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In some ways, the 1915-1922 Stutz Bearcat was a labor of love. By the time Harry C. Stutz got around to the Bearcat, the car for which he is best remembered, he had been designing and building automobiles for at least six years. In 1906 he had been associated with American Motors of Indianapolis, where he designed a small but pricey 35-40 horsepower four-cylinder touring car. It was not, persistent legend and published reports to the contrary, the underslung model for which American would later become famous. Rather, Harry's chassis was entirely conventional. But it was a relatively fast automobile for its time. Then in 1910, with the backing of a financier named Campbell, Stutz organized the Stutz Auto Parts Company for the purpose of manufacturing a transaxle of Harry's own design. The business evidently prospered, but Harry Stutz wanted to build a car of his own -- and he achieved that goal in 1911 with a racing machine, the very first Stutz car.

Powered by a four-cylinder Wisconsin engine, driving through one of Harry's own transaxles, the racer bore no small resemblance to the later Bearcat. Evidently Harry knew a thing or two about putting his name before the public, for he promptly announced that his car would go immediately, without trial runs or prior testing of any kind, to "the Brickyard," to take part in the first 500-mile race at the new Indianapolis Speedway. Presumably he knew his car couldn't win, since a number of its competitors boasted much bigger, more powerful engines than the Stutz's 389-cubic-inch T-head. But he had as his driver Gil Anderson, a big, rugged Swede who had competed successfully as a member of the Marion racing team. It didn't. Anderson came in just out of the money, in llth place. Now when you think about it, that's not a bad record for a brand new, Click here untried machine.

Many a contestant failed to finish that grueling run at all. And the Stutz's time was creditable enough: 500 miles in 442 minutes, with, natural male pills in Harry Stutz's words, "not a single mechanical adjustment." Flat tires didn't count, of course, and the Stutz had several of those, each one causing a delay while Anderson headed for the pits. Learn about the creation of the 1915 Stutz Bearcat on the next page. Want more information on cars? He immediately billed his machine "The Car that Made Good in a Day." And soon he started to pave the way for the 1915 Stutz Bearcat. With the backing of Henry Campbell, his silent partner, he organized the Ideal Motor Car Company and commenced preparations for a series-built Stutz to be offered to the general public. The production Stutz, like the racing prototype, was powered by a Wisconsin engine that cranked out an advertised 50 horsepower.

A powerplant of Harry's own design would have to wait. Five body styles were offered, including the Bearcat, a competitor to the highly regarded Mercer Raceabout. All of the earliest Stutzes shared a 120-inch wheelbase. Then in late 1912, a 60-horsepower, 468-cid six-cylinder series riding a 124-inch chassis was added to the line. This one, too, was available as a Bearcat. In May 1913, Stutz Auto Parts and natural male pills the Ideal Motor Car Company merged to form the Stutz Motor Car Company. Business was good though its volume -- like that of most higher-priced makes in those days -- was modest. Between mid-1911 and the close of 1913 some 2,000 cars were sold, yielding a profit of more than $400,000-big money in those days before inflation and before the income tax! The car was revised somewhat for 1914, with a brutal, leather-faced cone clutch replacing the earlier multiple-disc type in what appears, in retrospect, to have been a backward step.