PA Hillclimb

While going through piles of photos and results trying to ID drivers and their cars...I came across this photo. having the results from the 1959 Spring Hershey Hill Climb...I could figure out who and what this is. I posted it on another site to test some car folks...it took a bit of time but finally the correct answer was found...and it came from Poland (the answer, not the car) Anyone want to take a shot at what this one is??

Looks like a Denzel.

Rich

You mean Denzel Washington?

Slam dunk for Rich!!

Austrian coachbuilt sports car. The first Denzel had a hand-built wooden body based a Kubelwagen chassis. It used the Kubelwagen's 25hp engine and won first place in the 1949 Austrian Alpine Rally. A production prototype was completed in 1951 using an aluminum body on a steel frame chassis and utilizing the Volkswagen suspension and engine. Formal production began in 1953 and ended in 1959 with about 350 total cars produced. The bodies came from Karosseriefabrik F K Gesellschaft, a Viennese firm that also produced some of the early Porsche bodies. There were 3 models:
Denzel Sport "Seriensuper" with 1281cc 52hp engine
Denzel Sport Super with 1290cc 64hp engine
Denzel Sport International with 1500cc 80hp engine

That is some rare stuff....

Here is another rare one...(now Larry Long, you can't play this one since you supplied the photo!!) This is a shot from Giant's Despair...what do we have here??

Hard to tell from the photo without a full side view. Looks like it might be a Jensen. Sue

C Production
Red
Alfa Romeo TZ

Could it be one of the many Fiat Abarths- Mondial, Allemano...?

Well thanks to the internet I have exhausted all my marque guesses such as Alpine & Matra. And its just as well that I failed 'cause it would have been kind of like cheating anyway.

Well...what we thought it was, a Sabra:

"In the early 1960s, Autocars briefly sold the Sussita range in the US and Canada as the Sabra (meaning a native of Israel, but also the name of a genus of cactus). This venture had been prompted by the car's enthusiastic reception at the 1960 New York Trade Fair, where firm orders for 600 examples had been placed, largely on the strength of its low purchase price. Exports began with a shipment of 35 cars in June of that year, and it was also reported in the Israeli press at the time that Autocars were gearing up to produce 2400 cars per year, having only recently expanded their operation from workshop to factory scale. In the event, the Sabra flopped in the North American markets due to its relatively poor build quality, but the name would come to have lasting significance for Reliant."

May in fact turn out to be something else....I've looked at all the guesses so far and checked them on line. Rich's Alfa guess, looks promising...there are some slight differences. I've talked to the Abarth museum....it isn't one of their cars. they wrote back with this:

"mayby the first pic (coupe)I dont now mayby alfa(Zon fender),belguim car with glasfiber body and VW our Porsche 356 engine"

the photo was taken at the 1965 at Giant's Despair.

I have a few emails out to some Alfa Groups....maybe we'll hit...or maybe we'll miss!?!?

Ok…had to almost go around the world to figure this mystery out. It turns out Mr. Rich was pretty close.

According to the Restoration and Preservation Chair of the Alfa Owners Club of America:

"The red car is definitely a Giulietta Sprint Zagato Coda Tronca. (See
Fusi, Alfa Romeo - all Cars from 1910, page 556). It is one of 36 built
in 1962. There were several in the USA that were run at all the major
races of the day. Which one this particular car is I don't know."

It might not be a Sabra…which in fact we did have one run. Murray Sperling raced a Sabra Sport in 1961 at Fall Hershey!!
This car certainly is a "Rare Bird…errr, car"

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/pic.php? ... arnum=2335

Word from Alfa:

Could it be the Giulietta SZ?
Regards,
Marco Fazio


Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo

Centro Direzionale

Viale Alfa Romeo

20020 Arese (MI) Italy

Duryea...1952...Mr. V. Corrandini stages this beast at the starting line....what is it!?

I think the car on the start line is a Muntz Jet....
Produced by Mad Man Muntz,,,The same guy who in vented the 8 track player.

Ron, I gotta tell ya. You are a wealth of info and pictures. Thank you for posting and educating.

Thanks Steve...I enjoy the work!! I'm glad you enjoy it too!

Mr. Hartman is correct (I also got a note from PHA Vet Scott Dames)...this is in fact a Muntz Jet:

"The Muntz Jet-"the first serious attempt in nearly a generation to manufacture an American sport car capable of measuring up to the top-flight European jobs"- wrote the Sport Cars and Hot Rods book in 1950 published by Fawcett Publications."Back of the venture is Earl ("Madman") Muntz, former Kaiser-Frazer distributor and present television tycoon...

The Muntz is a beautiful machine, built in practical fashion from dependable Ford and Cadillac components, with a high-grade custom body added. Father of the Muntz was the Kurtis Kraft, originally designed by Frank Kurtis, leading U.S. builder of Indianapolis and dirt track cars. Kurtis announced a prototype in 1949, adaptable to a wide range of power units, including Studebaker, Ford, Lea-Francis (British) and Offenhauser. Complete kits for home-building also were scheduled, but production never got under way. But an experimental Kurtis sport car with a stroked Mercury engine hit 142.5 mph [approx. 229 km/h] over a measured mile on Daytona Beach in August of that year. Attracted by this performance and the low-slung lines and promising basic design of the Kurtis, Earl Muntz bought up the tools, dies and assets of the Kurtis firm in the summer of 1950. The existing plant was retained pending a move to a big new factory in Chicago and Frank Kurtis together with Sam Hanks were retained to do some redesigning on the original Kurtis with a view to making it an all-purpose job of wider appeal. Wheelbase was lengthened 13 inches [33 cm]. This enabled a back seat to be installed and numerous details improvements went into both chassis and body. Within six weeks the first complete car rolled out with Hydra-Matic drive...

No one knows for sure how many Muntz were made, but it's estimated that 394 Jets were built; of these at least 49 survive today."

Muntz Jet...a rare bird...dang it...CAR!

beachfv14 wrote:I think the car on the start line is a Muntz Jet....
Produced by Mad Man Muntz,,,The same guy who in vented the 8 track player.

What i want to know is what's with all the guys in trench coats at the start line?

If we tell you, we'll have to kill you.

There are some references to the Muntz Jet in Burt Levy's humorous automotive fiction "The Fabulous Trashwagon."

For anyone that hasn't read his books (I think he is up to 4 in the series,) they are highly recommended. Burt has a great blue-collar, wise-arse writing style in these, which are told from the perspective of a mechanic that runs a racing prep service in the 1950s.

Ok...here is another one. Some more crazy stuff from back in the day...what is it?