Stutz Motor Car Company of America

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Stutz Motor Car Company of America
legal form Company
founding 1913
resolution 1939
Seat Indianapolis , Indiana , USA
Branch Automobiles

Stutz racing car driven by Gil Andersen in Elgin ( 1912 )
Stutz Vertical Eight AA Limousine (1927)
Stutz DV-32 Cabriolet (1930)

The Stutz Motor Car Company of America , shortened to another source Stutz Motor Car Company , was a American manufacturer of luxury class - automobiles belonged to the "legendary American Thoroughbred brands before the war". The Stutz models had a reputation for exceptional sportiness. The company stopped producing automobiles in 1936 after economic difficulties.

Company history

The engineer Harry C. Stutz was born in Ohio in 1876 and has been building prototypes of motorized carriages since 1898 . He had dealt more and more with this topic over the years. In 1910 he founded the Stutz Auto Parts Company for parts production and in 1911 the Ideal Motor Company for vehicle production. Both companies were in Indianapolis , Indiana, USA. Automobile production began in 1911. The brand name was Stutz .

In May 1913, Stutz merged the two companies and chose the new name Stutz Motor Car Company of America .

In the following years, Stutz worked on the further development of his roadster, which he called Bearcat , and achieved further success. In order to be able to cover the increasing capital requirements resulting from the construction of a new production facility as well as the expenditure for research and development, Stutz converted his company into a stock corporation in 1916 .

In 1919, the company was taken over by its main shareholder Allan Ryan. However, the latter had to file for bankruptcy two years later and the company was taken over by a group of financial investors. The American engineer Frederick E. Moskowics has led the company since then. In the mid-1920s, he initiated a change of course: the production of roadsters was discontinued in favor of luxury sedans, of which several models were presented in the following years. Nevertheless, the Stutz models still had sporty performance. In 1929, the Blackhawk, the last model under Moskowics' leadership, was completed, who passed the business on to Edgar Gorrell the following year. From 1929 to 1930 one model was sold under the Blackhawk brand .

The global economic crisis drove society to the brink of financial ruin. The Stutz models, which were regularly very expensive vehicles, no longer met the taste of wealthy customers. Customers preferred quiet, comfortable automobiles, requirements that Stutz could not meet with its still sporty models. In the 1930s, Stutz therefore sold far fewer vehicles each year than the rival brands Cadillac , Packard , Lincoln and Pierce-Arrow . In 1930, 649 vehicles were made, and in 1932 and 1933 there were fewer than 50 examples each. In 1932 Stutz made a loss of US $ 315,000, in 1933 the loss was half a million US $ and in 1934 another $ 250,000. The company offered its high-priced cars regardless of this until 1936, but only sold very few copies each year. In 1936, Stutz only made six cars. That year, Stutz tried to mass-produce a small delivery van called the Pak-Age-Car , thereby increasing revenue. However, the company was no longer able to get the car ready for series production. A total of around 1,600 Stutz Pak Age Cars were built.

On April 3, 1937, the Stutz Motor Car Company filed for bankruptcy. The company's debt at the time had risen to $ 733,000. Since the creditors could not agree on a restructuring of the company, Stutz was dissolved in 1939. The Pak-Age-Car was taken over by Auburn from the Diamond T Truck Company .

vehicles

Brand name Stutz

In the 1930s, Stutz offered two series that differed primarily in terms of the engine. The SV16 series was powered by an eight-cylinder in-line engine with two valves per cylinder. The much more expensive DV32 had the same base engine but four valves per cylinder. Its maximum output was 161 hp at 3900 revolutions per minute. Both models were offered until 1936, although the factory was only able to make minor technical changes over the years due to tight financial resources. Stutz could not afford to develop a twelve-cylinder engine like Lincoln or a V16 like Cadillac or Marmon . Instead, the company experimented with a compressor which , due to its volume, was not compatible with the comfort requirements of customers and was therefore not mass-produced. In the 1930s, Stutz offered various bodies for both series, some of which had been designed and supplied by independent body manufacturers. Weymann , Fleetwood , LeBaron and Waterhouse manufactured some bodies on behalf of Stutz.

Brand name Blackhawk

Blackhawk (1929)

This brand name was introduced in 1929 for a couple of models that were less powerful and not as good quality, but cheaper. In 1929, 1,310 vehicles were sold. In the following year the number fell to 280 vehicles. The brand was then discontinued. There were two models on offer that had the same wheelbase of 324 cm. The model L-6 , written without a hyphen in the following year, had a six-cylinder engine with 85 hp . An eight-cylinder engine with 90 hp power drove the model L-8 and 1930 model L 8 . There was a choice of two- and four-seater Speedsters , two- and five-seater coupés , convertible coupé , five-seater sedan and four- to five-seater bodies with Weymann bodies named Chantilly , Deauville and Monaco .

year model cylinder Power ( hp ) Wheelbase (cm) construction
1929 Model L-6 6th 85 324 Speedster 2- and 4-seater, Coupé 2- and 5-seater, Cabrio-Coupé 4-seater, Sedan 5-seater, Weymann Chantilly 5-seater, Weymann Monaco 4-seater, Weymann Deauville 4-seater
1929 Model L-8 8th 90 324 Speedster 2- and 4-seater, Coupé 2- and 5-seater, Cabrio-Coupé 4-seater, Sedan 5-seater, Weymann Chantilly 5-seater, Weymann Monaco 4-seater, Weymann Deauville 5-seater
1930 Model L 6 6th 85 324 Sedan 5-seat, Coupé 2 and 5-seat, Speedster 2 and 4-seat, Cabrio-Coupé, Weymann Chantilly 5-seat, Weymann Monaco 4-seat, Weymann Deauville 4-seat
1930 Model L 8 8th 90 324 Sedan 5-seat, Coupé 2 and 5-seat, Speedster 2 and 4-seat, Cabrio-Coupé, Weymann Chantilly 5-seat, Weymann Monaco 4-seat, Weymann Deauville 4-seat

Races

In 1911, Stutz put a car in the Indianapolis 500 which came in eleventh. Gil Andersen was the driver.

Production numbers

year Production number Stutz Blackhawk production numbers
1912 266
1913 759
1914 649
1915 1,079
1916 1,535
1917 2,207
1918 1,873
1919 1,544
1920 2,786
1921 3,860
1922 769
1923 1,602
1924 2.167
1925 2,190
1926 3,692
1927 2,906
1928 2,403
1929 2,320 1.310
1930 1,038 280
1931 310
1932 206
1933 80
1934 6th
1935 2
total 36,249 1,590

Trivia

In the Simpsons episode "The Trillion Dollar Note", Charles Montgomery Burns drives a dark brown 1936 Stutz Bearcat.

Revival of the Stutz brand name

The Stutz Motor Car of America used the Stutz brand name again between 1970 and 1988.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 130 and pp. 1442-1447 (English).
  • George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 1: A – F. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 168. (English)
  • George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 3: P – Z. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1534-1536. (English)
  • Richard M. Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980. New York (Beekman House) 1984, ISBN 0-517-42462-2 .

Web links

Commons : Stutz Motor Car Company of America  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 168 and pp. 1534-1536. (English)
  2. ↑ a b Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 130 and pp. 1442-1447 (English).
  3. ^ A b Richard M. Langworth: American Cars of the 1930s. P. 88.