wagons that were supposed to provide profits through economies of scale, had gone cold. Crosley would sell 2498 Hot Shots, more than twice as many as all the above mentioned sports cars combined, before it was forced to close its doors for good on the 4th of July, 1952. That is too bad. Judging by the success had by the Healy Sprite - and especially by the Volkswagen Beetle - Crosley’s Think Small philosophy may have been just a few unlucky years ahead of its time.

We tip our hats to the little roadster - Chevrolet certainly does. The Crosley Hot Shot’s place in history as America’s first post war production sports car is acknowledged, right in the entryway of The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

And as for mass production? The Corvette’s title of America’s Sports Car is safe.

The Makes That Didn't Make It

The Makes That Didn't Make It

Occasional Blog

The Makes That Didn't Make It

The Makes That Didn't Make It

Alphabetical Index of Makes