The Sorrell Kurtis Special GMC inline-6, also known as “Dick Lane’s GMC under Glass” (under glass being a euphemism for the engine located under the fiberglass hood), is an American Special that has not been seen by public for more than 65 years. A few years back John Mote recovered and renovated this astonishing machine for the Rolex Monterey Historic Revival and Velocity Invitational in 2023. He will race it again in 2024.
In 1953, successful Beverly Hills home builder, Dick Lane set out to build the ultimate sports car he could drag and road race. The resulting car was featured twice on the cover and in 6 subsequent issues of Car Craft Magazine starting in 1954. Lane hired the best So. Cal. talent to utilize the latest race technology of the day, including Indianapolis winning chassis builder Frank Kurtis, body designer/ builder Bob Sorrell, and Indy driver and engine builder Frank McGurk. The Kurtis 500KK chassis (#KK4) featured full torsion bar suspension and was a wider version of the same chassis that won the Indy 500 5 times. Bob Sorrell designed and produced a total of 8 SR-100 bodies. The first car was the aluminum prototype which was constructed on a Kurtis 500KK chassis and shown at the 1953 Petersen Motorama. Sorrell subsequently produced 7 fiberglass bodies that were mounted on a variety of chassis.
The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is the pinnacle of car gatherings in America, if not the world. Only the very best, the rarest, the most valuable automobiles ever created are invited to be displayed on the show field of this stunning costal area in Northern California. Luckily for us, die-hard hot rod historians Ken Gross and collector Bruce Meyer have campaigned for traditional hot rods and customs to be included with the prestigious PB class vehicles of Duesenberg, Delahaye, and Bugatti, among others. This year, Ken organized Class V-01 ‘American Dream Cars of the 50s’, with help from Geoff Hacker of ‘Forgotten Fiberglass’, the foremost expert on low-production American cars of this era. I was fortunate to be invited to judge this class along with Ken, where we inspected entries like the 1955 ‘Debonaire’, Strother MacMinn’s LeMans GT, and the 1952 Pataray Roadster, with its 300 hp Fageol bus engine.
There was one entry however, that rose to the very top of the class, both in terms of presence and details packed into this stunning car: The 1953 Kurtis Sorrell SR-100 Roadster. Ken’s write up from the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours program fills in some details: “Featuring a sleek aluminum roadster body by California Metal Shaping and Bob Sorrell, the 1953 Kurtis Sorrell SR-100 prototype debuted at the Petersen Motorama of the same year. Built on an Indy 500 Kurtis racing chassis, it’s powered by a 302-ci GMC I-6, with a Howard 12 port head, and six carburetors. This is the only example with an alloy body. As a concession to cost, a few others were made with fiberglass shells (like the October ’55 Car Craft cover car). This will be its first public appearance in 70 years.”
Let me just say, the words ‘Stunning’ and ‘Flawless’ don’t even begin to sum up the quality of restoration on this car. The SR-100 was an absolute jewel of perfection on the lawn, and slack-jawed crowds packed around it throughout the day. From the period-correct magnesium Halibrand kidney bean wheels and Quick Change rear end, to the sparkling fuel tank and brightwork on the GMC Six, the Kurtis Sorrell was a complete knock out.
And maybe… X is for Exception… Although the Pebble Beach Road Race course was always tight and twisty with tall Cypress trees hemming in the track on either side, accidents were scarce and relatively uneventful. The exception came in 1956 when Ernie McAfee (no relation to fellow racer Jack McAfee) fatally slammed his Ferrari into a tree. This spelled the end of the popular Pebble Beach Road Races, although it was the genesis of Laguna Seca Raceway, its modern-day successor.