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Origins
The Vertical Eight of 1926 remade Stutz from raw Bearcat speed merchant into America's engineering sophisticate. Its new overhead-cam straight-eight sat in the era's lowest chassis, achieved with an underslung worm-drive rear axle that let the body drop between the wheels — better looks, better handling. Marketed as the Safety Stutz, it backed the slogan with hydraulic brakes and shatterproof glass laced with wire, safety equipment years ahead of the market's interest in it. The performance remained real: Stutz took second at Le Mans in 1928, closer than any American car would come for decades, and dominated stock-car speed events at home. The Depression killed the clientele for such seriousness, and Stutz faded through the thirties. But this was the peak: an American car with nothing to apologise for anywhere on earth.
Stutz Vertical Eight · Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0
