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Carl Jensen & Dan DiThomas The STuTZ Club, Inc.
Originally published in the March-April 2016 issue of the Hoosier Horn
Depending how it breaks down, different sources say that cars produced in Indiana (both headquartered and assembled) range from 154 to 197 different marques. It’s hard to say what manufacturer is the most recognized, but even non-car enthusiasts recognize the name “Stutz Bearcat”.
Although the first Stutz produced was raced at the speedway in 1911, it was likely the glory of the Stutz “White Squadron” race team that chiseled the Stutz name into history. The White Squadron became a household name with the cars in magazines, billboards and even early movies. The White Squadron team would arrive at an event with three impeccably prepared cars all in white with red wheels, with each driver in matching crisp white driving suits with no other markings except the bold print of STUTZ across their chest. Their racing success was from coast to coast and driven by some of the best drivers of the day such as Gil Anderson, Earl Cooper, Barney Oldfield and Howdy Wilcox.
Although championships were unofficial at that time, at the end of 1915, Stutz driver Earl Cooper was the first driver to accumulate enough points to be a repeat winner for both 1913 and 1915 in the White Squadron cars.
Harry Stutz was absolutely convinced of the relationship between racing and production for both selling cars and improving the product. Immediately, after the first Stutz built participated in the first 500 mile race at Indianapolis, the Hoosier Press headline read, “Stutz Busy Producing Racing Duplicates”. Three body styles were initially offered from the Indianapolis car maker with a starting price of $2,000 (about four times the average annual income). The most famous of these was of course the “Bear Cat” (which over time would change to Bear-Cat, then to Bearcat).
After taking the company public, Harry Stutz left Stutz Motor Car Company in 1919 and went on to produce fire trucks, start a new car company called H.C.S. which produced very fine automobiles, take a Miller powered car to a win at Indy as an owner and even dabble in aircraft engines. Meanwhile Stutz Motor Car Company continued to develop their products with their 4 cylinder engine producing 88 hp; 10% more than a Cadillac V8. But it was time for a change which came in the form of the new Speedway Six. As a new feature, and in fact very new in the industry, the Speedway Six offered optional hydraulic four wheel brakes.
It was the arrival of Fred Moskovics as President who drove the reinvention of Stutz with a completely new product line for 1926 and unprecedented success on the race tracks. The car featured a worm gear differential that allowed the entire chassis to be dropped, thus lowering its center of gravity. The transmission would start as a 3 speed, but would be a 4 speed by 1929. The brakes were four wheel hydraulic with drums that were wrapped with reinforcement bands with cooling fins. But likely the most fun feature was the button on the dash that opened the flow of the exhaust system, for the heart of the new car was the 8 cylinder overhead cam engine with twin ignition; 2 coils and 16 plugs. This masterpiece had the tappets fastened directly to the valves for a durable, light weight valvetrain and an advanced lubrication system. The crankcase was cast with extensive reinforcements to keep it completely rigid under extreme driving. Optional aluminum alloy pistons soon became standard with aluminum alloy connecting rods. Instead of a fan belt, there was a very robust chain system that included the crank, overhead cam, fan and accessory drive. One glance under the car and the massive finned and baffled aluminum oil pan gave a clue that this was something out of the ordinary.
Fred Moskovics saw the value in racing, much like Harry Stutz. But unlike Harry Stutz, Mr. Moskovics had to answer to a board of directors. So, racing was pitched as a way to sell superior performance in safety….what a salesman! For all their success, factory ads never highlighted Stutz racing, rather the performance of better handling or stopping was presented as safety features. But often in a brochure, the phrase would appear, “The car which is the safest, has the right to be the fastest”.
In fact, it was the fastest. At Daytona in February 1928 a stock Vertical 8 speedster was crowned fastest production car in America with an average speed of 106.53 mph. These Stutz Speedsters, all black with red wheels, were known as Black Hawks and won the 1927 AAA Championship with the most incredible record; Stutz won every race and every car entered finished!
The Vertical 8 Stutz did well in other racing venues as well. A Stutz special broke the Pikes Peak record, and would do so many times. Even a Stutz sedan scored a win at Pikes Peak. They won the Stevens Trophy, a 24 hour endurance event at Indianapolis. At Le Mans Stutz held a lead over the Bentley’s for much of the race with W.O. Bentley himself stating the Stutz was a better handling car. At 20 hours, the Stutz lost top gear; yet for four more hours they revved the engine and motored across the finish line in second place. This was the best finish at Le Mans by an American car until the Ford GT40 win in 1966. But to even the score, a Stutz took a win on Bentley’s home turf at Brooklands in England.
It was the strategy of Stutz to sell their customers road going cars with the same chassis and powertrain that were taking them to victory on the tracks. This philosophy was regardless if the car was a 2-passenger Speedster or a luxury sedan. While the new dropped chassis provided a lower center of gravity and better handling, it also made for a lower and sleeker foundation for the custom coachbuilder to drape the cars in some very elegant bodies. The 1926 brochure read, “The floor of the car is from five to eight inches nearer the ground than in the conventional chassis design”. Stutz offered a line of catalog bodies produced by outside coachbuilders such as Robbins or LeBaron. Customers could also select from any other coachbuilder to have a car tailored to their personal taste. This included a line of Weymann bodied cars and full customs from companies such as Rollston or Derham. In fact even the catalog bodied cars were all unique to each other. Stutz boasted, “Every car as exclusive as a Paris gown”. That is, every car that left the factory was different in some way; no two were to be exactly alike. A number of European coachbuilders were also selected for Stutz bodies such as Lancefield in England or Erdmann & Rossi in Germany.
Following the sporting heritage of their car, Stutz continued to develop the Vertical 8 engine. While some manufacturers went to larger cylinder counts, the sporting cars of the day such as Alfa Romeo, Duesenberg, Miller and Bugatti ran twin overhead cam 8s. So for 1931 Stutz took its overhead cam engine to a twin cam as well. They had of course already worked with superchargers in racing and with a few road cars. But the DV32 engine perfectly fit the Stutz image. To further promote this, Stutz went so far as to bring back the Bearcat name and even make a special short wheelbase speedster equipped with the twin overhead cam engine called the Super Bearcat. The factory news publications were filled with articles on the DV32 technical advantages and performance. All Bearcats were signed off with a notarized letter from the factory that the car was driven 100mph prior to delivery. The Super Bearcat on its 116 inch wheelbase chassis was clearly marketed for the enthusiast who wanted even more performance.
Sadly as the world went further into the troubles of the 1930s the era of flashy supercars soon ended and in 1934 Stutz faded away as quiet as a race track on a cold winter’s day. After 24 years of production of approximately 37,000 cars, The Stutz Club has documentation of 392 remaining cars in 17 countries.