Paul’s recent re-post of the Stutz Design History two weeks ago prompted me to remember where I had last seen one – of all places on a wall beside a car wash! It is located on one of the main thoroughfares in inner Melbourne, but I wonder how many people driving past would recognize the car?
It is possible that some may have seen a Stutz Blackhawk in real life, as I came across one at an American car show. I did think that perhaps there could be a connection between the two, but the colour does not match. Is there a particular significance to the black and silver two-tone do you think?
The interior is very well-preserved, although it seems that despite the array of gauges provided from the factory the owner has found it necessary to add a couple extra (seen just below the steering column).
As a car it is slightly ridiculous, but as an outrageous rolling showpiece – spot on! As an aside, check out those amazing cross-ply tires with the huge bulging sidewalls, the antithesis of the modern “stretched” trend.
While it is probably not the only one in the country, I expect that “real” Stutzes outnumber Virgil Exener’s neo-classical versions.
Further Reading:
Automotive History: Stutz, Take Two – It’s True, You Can’t Go Home
Nice find, I have a Matchbox (or Hot Wheels) of it in the crate at my mother’s house…It was one of my favorites as a kid as it looked sort of like a real car but still sort of outlandish and thus very intriguing (Just like the real one!). And it rolled well on the coffee table.
That one was a Hot Wheels. Still available into the 80’s, I had one too. Originally black but at some point fell victim to a Testors repaint.
As to the car wash art, I doubt many Americans would recognize that, and there were presumably more sold here than anywhere else. Quite random!
Another Stutz that came between the 1916 Bearcat and the Exner version. I saw this one at a car show in the 1980’s. It’s a 1931 Stutz Bearcat DV32 LeBaron Speedster.
The DV32 stands for “dual valve”, meaning four valves per cylinder, two intake and two exhaust for a total of 32 valves in the DOHC 322 cubic inch straight eight. All this in 1931 and yes, the paint is period correct.
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Here is one from Australia
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Absolute classic!
Am I the only one who finds DOHC and four valves per cylinder in Depression-era America absolutely outstanding? Talk about going out with a bang!
Us foreigners tend to look down on thirties American car engineering as a hotbed of L-heads and long stroke engines, while forgetting that guys like Stutz and Duesenberg were right up there in the forefront of cost-be-damned engineering.
Right, Pete. Cutting edge technology for production cars over here in the late twenties/early thirties although, as Paul pointed out recently, Peugeot pioneered the format in their race car engines as early as 1914.
nice Studebaker Hawk photobomb in the 3rd shot above
The Exner Blackhawk is really over the top Ive seen a live one at a show in OZ though not that one so you have at least two, Southwards museum has serveral early Stutzs including an Indianapolis winner on display and more tucked away awaiting restoration there are pis of them on the cohort but not in this computer, I think I’ll just give my car its annual wash at home.
While I can understand Exner’s outrageous styling, what I don’t get are the huge, blank C-pillars. They’re just begging for a set of landau bars and surely wouldn’t look out of place since the rest of the car looks like a rolling JC Whitney catalog advertisement.
I wonder if a pimped-out Escalade could be considered today’s Blackhawk’s spiritual successor.
Rudiger:
The pictured car needs a vinyl roof AND landau bars. Perhaps one of those 1/2 vinyl roofs?
It’s odd that it doesn’t have a vinyl and/or landau bars. Coupled with what appear to be one-off tires and quasi-Magnum 500 aluminum wheels, really makes one wonder what was going on and if Exner approved of all these oddball things. He was rather eccentric in his design philosophy so I guess it’s possible.
I grew up in Los Angeles in the 1970s and did see these around. In the context of the era — and the neighborhood — they didn’t actually strike me as all that outré. They seemed to vanish from the streetscape around the same time disco died.
My Hot Wheels Blackhawk was gray and adorned on the hood, somewhat inexplicably, with blue/yellow stripes and STUTZ lettering.
I was at the Petersen Museum for an event several years ago, and wandered off for a browse while everyone was elsewhere. Wound up standing next to Phyllis Diller in an otherwise empty gallery while we both looked at a Stutz. I thought I’d once read her name in a list of owners and asked if she had, indeed, owned one. ‘What? One of THESE? No, never.’ And then that wonderful laugh of hers.
The part that really grabs me are those tires! IIRC they were specially made for this car, and good luck getting replacements. I’m guessing this car doesn’t get driven much. Very unusual tire/rim/bead design.
