A Cycle-Fender Roadster with Sprint-Car Manners; 1953 KURTIS 500S.(NEWS)

Byline: LARRY SANATA

FOR KIM EASTMAN and his son, Kevin, it was love at first sight. A cycle-fendered roadster, with fenders attached to the body in the rear as on an Allard, with the handling of a sprint car.

Their 1953 Kurtis 500S, which has served as both a street car and a race car, has the characteristics of a competition machine. The 500S borrows from the mechanical genius that enabled Frank Kurtis to build some of the most agile sprint cars, not to mention Indianapolis race cars, in the early to mid-1950s.

The Kurtis 500S was almost identical to the Kurtis Indy cars of the period, except for the fenders and lights. The street cars were available as a kit or in turnkey form, as was the case for Eastmans' car.

Father and son own the car together. Kevin Eastman, cocreator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and owner of Heavy Metal magazine, lives in California and has little time to race historic cars on the East Coast, so Dad does the driving.

The car is one of about 12 or 15, "near as anybody knows, Kim Eastman says. A period Indy-car chassis was the basis for the 500S, widened to accommodate two people and to accept any motor of the time.

While many Kurtis models were equipped with Cadillac engines, this example was built with a Dodge Hemi for its first owner. Even-tually, it was fitted with ...