| Automobiles of Arizona Friday, January 16, 2009 |
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| “The Dr. Barbara Mae Atwood Collection” | |||||||||
| 1932 Stutz DV-32 Super Bearcat | |||||||||
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156bhp, 322.1 cu. in. dual overhead camshaft inline eight-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission, suspension via front and rear semi-elliptic leaf springs, solid front axle, live rear axle, four-wheel vacuum-assisted hydraulic drum brakes. Wheelbase: 116" No name is so indelibly linked to Stutz as “Bearcat.” Not so well known, however, is the fact that the model name had four separate personae in three different eras. The image, however, was the same, in dictionary terms “one who fights with force or fierceness.” Stutz took the slogan “The car that made good in a day.” The day was May 30, 1911, when a car designed by Harry Clayton Stutz competed in the inaugural Indianapolis 500. While it did not win – that honor went to Ray Harroun in a Marmon – its eleventh-place finish, for a car completed just days before the race, was sufficiently remarkable to launch production of the Stutz Model A and one of the world’s most memorable automobile slogans. Legendary among early Stutz cars was the Bearcat speedster model. First appearing in 1912 on the Series A chassis, the Bearcat was built in both four- and six-cylinder configurations through 1915. Engines were big T-head Wisconsin units of 50-60 brake horsepower, wheelbases 120 to 130 inches. Bodies were minimal, just seats for two, not even a cowl. From 1916 to 1924, Bearcats had four cylinders only (as did all Stutzes from then until 1923), and progressed through Models 4E to K (and not in any numerical or alphabetical order). Engines consisted of the 390 cubic inch T-head four, dropping to 361 on the Model S in 1917, when Stutz started to build its own engines. All these had four valves per cylinder, so the “16-valve four” is nothing new. The last of these Bearcats was the Speedway Four of 1924, which had the distinction of a detachable cylinder head. In 1915, Cannonball Baker drove a Bearcat from San Diego to New York in 11 days, seven hours and 15 minutes, breaking the transcontinental record. From 1915 to 1917 a racing team, called the “White Squadron,” held sway with specially-designed overhead cam 4-valve-per cylinder engines. While not, strictly speaking, Bearcats, they were driven by the likes of Earl Cooper, Howdy Wilcox, Gil Anderson and Bob Burman. The team entered the 1915 contest for the Vanderbilt Cup and the American Grand Prize races, both held at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco. While multiple maladies marred their performance, they nevertheless came away with the team prize. Board and dirt track races comprised rest of the 1915 season, at the end of which Cooper had earned the most points and an unofficial national driver’s championship. Cooper did well again in 1916, his best performances in AAA races in California. Mostly he settled for second place, but at season’s end he was victorious in a 50-mile match race at Ascot in Los Angeles, nosing out both a Mercer and a Duesenberg. In 1917, AAA-sanctioned racing was curtailed after United States’ entry into World War I, but Cooper entered Stutz No. 8 in six contests and won four of them. He had accumulated the most points at the end of the season, but because of the war the AAA was reluctant to name a champion. Cooper continued to race No. 8 after the war, entering the 1919 Indy 500. In third place at the half-way mark, he suffered a stuck valve. His mechanic, Reeves Dalton, finally brought the ailing car to the finish in 11th place. After a period of corporate instability and the departure of Harry Stutz, the Stutz Motor Car Company came under the direction of Hungarian-born engineer Fredrick Moskovics. Moskovics completely redesigned the Stutz car, with a new six-cylinder overhead cam engine, a double-drop chassis frame and worm gear rear axle, safety glass and four-wheel hydraulic brakes. Although somewhat boxy in comparison to its competitors, the Stutz rode several inches lower. “The Safety Stutz,” it was called, with the “Vertical 8” engine. These terms would be used for the remainder of the company’s life. Stutz returned to racing with the Vertical 8, the first competition being the Stevens Challenge Trophy race of 1927 for closed-body production cars. A steel-bodied Stutz sedan clocked an average of 68.44 miles per hour for 24 hours at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win the Stevens Trophy. The Stutz Black Hawk, a two-passenger aluminum-bodied speedster later added to the catalog, was the AAA Stock Car champion of 1927, winning every race in which it was entered. Stutz is perhaps best-remembered though, for the race it did not win. At a particularly boisterous gathering of wealthy car enthusiasts, Moskovics made a $25,000 bet with his friend Charles Weymann, inventor of the Weymann fabric body construction for which Stutz held the American rights. The wager turned on the results of a match race to be run between Moskovics’ Black Hawk and a Hispano-Suiza, the odds-on favorite due to its three-liter advantage in displacement. Run at Indianapolis three days prior to the Stevens Challenge, the contest was to be a 24-hour ordeal, and Moskovics counted on his car’s greater