History Lost a Stutz to the pros.....

tb33 and a 3rd you are correct they came a really long way. Stutz had continued with the old T-head but after building their overhead cam engines for the 300 inch era in 1915 they knew that the future was not with the T-head. T-heads were good but just outdated.The history of Stutz would show that they were not the picture of financial health during the late teens and early 20s. It was revamped in the 20s and the 8 cylinder I spoke of and the whole car was a much better product (under Fred Moskovics). From then on the car was faster and smoother and overall a really decent car in every respect. The car won a number of speed awards in the 1927/1928 period running speed runs at Indy and Daytona. For the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 the speedway put on a short recreation of a race that took place in 1927 between a Stutz Blackhawk speedster and a Hispano Suize Boulogne. In 1927 on a wager they ran a 24 hour race between a similar Blackhawk and similar Hispano and the Hispano won. Always excuses I suppose but the Stutz was not geared right and it beat itself to death while the Hispano glided along to victory. In the recreation in 2011 the Stutz won. I was fortunate to be a passenger in the pace car that paced them for several laps (1927 Rolls Royce Torpedo four place with skiff fenders- a cool car and pretty fast to boot). My friend who owned the Rolls had just had a rebuilt for more speed and the car had it. At Indy I had to tap him on the shoulder in turn three and tell him to slow down and wait for the two racecars. The ride was fun and scarey at the same time. Here is a picture over my shoulder on the backstretch with the Stutz on the left and Hispano on the right.



here are the three cars prior to the 2011 race at Indy.

 

Jim, you are too cool!
thanks for the info. the stutz i drove was a straight 8 dual plug per cylinder, if i remember right.
owner had some hard times and the resto was never finished, i think it ended up over seas. it was one of my favorite cars.

 

With Wayne Carini having a net worth of around 20 million bucks he can usually get what ever he want's. HRP

 

Thanks for all the pictures & stories guys .You sure have some fine memories.
Barn Hunter sorry to about you about loosing out .

 

Interesting reading. Thanks.

 

The sad fact of life is, most of these super rare, high dollar cars are not for us common folks to have. These cars deserve a very high quality, professional restoration where every nut and bolt is absolutely correct and date coded parts are used to bring it to the highest level of perfection. There are cars that if I bought them I would have to let someone with the money and time have to be totally fair to the car and it's history.

Nor would we really want one this rare, it can't be driven on any regular basis, it is just to valuable to risk damaging it. These are museum pieces or cars that become a part of some very rich persons private collection.

Wayne's show is one of the very few watchable shows on TV, no drama, just car stuff, and he seems like a super nice guy. People like him are the ones who can get these special cars into the right hands so that the car does not end up being stored for another 20 years before it is redone.

Don

 

I agree it needs to get into the right hands so it can be properly cared for and I don't have the funds to do it justice. In fact, just a few days before the sale, I had sent Wayne's people an email asking if they had an interest in the car - no location and just a description. Little did I know he was one step ahead of me. Didn't think to ask the name of the guy flying in or I would have known it was a done deal.

 

BH.....sorry you didn't get it....that would have been cool....

lwf

 

Don,
How true. I have always wanted a Stutz bearcat since I was little and saw one. Now I am older and wiser and while I would still lime to own one it wouldn't due for me to own one. I can say right here and now that it is one of very few cars that I would not molest and my intentions would be good but end of the day I would screw with it, that is my nature. I would like to believe that I am not the only one.

 

I used to work in a restoration shop doing crazy high-end jobs, like this Stutz. The amount of care and attention to detail was enough to drive most men nuts. Once the cars were done, no one wanted to get near them because we all knew what a pain in the ass it was going to be fix anything on them. In my opinion, owning one of those multi-million dollar cars, as cool as they are, would be a huge hassle because I'd be too worried about anything happening to it to have any fun with it. I'd be much happier with a lower end car that I can play with and drive anywhere I wanted without worrying about someone breathing on it wrong.
Barn find, I'm sorry you lost out on this one, but it may have worked out for the best. Find something cool you can have fun with and not worry about.

 

LOL I worked in a resto shop for a while too. My end of it was purely mechanical, it made me know that I do not have the dedication to restore a car. I did get to play with a drive a few pretty neat old cars though.

 

I knew I was in trouble when the owner handed me a crushed rear fender from a 35 Packard, a torch and a 2 lb. hammer and told me to fix it. At the end of the day, about 3 1/2 hours later, he wanted to know why it wasn't back on the car yet, and asked me if I was planning on making a career out of it.

