1954 Kurtis Kraft 500 S Roadster Convertible

1954 Kurtis Kraft 500 S Roadster Convertible, click pictureto enlarge.


I don't know anything about this car personally so This information is excerpted from another site that discusses the Kurtis Kraft:

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z12458/Kurtis-Kraft-500S.aspx

Frank Kurtis infatuations with automobiles began at an early age. His father owned a blacksmith shop located in Pueblo, Colorado that repaired automobiles and horse-and-buggy. The family later moved to Los Angeles, CA where Frank got a job working with Don Lee Cadillac, after lying about his age. By the 1930's, Frank was designing, building, and repairing racers in his four car garage located behind his house.
In 1941 he had created a car to be entered in the Indianapolis race which was driven by Sam Hanks. Near the mid-1940's, he had created two other racers designed for Indy. The first was for Ross page and the second was the Novi Special. The Novi V8 Specials were racing cars designed to compete at Indianapolis from 1941 through 1965. These were very fast and powerful machines that had a reputation for their handling, which had claimed the lives of two drivers.
During the 1940's, Kurtis fostered a reputation for his midget and Indy racers. In 1946, the Kurtis Miller Ross Page Special had been created and was ready to compete in the first Indy 500 after World War II. The rear faring was constructed of Plexiglas and powered by a 183 cubic-inch Offenhauser engine. It competed in the 1946-1948 Indianapolis 500 races.
By 1947 he had created the Kurtis-Kraft Special, his personal entrant in the 1948 Indy race. This one-off was built specifically to Frank Kurtis's specification and desire. During the 1948 season, it carried Frank to a 9th place finish at Indy and 12th in points. For the 1949 season, under the name of Wynn's Oil Special, it was driven by Johnny Parson and wearing the number 1 on its side, to a first overall finish at Indianapolis. The vehicle was later sold to Jim Robbins who drove it in the 1951 Indianapolis race where he finished with an impressive 2nd overall.

Since I don't know anything about the Kurtis Kraft I wanted to give you an insight into a similar car that I do remember about that was called a Cunningham. You may notice in reading about the Cunningham that one of their fabrication shops was in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was right behind where I lived for a while as a young teenager and I spent a lot of time in their shop watching them build up those cars.

http://users.rcn.com/edwardh.nai/chm1.htm
This definitive car, the Cunningham C-1, would set the pattern not only for Cunningham's own C2R (early '51) and C4R (late '51) sports cars, but for every American sports car from then on. The basic concept established by Mr. Cunningham ("Mr. C") laid the groundwork for America's two best known sports cars, the Corvette (1953) and Cobra (1962). In fact, the fathers of the Corvette (Zora Arkus-Duntov) and the Cobra (Carroll Shelby) both raced, and lost to, Cunninghams at Le Mans (1950 - 54). After seeing the Cunninghams in action, they took his approach with their own cars. Mr. C also pioneered the use of racing stripes as part of the team "colors," an effect that has become a standard. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most successful Cunningham cars were his C4Rs. This was a ladder-framed, envelope body, two seater with a large displacement overhead valve V8 engine and clearly inspired the better known Corvette and Cobra. Even today's American sports cars owe their inspiration to the Cunningham innovation. Chrysler Corporation certainly recognizes this and places the ghostly image of a C4R Cunningham above their current sports cars in some of their advertisements. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The three Cunningham C4Rs were built in West Palm Beach, Florida in late 1951. Like most Cunninghams, they were powered by Chrysler's mighty HEMI V8 and had almost 400 horsepower. They would race at Le Mans for the next few years (where they could lap 8 miles an hour faster than the race winning Jaguars) and would totally dominate American sports car racing during the first half of the decade.