Everything about this car is incredible. It’s hard to not notice the color first, and then there’s the split windshield which a few high-end cars had given up by 1951. This rare 1951 Muntz Jet convertible can be found listed here on eBay with one of the most famous online sellers: Daniel Schmitt & Company in Saint Ann, Missouri. There is an unmet opening bid of $117,700 and a buy-it-now price of $119,900.
It’s hard to mistake this front clip and grille for any other car than a Muntz Jet. Even though the company only reportedly made around 200 examples of this fabulous car, most of us have seen photos of them or if lucky, have seen one at a car show. I have seen a few of them over the years at car shows and they’re really interesting, to say the least. Some owners included singer Vic Damone and actors Clara Bow and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.
The seller tells us that this is a very early car, at least early in the sense that it was made at the company’s Glendale, California factory before they moved east to Evanston, Illinois, and finally to Chicago. The Illinois-built cars were lengthened by 3″ to give more interior room so the California-built cars are a bit shorter. It turns out that this is a late-early car if that makes sense, in that it was #26 out of fewer than 30 cars made in the California factory. So early that it has aluminum fenders and some other body panels. The early cars were around 400 pounds lighter than the later Illinois-built cars with steel body panels but some owners complained that the aluminum panels dented too easily.
Now that’s an interior! Optional snakeskin interior materials are present here and it makes quite a statement. I’m assuming that it’s snakeskin-pattern material and not real snakeskin. Alligator skin, emu, and leopard skin were also options. What an era. They also reportedly had a padded dash as seen above and seat belts which I don’t see on this car.
Another option on the Muntz Jet would have been a rear armrest cooler and the seller doesn’t mention that being an option in this car. I saw one at a World of Wheels car show back in 2009 and took this pic of one in a Muntz Jet. This car does have power steering, power brakes, and a removable hardtop which should be made of fiberglass.
The engine is a 336.7 cubic-inch Lincoln V8 which the later cars had, and they were generally listed as having 154 horsepower. The early engines were Cadillac V8s. This car has been totally restored and I’m assuming that everything works as it should. As a reference, Hagerty lists a #2 excellent condition 1951 Muntz Jet as being worth $132,000 but Daniel Schmitt & Company know their vehicles and their values so I’m guessing that the asking price is right on the money. Have any of you seen a Muntz Jet?
Wayne Carini had purchased one of these cars on his series Chasing Classic Cars. He has a real passion for them. For the asking price you are getting a hand crafted extremely rare car. It’s a lot of money but it seems like a relative bargain to me.
Dennis Gage interviewed a guy that had one & I believe an Allard on My Classic Car!
Saw Dennis by accident just walking around on the boardwalk at Wildwood’s big fall car show several years back.
I’m guessing it was the ’50s the last time a car factory offered a color like this?
If memory serves, American pickers came across a couple ended up buying one pulling it out in a downpour.
Close, but those two were Nash Healys.
What Pickes bought was a Nash product.
I remember when Muntz made 4 track tape players, predated 8 tracks. Also Televisions.
Their ad jingle popped into my head when I saw your post; There’s something about a Muntz tv that makes you want to cheer. There’s something about a Muntz tv, so bright so sharp so clear. If there’s more I don’t remember it, that’s all I got lol
I believe that there was a line: “There’s something about a Muntz TV, in oh so many ways”….(the rest i don’t recall. You dun good! :-)
I had a Muntz 4 track player installed in my 63 Chev BelAir. I bought it from Muntz on Dufferin Street in Toronto
Muntz TV recievers were made to be cheap. Legend is that he took a major-company TV receiver and started removing parts. Every time the TV would not work at all, he replaced the last part he had removed. A Muntz TW worked pretty-well if you lived close to the TV station.
When I was in electronics school in my salad days, one of our tests was to draw a B&W-television schematic from memory. We all procured commercial maps for a Muntz and memorized them. Way-fewer parts than in a major-company set.
Stunning (and stunningly rare) automobile. Very cool.
Compare this is a Facel Vega and it’s an outright bargain. Problem is the marquee is so unknown, never popular and an odd duck. Perfect for a grumpy old man. A bargain.
Saw a black on at Hershey about 15 years ago. Certainly better looking than any car the Big Three were building at the time. Too valuable to drive today with our roads full of idiots in SUVs doing 96 mph to get to Starbucks for a $9 cup of bitter mud.
That 337 flathead was initially used in big Ford trucks. It was pretty much a stopgap between 1949 and 51 when Lincoln ended production with the v12 and before they came out with their first y block in 1952.
I was about 12 years old when Muntz was in his glory days, I was already on my way to being a gear head, so I was very interested in his car. Also, remember his T.V. and tape deck. I actually had one of the tape decks at one time,(wish I had it now). It seemed to me that people were in, a love or hate relationship with him, they either though he was a crook or a genius. In retrospect, I would say the genius. Although, history may disagree.
WoW! Too cool. Had heard of these but my first time I recall seeing one up close.
These were originally know as the Kurtis Sport Car. Kurtis built a few and sold out to “Madman” Muntz. Muntz made some alterations and re-named it the Muntz Jet.
Madman Muntz in the Napoleonic hat! Those were the days!
Has to be one of the earliest center consoles Ive seen too. Pretty forward thinking design.