Good catch on the tires. I was actually looking at the quasi-Magnum 500 wheels. It seems odd that a neo-classic wouldn’t have some sort of ersatz wire-wheels. Maybe that’s why they went with what has to be a very specific, specialty tire. In fact, they almost seem like they’re some kind of run-flat variation.
The tire/wheel combination is the Firestone LXX system, first revealed in 1969. The main goal was safe run-flat operation. The design featured a large-diameter, narrow rim (I believe 17×3.5 on the Stutz), mounted with a tire having conventional section width but a “cantilevered” side wall. There is an SAE paper that gives the design rationale: http://papers.sae.org/690106/ You can click the preview button for the first 5 of the 8 pages, which is enough to convey the idea. More pictures of these tires (and a Blackhawk) are at http://www.madle.org/elxx.htm
The Blackhawk is not at all my style, but the LXX system strongly appeals to my inner car nerd. Ironic a car with run-flat tires has a visible spare, but I suppose the makers anticipated replacements would be hard to find.
Those LXX wheels and tires are some wild stuff. Looks like a couple showcars got them, too: something called a Pontiac Farago in 1969, and a 1970 ‘El Gato’ which looks to mostly be a Mercury Cougar with a Mustang fastback roof.
It also seems that the LXX wheels didn’t stay on the market long as the tires, evidently, had a tendency to come off the wheels. The way they were mounted, it sure doesn’t seem all that surprising and probably explains why no one else offered them. But it certainly does seem like they were ahead of their time in foreshadowing run-flat tires that would appear decades later.
There were other run-flat tires available in the 1960s. They were another chamber internally, essentially a tire inside the tire. Rambler used them in their 3-seat station wagons since there was no room in those cars for a spare.
Thanks Read, I was hoping someone would know about these tires!
It looks like the car has a trade plate (permits a workshop to drive an unregistered vehicle) so it would seem the car was driven to the show. Hopefully not too far, or too fast on 40+ year old tyres…
The last real Stutz is the most technically interesting. Basically the prototype for VW Transporters, except that the space usage is even worse than VW. Record-breaking waste of cubic footage.
Very cool, occam. Jay Crist has carved out an unique identity within the old car/truck hobby with his fabulous collection of milk trucks. Each of his restorations is completely first class. Another of his incredibly rare pieces is this 1938 Walker Dynamotive Model 500 gas/electric hybrid. It’s probably the only road worthy example in the world.
Stutz also built a few (and I mean a VERY few) high quality fire trucks like this 1924 Model C 750-50.
The tires are something I never noticed before, and that is quite awesome. I quite loath the stretched hellaflush look that’s so popular – did curbs cease to exist and I just haven’t noticed?
I think whether or not anyone driving by or at the carwash would know what it is unimportant, pretty much like the neoclassical cars it was emulating it’s an attention getter, gaudy yes, but timeless in it’s excess. Paint a Tesla Model S on that mural to hip it up and people would probably think it’s some old Mazda in the future.
“As a car it is slightly ridiculous…” More than slightly, I would say!
Fair call Frank! It is not like the ridiculousness is accidental either…
“While it is probably not the only one in the country, I expect that “real” Stutzes outnumber Virgil Exener’s neo-classical versions.”
We can fervently hope this is true for Australia’s sake! I really don’t understand this car’s raison d’etre… (nor Zimmers, etc. , etc.)
I actually like (mostly) the interior and dash. I find the exterior styling to be a hideous exercise in bad taste!
Happy Motoring, Mark
I pass this mural frequently on my commute. I’ve always known that it was a Stutz
Thanks Nich, good to hear it does not go over everybody’s head.
The interior of the cars is kind of weirdly nice if you think about it.
The original factory building is going strong in Indianapolis with a variety of new uses. Indianapolis almost became Detroit. Good thing it did not. See the magic web page.
http://www.thestutz.com
You beat me to this one. The Stutz Building is a really cool place, and it has a little mini car museum inside. It is not actually the original factory, but was built to replace an older factory at some point in the 20s – which was after Harry Stutz had ceased involvement. Still, they built some really great stuff there from the mid 20s through the end.
“You must be nuts to drive a Stutz” 🙂
“It’s worser to drive a Mercer” or so the intense rivalry between the two early American sports car brands was summarized in the pre-World War I years. Of course, Exner did a retro-Mercer, too…
http://www.conceptcarz.com/z20377/Mercer-Cobra-Roadster.aspx