1976 Stutz Blackhawk Coupe (LHD)

Description

The fabled machines built by Harry C Stutz's eponymous company between 1911 and 1935 are some of the finest American cars ever made, promoted by the slogan ‘The car that made good in a day’, a reference to the successful debut of the first Stutz at the Indianapolis 500 in May 1911. 1929 a new model line was developed using the name Blackhawk, evoking the legendary Black Hawk Speedsters of the 1920s, and it continued in production until 1930, five years before the original Stutz folded. The Stutz Motor Company was revived in 1968 by New York banker James O'Donnell who joined forces with retired Chrysler stylist Virgil Exner, who designed the outlandish new Blackhawk. Exner's design included a massive ‘kidney’ grille which looked like a small-scale version of the radiators of the ‘20s, huge free-standing headlights, flamboyant body sculpting, sidepipe exhausts and a spare tyre inset into the bootlid. Prototyped by Ghia in Italy, the custom-built hand-made Blackhawk body was built on a General Motors platform. It debuted in January 1970 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, priced from US$22,500 to US$75,000. All early Blackhawks were coupes, but later sedans and convertibles were produced later. The Stutz Blackhawks became the wheels of choice among elite entertainers of the day with notable owners including Elvis Presley, Sammy Davis Jr, Lucille Ball, Dean Martin, Evel Knievel, Johnny Cash, Liberace and even Paul McCartney among many others. By the time production ended in 1987 somewhere between 500 and 600 cars had been built.