StutzBearcat

01

Origins

The Bearcat name — carried by the brass-era speedster that made Stutz famous when it went racing straight off the drawing board in 1912 — returned in 1979 on a two-seat convertible version of the revived company's Blackhawk formula: American running gear beneath extravagant Italian-built coachwork, freestanding headlamps, and upholstery by the yard. Buyers were entertainers and potentates; the price was astronomical and openly part of the appeal. A later targa-style D'Italia and armoured limousines for Gulf royalty extended the theme through the 1980s in single figures per year. No one pretended these cars advanced anything, but they completed a strange symmetry: a company born selling raw performance to young sports died selling pure ornament to the very rich, both times under the same snarling badge.