This 1949 Kurtis Sport Car is a beautiful vintage convertible and an extremely rare car, since only 16 of them were ever made, but it's also the car that helped launch Motor Trend magazine by posing for the first issue.
In fact, the V8 dreamboat seen in these photos is the same Kurtis Sport Car that appeared on the cover of that inaugural issue, and it's just as gorgeous today as the day it rolled out of the Kurtis plant.
Here's more on this amazing(ly rare) automobile:
The Kurtis Sport Car was a product of the astonishing explosion of automotive creativity that occurred in California after World War II. After enduring a grinding depression and a grueling war, Americans were ready to celebrate as the booming economy provided jobs and prosperity. They’d had enough of cars for hard times — the somber and sensible Depression-era sedans and coupes they’d nursed through the war years on old tires and rationed gas. California was where the party started. And Frank Kurtis, the son of a Croatian blacksmith, was at its epicenter.
The Kurtis’s combination of easy, American V-8 muscle and European-style chassis tuning must have seemed sensational back in 1949. Frank Kurtis had demonstrated a compelling formula for an all-American sports car: The Kurtis Sport Car was well-engineered, well-detailed, and well-built.
-Via design you trust