This week: STUTZ
Born: 1913 Nationality: American
Though no car bore his name until just before the first World War, engineer Harry Clayton Stutz established his car making credentials as early as 1898 when he built his first motor vehicle. In 1905 he produced a car with a special "underslung" chassis system that gave it a much lower centre of gravity than anything else in its day.
He joined the Marion Motor Company in 1906, and four years later it turned out a Special Roadster with several innovations developed by Stutz, among them a transaxle, a combined transmission and differential. Stutz kept the rights to his inventions even while working for Marion, and set up Stutz Auto Parts to make them.
That same year he built a sports car specifically for the Indianapolis 500, and an 11th place finish gave him the impetus to produce a roadgoing version under his own name. He set up the Ideal Motor Company in 1911 to build and sell the Stutz Model A, which was followed in 1912 by a sports car whose name was to become iconic - the Bearcat. Its performance was due in no small part to innovation, including aluminium pistons.
In 1913 the company was renamed the Stutz Motor Car Company. Stutz knew the value of a sporty pedigree, and regularly entered his cars in key events. His "White Squadron", white cars with drivers clad in white, became a team to be feared.
With demand constantly growing, fuelled by grandstanding promotions such as a record-breaking San Diego-New York run by "Cannonball" Baker, Stutz brought his company public in 1916 so he could build a new factory. This turned out not to be such a good idea - very quickly Stutz became disillusioned by the majority stockholder, a Wall Street speculator named Allen Ryan, and in 1919 he sold his holding and left.
Stutz set up two other ventures, the Stutz Fire Engine Company and the HCS Motor Car Company. In 1924 he left the successful fire appliance operation to concentrate on HCS, but it failed in the same year. His HCS cab manufacturing company lasted three years.
Ryan had gone bankrupt in 1922 and the Stutz company was rescued by Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel. He tried to bring the brand into the family car market, and stopped production of the famed Bearcat. But in 1926 the Frederick Moskovics-designed Model AA Vertical 8 placed the name firmly in the luxury sector.
The Vertical 8 was sleek, low-slung, and a good performer and generally way ahead of the opposition. Initially it sold well, but there were problems with some of its technologies, including hydraulic brakes, and sales tapered off during the model's second year.
A new sports car, the Black Hawk speedster, was launched for the 1928 model year. It had an upgraded version of the Vertical 8's straight-eight engine with a cylinder head designed by Bugatti. In 1928 a number of European-look models were sold, including the Monte Carlo, the Biarritz and the Versailles. And a Black Hawk took a second placing in the 1928 Le Mans 24-hour endurance event, a feat that wasn't equalled or bettered until 1966 when a Ford GT won.
In 1929, Moskowics resigned from the presidency of the company and was succeeded by Edgar Gorrell. He oversaw development of a very efficient four-valves-per-cylinder DOHC engine that underpinned the revival of the Bearcat name in 1932 (above).
However, the Great Depression dealt a death-blow to the Stutz company, and many other luxury car makers. After a disastrous 1934 when it produced only six cars from a catalogue of 36 models, car-making ceased. Harry Stutz himself had been dead nine years when the company he founded was finally dissolved.
The Stutz name was revived briefly in the early 1970s, when a Pontiac-based Stutz II Black Hawk was built.
BEST CAR: The 1932 Super Bearcat
WORST CAR: The early Vertical 8s had very poor brakes, which brought the whole car down
WEIRDEST CAR: Nope, they were all beautiful ...