PKB backs a 1911 KRIT

The marque lasted six years, the engine came out of an aeroplane, and the car went out on the streets of Lugano three times.

---

KRIT of Detroit built cars between 1909 and 1915, and then stopped existing. The marque is a footnote. It produced one Racer, and that car came to Lugano in 2026 as Car of Honour, supported by PKB Private Bank.

Its history is not tidy, which is much of the appeal. The original four cylinder was replaced at some point with a Curtiss OXX-6 aircraft V8 dating from 1916: 9.3 litres, rated at 100 hp, enough to push the car past 160 km/h. Fitting an aero engine into a light chassis was a recognised habit of the period, and the cars it produced were never subtle. This one came from America to the United Kingdom in 2005 in poor condition and was restored over eighteen years. It is not a museum piece. It still races at British circuits, Goodwood among them.

It arrived in Lugano by transport from Scuderia Classiche, and across the concours it went out on parade three times.

That is the part worth sitting with. A car built in 1911 running the streets of a modern European city, sharing tarmac with traffic lights and delivery vans, on roads that in some form existed when it was new. It was built for surfaces like these, more than a century ago. It is still capable of them.