I Recently Purchased a Skidsteer from Mr Muntz ‘s Son in Elgin Illinois
Where it All Started
His First car Dealership is Still there on Rt 31
I Guess he was Married Several times to some Starlets in California
Cool guy Better Story
Had the Muntz that Feddy Martin had originally, restored it and old it at auction Cadillac powered
I’ve seen one. A friend called one day asked me to meet him at a parking lot downtown. When I arrived, there were four classic cars. The Muntz stood out so much I don’t remember one of the other three. My friend had talked to the owners. They were men of means who lived in Ohio and all owned several classic cars. Each summer, they all picked one car and they took a week-long driving vacation. Gotta love their idea of collecting cars! Don’t know why they ended up in my little burg, but seeing a Muntz is a true treat.
Why would you make opening bid of 117,700 when for 1- 3/4 % more you have buy it now ?
Beautiful car! This is the first time I have ever seen one. It is beautiful under the hood but the part number stickers on the hoses? Can’t miss them.
Mad man muntz was a real showman, you can see two of them at the Yountville Father’s Day car show in Napa Valley.
As a kid in the late 60’s there was a run-down maroon one in Hayward CA we would drive past on the way to the store. Sat for years and I always thought it was cool but sad. My dad actually knew what it was. I hope it eventually was rescued.
All dogs go to Heaven. :)
My Uncle had one of the later ones for a little while here in Chicago. My father swapped out the Lincoln engine for a late 50s Cadillac engine. Then my uncle sold it. I still have some sales brochures packed away somewhere.
First time I saw one I thought it was a customized Chevy. I was about 10.
All dogs go to Heaven. :)
Hemmings Classic Car magazine ran a two part series on a full restoration on one of these last year. It was an expensive restoration because of the difficulty of finding or making some of the parts. I’m not sure whether I would rather have the Lincoln flat head engine or the early Cadillac engine, but it doesn’t matter since I won’t be getting either one. .
The instrument cluster looks like a the fifties GMC split ones certainly unusual only a little rarer than a Tucker
I worked in the dealership sales department for Muntz TV at 1020 Noel Avenue in Wheeling IL until the day it folded on July 26, 1972. Good sets at good prices! http://www.facebook.com/MuntzTV
I had one for over twenty years. It was a striking car with a full boat Lincoln flat head with Edmunds heads and a full hot rod treatment from Bill Jagenow at Brothers Customs and a going through by Werner Meiers’ Master Works, both in Detroit. The car always attracted a crowd (in metallic purple) and was reputed to have belonged to GRace Kelly, though I had no proof. They are a terrific bargain when you think they were pretty much hand built and having a Glendale car is a bonus.
I never knew such a car existed. The wire wheels really set it off.
Breathtakingly beautiful. Thank you, Barn Finds!
I’ve owned six of them over the past 30 years, and completely restored two of them … sold the others as (barely) projects. Fun cars to drive, but not if you’re attempting to stay under the radar! Always attracts a crowd and someone almost always comes up and shares a story about Earl “Madman” Muntz. I’ve had my current Road Jet for almost twenty years now, and drove it from San Diego to Indianapolis roundtrip, for one of our “Muntz Mania” gatherings.
My childhood friend’s mother was the daughter of a guy who owned a trucking company (Bartuch Trucking) that was a front for the mob. (Chicago) My buddy’s dad drove for him hauling Muntz TV’s and cabinets. There was some shady things happening then, like the time his basement was full of TV cabinets that he burned up in his furnace.Our first TV was a Muntz (I think somehow my father got a deal from my friend’s dad.) Anyway, Grandpa Bartuch had a Muntz Jet and my friends dad used to get it sometimes and drive us to school in it. He told us it had a Cadillac engine. That was really a neat car especially back around 1952.
Never seen one in person but, would like to. This one look real good. Somebody want to lend me $119,900. lol Don’t know much about them. This one was made 2 years before I was born.
Come see ours at the Edge Motor Museum in Memphis, TN. We are right down the road from Sun Studio.
There’s an absolutely gorgeous ‘51 Muntz Jet on display at the Edge Motor Museum in Memphis, TN. Yellow with snakeskin interior—Lincoln flathead with lots of speed goodies. Makes everything else made in the USA in 1951 look dated. Stunning automobile,
Mad Man Muntz, you got to hand it to a guy that got married seven times. Holy Christmas, I bet he dodged a lot of flying flower vases and ashtrays from women just before the divorces. I bet some of them took him to the cleaners. Don’t you have to pay alimony in California? Mercy sakes! This was one brave man, to go into the business of building his own cars, make a horses patootie out of himself on TV, go into a consumer electronics manufacturing business, all this and more, then to have six ex-wives. Flying cat buttholes!! He was obviously to smart for high school and probably had an IQ of 130 or more. They need to make a movie about this man.
Muntz was a brilliant man.For those who never heard of him ck Wikipedia.
They did make a movie about him. Madman Muntz; American Maverick. We premiered it our Muntz Mania event in Mukilteo, Washington. Earl’s son and daughter were both on hand for it.
Love to see that movie.
Thanks to this site and all here for introducing me to Madman Muntz.
I found the ‘Madman Muntz’ documentary on Youtube. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deFlB2G0mH8
What a legendary man and an epitome of the “American Way.”
Muntz Movie..
It was ok…saw it a while back..
Not what you call a movie movie…more like a documentary which did not include Mr.Muntz past successes that are still recognized today for his contribution of the CD player with Bill Lear.