agility and acceleration to carry the day. They did not. After 56 laps, the Stutz swallowed a valve, giving the race up to Hispano. Despite the mechanical failure, Weymann was impressed with the Stutz performance, so much so that he entered one at Le Mans the following year. Events at home prevented Stutz factory involvement in Weymann’s turn at Le Mans. A week after the Hispano match race, driver Frank Lockhart was killed at Daytona driving a Black Hawk Special, an out-and-out race car. Overt Stutz participation in racing was immediately halted. Weymann, however, went ahead on his own, engaging Edouard Brisson, a veteran Le Mans contestant, to drive. It was the Americans’ year at the event, as four Chryslers also raced. Brisson aggressively challenged the favored Bentleys. Although they had smaller engines, the Bentleys were lighter, but Brisson’s main problem was gearing: the wide ratio three-speed in the Stutz made it hard for him to keep up. Gaining the lead at the sixth hour, the Stutz held its own into the night, but eventually the Bentley took the lead, and Stutz had to settle for second. At race’s end, both cars had set records for 24 hours on a closed circuit course. For 1931, Stutz returned to its roots with a new dual valve engine. Announced in May 1931, the DV-32 (DV for “Dual Valve,” 32 for their number – what we now call a “four valve engine”) was the old Vertical Eight updated with twin overhead cams for better breathing. Its breathing was so deep that power jumped by forty percent, to 156 brake horsepower, and while it could not match the Cadillac and Marmon 16-cylinder cars or the Duesenberg J in raw power, at nearly half a horsepower per cubic inch it surpassed all but the Duesenberg in efficiency. It was appropriate, then, that there be a new Bearcat. What had been the MA-28 Torpedo speedster became the “DV-28” Bearcat in mid-1931. This was a two-passenger car on the 134.5-inch wheelbase, with minimal passenger comforts. Soon joining it was the even faster Super Bearcat with ultra-light Weymann fabric body, its wheelbase just 116 inches. The Super Bearcat had a tight convertible top and roll-up windows, and all the creature comforts. The DV-32 was a conundrum for Stutz; it was the company’s greatest achievement and also its swan song. By the time it was introduced, Stutz’s day was nearing its sunset. Just 384 cars of all types were built in 1931; about 120 the following year. Nearly that many saw life in 1933, but that was about the end. Just six cars, indistinguishable from ‘33s, were built in 1934. The company still exuded optimism, announcing the availability of cars into 1936, but these were undoubtedly unsold 1933s and ‘34s. Stutz’s day had reached its end. This DV-32 Super Bearcat has an interesting history. Owned in the 1950s by a Joe Streeter of Oklahoma, it was acquired by the Harrah collection circa 1974. Dr. Atwood purchased it at the September 1984 dispersal auction and committed it to John Sanders’ Antique Auto Restoration in Rockford for a complete restoration. The Weymann fabric body was carefully deconstructed and rebuilt as necessary. Mechanically the car was thoroughly rebuilt as required. A full set of photos from the restoration accompanies the car, documenting its remarkably solid original condition as well as the quality of the restoration. Upon completion, it commenced its tour of the 1988 show season, earning AACA National Junior and Senior First awards, and the AACA President’s Cup at year’s end. The 1989 season brought an AACA Grand National First at Sheridan, New York, and Preservation status. The car’s high point was taking a Third in Class at Pebble Beach that August. The car’s current condition is generally excellent. It has the appearance of a fresh restoration, despite being completed two decades ago. The sheet metal is straight and true, and the paint has a deep shine. The left door is a tight fit and difficult to close properly, and there is some minor pitting on the brightwork. The right window crank is also missing. The black canvas top looks new. The interior is done in brown leather with brown carpet – and small throw rugs for driver and passenger. It is open to the small luggage compartment behind the seat, making, in effect, a hatchback before the hatchback was invented. The interior wood is excellent, its grain spectacular and its finish impeccable. The instruments have been restored and the odometer shows 26,673 miles. The engine is a showpiece, in polished aluminum over dark green, and entirely sanitary. So is the undercarriage, all done in gloss green. As with other cars from the collection, it has not been driven recently. It is expected to be running at time of sale, but a thorough recommissioning should be carried out before committing it to road use. Various historians place 1932 Stutz production between 105 and 206 cars, most of them below 125. In any case, the total number is small, and the number of DV-32s smaller still. Super Bearcats, extremely rare when new, are believed to number less than ten today. This is, arguably, both the rarest and most desirable Classic era Stutz of all. Its exceptional provenance – dating back to the 1950s and including the renowned Harrah’s collection – make the Atwood collection’s superbly restored car perhaps the finest surviving example. |
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