The Muntz Jet is a long-forgotten classic convertible from the 1950s which is surprising, as it’s credited by many as being the first personal luxury car – debuting years before the Ford Thunderbird which further popularized the genre.
The story behind the Jet is wild and well-deserving of its own Netflix series. The car was developed by legendary Indy and Formula One car designer Frank Kurtis and bankrolled by Earl “Madman” Muntz – a nationally known television personality, famous for his “Madman” persona used in ads of the period.
Fast Facts: The Muntz Jet
- The Muntz Jet was a low-volume American luxury convertible produced in the early 1950s and is often credited as the first personal luxury car, predating the Ford Thunderbird. It combined V8 power, dramatic styling, and genuine long-distance comfort at a time when Detroit had not yet defined the segment.
- Originally developed by race car builder Frank Kurtis, the design evolved from a two-seat sports car into a longer, four-seat touring convertible after Earl “Madman” Muntz acquired the rights. The wheelbase was stretched, a rear seat added, and the Jet shifted toward effortless high-speed cruising rather than a pure sporting focus.
- Production was unconventional and financially troubled to say the least. Cars were built in California and later Illinois, with Cadillac and Lincoln V8s used over the production run. Prices were high, profits were thin, and total output remains disputed, though most credible sources place production under 200 cars built between roughly 1949 and 1954.
- The Jet was essentially a reflection of Muntz himself – it was flashy, ambitious, and idiosyncratic. Features ranged from smooth automatic transmissions to onboard ice chests and front seat liquor cabinets. Though commercially unsuccessful, it left a lasting impression as a charismatic American grand tourer created through personality, promotion, and sheer grit.
History Speedrun: Earl Muntz And The Muntz Jet
The Muntz Jet arrived at a strange, optimistic moment in American motoring. Postwar buyers had money, highways were improving, and the idea of a fast, comfortable personal luxury car was starting to matter as much as outright performance.
Earl Muntz was famous in Southern California as an electronics pitchman and retailer, a high-energy self-promoter who understood advertising, pricing psychology, and spectacle. He’d popularized the practice of “Muntzing” televisions, stripping circuits down to reduce cost, while building a reputation for selling big-ticket items with barnstorming flair. Image courtesy of the Muntz Collection.
Earl “Madman” Muntz looked at that new post-WWII landscape and decided there was room for a low-volume, high-style convertible that combined Hollywood flash with genuine grand-touring pace. The result was the Jet, a car that was hugely influential in the evolution of the early American GT.
The story of the car starts long before Muntz ever put his name on a badge. The Jet was developed by Frank Kurtis, the prolific Southern California fabricator best known for Indy race cars, sports race cars, and even F1 cars. Kurtis produced a limited run of Kurtis sports cars that leaned on race-car engineering but were aimed at road use, with V8 power and dramatic, low-slung lines.
Muntz acquired the rights and tooling from Kurtis, and under Muntz’s ownership the car was revised, with Kurtis making changes for him that included a longer wheelbase, 113 inches, plus a genuine rear seat, pushing the car away from two-seat sports car territory and toward a high-speed touring convertible suitable for the whole family.
If the Jet had been created by a conventional automaker, its development story would have included ample product planning and committee meetings. Muntz’s version was closer to a vaudeville act with a drafting board backstage. He was already famous in Southern California as an electronics pitchman and retailer, a high-energy self-promoter who understood advertising, pricing psychology, and spectacle.
He’d popularized the practice of “Muntzing” televisions, stripping circuits down to reduce cost, while building a reputation for selling big-ticket items with barnstorming flair. That restless commercial instinct carried straight into the Jet: make it fast and comfortable, load it with conversation-starting features, and sell the idea as much as the machine.
The Jet’s specification changed as production evolved, and that’s part of why it remains a bit of an automotive historian’s puzzle. Early cars are widely documented as using Cadillac V8 power, while later Jets mostly seem to have had Lincoln V8s.
Many electronics sold by Muntz were stripped down and simple, but cheap to buy, and hugely popular. Image courtesy of the Muntz Collection.
The car offered classic American V8 torque, automatic transmissions in most examples, and there was a focus on effortless speed rather than precision handling. Period-style luxury novelties were also part of the Jet’s character, including an ice chest to keep your beers cold and even a liquor cabinet option for those who preferred the harder stuff, which indicates exactly what kind of owner Muntz was imagining.
Early assembly took place in Southern California, then operations shifted to Evanston, Illinois, Muntz’s home turf. The Jet was expensive to build and difficult to make profitable at the price buyers would tolerate.
Period sources and later historians place the Jet’s retail price between roughly $4,500 and $5,500 USD, depending on year and specification, with Muntz himself later claiming he was losing approximately $1,000 per car (though this may also have been one of his famous marketing tactics). The math explains a lot – the Jet wasn’t just low-volume because it was exclusive, it was low-volume because, truth be told, the business model didn’t really work.
Muntz made claims over the years that placed production output far higher than reality, but registry keepers and auction house records tend to converge on a figure of under 200 cars with 198 being the commonly cited number, with some sources going as high as 394.
The safest conclusion, supported across multiple mainstream histories and specialist registry work referenced by major auction catalogs, is that the Jet was built in very small numbers between approximately 1949 and 1954 – depending on how the early Kurtis-based cars are counted.
Reported top-speed figures land in the low 100 mph range, with some sources citing 112 mph-plus capability for the type depending on the engine. Some individual cars are outliers, too, as one Petersen Vault Collection Jet is reportedly one of two fitted by the factory with a Chrysler FirePower Hemi V8, likely making them the fastest of the factory built cars.
The car you see here is an original 1952 Muntz Jet powered by the desirable 337 cubic inch (5.5 liter) Lincoln V8 engine which is mated to a General Motors HydraMatic automatic transmission.
Earl Muntz’s personal story arc is inseparable from the car – he was a salesman, a tinkerer, a promoter, and most of all a showman, who operated on instinct, guts, and wits. The Jet is a great example of the man – it’s ambitious, occasionally contradictory, and full of big swings.
In an era when Detroit was still deciding what an American grand tourer should be, Muntz took a shot from the sidelines with a car that mixed race-bred origins, Hollywood-grade marketing, and genuine high-speed intent.
The Jet didn’t survive long enough to mature into a stable product line, but it left behind something collectors still respond to – a rare, charismatic American convertible that feels like it was built by one big personality as much as by engineering.
The Muntz Jet Shown Here
The car you see here is an original 1952 Muntz Jet powered by the desirable 337 cubic inch (5.5 liter) Lincoln V8 engine which is mated to a General Motors HydraMatic automatic transmission.
It has four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes, independent front suspension and a live axle rear end, on a 116-inch wheelbase. A black removable soft top is included, and the car is finished in bright yellow over a leopard print interior – a bold choice that Earl Muntz himself would probably have loved.
Inside you’ll find an engine-turned aluminum instrument bezel, a center console, a heater, and a padded dashboard. The car also has full-sized wheel covers, whitewall tires, fender skirts, dual spotlight mirrors, and prominent chrome trim.
Inside you’ll find an engine-turned aluminum instrument bezel, a center console, a heater, and a padded dashboard. The car also has full-sized wheel covers, whitewall tires, fender skirts, dual spotlight mirrors, and prominent chrome trim.
It’s now due to roll across the auction block with Mecum in mid-January and you can visit the listing here if you’d like to read more or register to bid.
Images courtesy of Mecum
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