 

LOL While I was at the candy Store the owner acquired a Bently that had belonged to Errol Flynn. I walked into the shop as they were trying to drag it off the trailer and he smiled and said, "hey benno's here." Then walked over and said, "these brakes are stuck can you fix 'em?" The car came off the trailer with the brakes stuck, but they did get in perfect working order eventually.

 

Watching the show now the stutz is moving under it's own power. Pretty cool car.

 

I wonder how it was that a relatively minor engine fault in 1931 leaves a fairly expensive car laid up for 80 years? It can happen, obviously just seems kind of odd,

 

From what I'm seeing on the show is back then it was normal to pull the head to clean the carbon out because the gas was so poor and the carbon build up raised the compression and the engine would knock. I guess some projects just never get done.

 

Check this out. !http://merced.craigslist.org/cto/5243593108.html

 

Re: the Stutz - Hispano Suiza race. This started as a $25,000 bet between 2 wealthy sportsmen and escalated into a public event with ticket sales for the benefit of charity.

One of the sportsmen was head of the Stutz company and had plenty of experience managing racing teams. It was supposed to be a race between a stock Stutz and a stock Hispano Suiza and he planned accordingly.

But the Hispano people snuck in a ringer . A Boulogne racing model much faster than any stock Hispano.

The Stutz people kept their mouths shut and raced anyway. They blew the engine on their car trying to keep up and lost the race. But never mentioned that they had been cheated. Years later one of the participants said in an interview that the affair did not reflect much credit on the Hispano people but would not go into details.

Stutz did more racing than any car company in America and only had 2 spectacular failures. One was the Stutz - Hispano race, the other was the disastrous wreck of their land speed record car due to tire failure. They both took place in the month of April 1928. Both were widely publicized and did considerable damage to Stutz reputation.

Incidentally right after the race the guy who owned the Hispano bought a Stutz and entered it in the LeMans 24 hour race. It ran the full 24 hours, and finished in the money behind Bentley. The Boulogne model Hispano was eligible to run at LeMans but the racing Monza was not.

 

That Stutz find was the feature story on Chasing Classic Cars that aired tonight on the Velocity network.. Great find, but we all saw in FIRST here on the HAMB. Car got a new head gasket and a cleaning and won an unrestored car award at Pebble Beach 2015. Bob

 

Happened across a guy in York a few years back who was driving a Mercer...he was more than happy to talk to me about it when I recognized it for what it is; he normally wasn't too interested in talking to people about it because most thought it was some kind of kit car.

 

I still like Chasing Classic Cars because they have kept it very drama free and factual. Wish all the other car shows would take a clue from it. That Moal-built roadster on last night's show is a work of art. and very cool. What a talented builder and his shop is to die for.

The Ferrari that didn't make reserve at $20 million was cool too, but it just shows that there are some people in this world who live lives none of us can even begin to imagine !

Don

 

Hey, guys. I haven't seen the show yet...been busy. And to think I was there a few days before Wayne. I've gotta go now and check out the show....

 

you said in your first post that you asked the owner what he wanted for the car and you couldn't go that high...so how much was his initial asking price?...inquirin' minds

 

X2

 

Saw the show last night, that car was super cool. That is exactly why I stop and look in old barns and abandoned buildings when ever I can, this stuff is still out there!

 

Saw the Chasing Classic Cars episode last night. After Wayne purchased the Stutz he contracted a Stutz expert to get the car roadworthy and running. The car ran great but had a cooling issue on the Pebble Beach run. It seems the radiator had a small hole and was clogged in a few areas. The car won an award from a group that gives awards to unrestored "barn finds". The CCC episode that followed was the one with the Steve Moal car that he built for Wayne. I guess it's nice to rub elbows with the Pebble Beach crowd. No mention of what Wayne paid for both.

 

Sorry you lost out, but we all got a good read from it. Thanks.

 

The show aired last night. The guy above who hoped Wayne's mechanic didn't get it was right- he sent it out to a Stutz expert. I don't think it needed that much engine work, so surely Wayne's guy could have managed. More likely that Wayne wanted to network with the Stutz community to boost the eventual resale. They said the car had been there for its whole life, but it had 1931 Maryland tags. I think its coming out party will be Pebble Beach. Some member of the "More money than brains club" will end up owning it.

 

Great story, great thread. Hope to catch the show and check it out.

 

The asking price seems to be a big secret.