Earl “Madman” Muntz knew how to sell used cars and television sets, yet his own car never made him a dime. Between 1950 and 1954, his small company built about 198 Muntz Jets, a fast four-seat luxury car. By his own account, he lost money on each one. Then, in 1954, he walked away.
Muntz was no stranger to selling. In fact, Curbside Classic says his two used-car lots in Los Angeles were the largest in the world. Starting in 1947, he also shook up the television business with cheap, stripped-down sets. So when he decided to build a car, he had money, nerve and a showman’s sense of how to sell one.
What he didn’t have was a way to make the numbers work. The Jet cost more to build than buyers would pay. As a result, every car that left the shop deepened the hole. Here is how a car that drew film stars ended up as one of the costliest hobbies of the 1950s.
Where the Muntz Jet came from
The Jet started as someone else’s car. Frank Kurtis, who built many winning Indianapolis race cars, began building a two-seat sports car in 1949, according to Curbside Classic’s history of the Muntz Jet. It sold for $3,495, the same price as Jaguar’s new XK120. However, only some 18 to 36 Kurtis Sport Cars found buyers, and the project lost money.
Kurtis then sold the manufacturing rights, blueprints, parts and tooling to Muntz for $200,000, Curbside Classic reports. Old Cars Weekly dates the sale to 1950, the year Kurtis production ended. Kurtis had often fitted a lightly modified Ford flathead V8. Muntz wanted something bigger and plusher.
What Muntz changed
First, he made room for four people. Old Cars Weekly says he stretched the wheelbase by three inches, and Curbside Classic puts the early cars at 113 inches. Next, Muntz set up a small shop in Glendale, California. There, crews installed Cadillac’s new 331-cubic-inch V8 and a Hydra-Matic automatic, with a three-speed manual also available.
The result was quick for its day. Old Cars Weekly gives the Jet a reported top speed of more than 108 mph. It was also low, at 54 inches tall. Inside, the Jet offered seat belts and a padded dashboard, features most American cars didn’t yet have. Buyers could even order snakeskin upholstery.
Meanwhile, Muntz kept selling the car the way he sold everything else. The Jet drew a famous crowd. Grace Kelly, Mickey Rooney and Vic Damone all owned one at some point, according to Old Cars Weekly.
From Glendale to Illinois
Glendale didn’t last. Old Cars Weekly counts 29 Jets built there before production moved to Evanston, Illinois. Then, in 1952, operations moved again, this time to North Sheffield Avenue in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood.
The move changed the car. Curbside Classic says the Illinois-built Jets rode on a 116-inch wheelbase and used steel body panels instead of aluminum. They also swapped the Cadillac engine for Lincoln’s 337-cubic-inch flathead V8. Near the end of the run, two Jets got 331-cubic-inch Chrysler Hemi engines, the same source adds.
Still, the bigger problem was never the engine. It was the math. A hand-built car with a Detroit V8, an automatic and luxury trim was expensive to make in a small shop. That’s why each extra car only made the losses grow.
Losing money on every Muntz Jet
The price looked steep for 1950s buyers, but not steep enough. Freddie Trenkler, a clown with the Ice Capades, paid about $4,500 for his new Jet, Old Cars Weekly reports. Muntz later admitted he lost about $1,000 on each car he built, the magazine adds.
Curbside Classic’s estimate runs higher. It puts the total loss at some $400,000 across 198 Jets, or about $2,000 per car. The two figures differ, but both point the same way: there was no Jet that turned a profit. Muntz finally gave up in 1954, Curbside Classic says.
By comparison, his electronics business kept rolling. Curbside Classic notes that he sold a TV set for under $100 in 1951. Later, in 1962, he launched the “Stereo-Pak” four-track tape player for cars. For Muntz, the Jet was a detour, not the main road.
Where the Jets are now
Many of those money-losing cars made it through. One of them belongs to Mark Besser of Missouri, whose Jet is No. 25 of the 29 built in Glendale. According to Old Cars Weekly, it is also one of just two known survivors with aluminum fenders. Its first owner was Trenkler, the Ice Capades clown, who apparently kept it until 1992. Besser later drove it 700 miles to the Iola Car Show in Wisconsin.
Today, the Muntz Jet is a car people seek out rather than one they stumble across. Of the 198 Jets believed built between 1950 and 1954, Old Cars Weekly reports that roughly 50 are believed to survive.
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