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>> On May 30th, 1911, Ray Harroun won the inaugural
Indianapolis 500 in a Marmon Wasp,
but the car that came in 11th place was a little different.
The team behind it didn't have time to do proper testing,
and in a move of either practical desperation
or marketing flair, they drove it to the track
on its own four tires.
It was the splendid Stutz Bearcat,
the car that made good in a day.
The Bearcat was the creation of inventor, salesman,
and entrepreneur Harry C. Stutz.
Born in Ohio in 1876, Stutz was almost destined
to be a pioneer of the motoring age.
>> He made his first car in 1902 in Ohio, his native state.
And then quickly sold it to an Indiana firm,
which then moved to Indianapolis,
and then that started this career path.
>> New to Indianapolis, Harry got to work founding
the Stutz Auto Parts Company,
to make his revolutionary transaxle,
and he was in the right place at the right time.
>> With the advent of the automobile, business and
manufacturing business in the Midwest,
particularly Indianapolis,
it became the hotbed for manufacturing.
>> Harry realized his auto parts business
didn't consume all his time.
So he took a position as a factory manager
at the Marion Motor Car Company.
The owners of that factory were working
on something else at the time.
>> The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the brainchild
of an entrepreneur named Carl Fisher,
and he had this idea to build a test track
to compete purpose built or production built vehicles
to not only show the audience or the visitors
what they could purchase in the sales room,
but also improve the American auto industry,
because it was lacking against its European competitors.
>> So with little notice, Harry went to work
on the first Bearcat in April of 1911,
and just five weeks later, drove past the showroom floor
and straight to the raceway.
>> Stutz created this prototype car
and Gil Anderson finished 11th in that race,
which was just outside of the money paying positions,
but it was enough to show Harry Stutz that he had something.
>> Harry left his job at Marion,
and he and his new car company were off to the races.
>> Prototype Stutz, or what they called at the time,
The Ideal Motor Car Company, that was a great example
of this idea that Harry put together, built this car.
It was something that you would see on the road,
minus headlamps and fenders and things like that.
>> With a new factory in Indianapolis,
the Stutz Motor Car Company started building
road-ready versions of that race car,
and the Bearcat became an instant classic.
>> What stands out to me and most Stutz owners are
their stance and their magnitude as being sturdy
and somewhat brute, but yet beautiful at the same time.
That was a very rare quality.
This Auburn behind me is a beautiful, beautiful car.
It doesn't quite have the presence of a Stutz.
>> And to prove the prowess of the Bearcat,
Harry fielded a race team that took first place
in the 1913 and 1915 National AAA Championships.
Erwin "Cannon Ball" Baker, a native Hoosier,
did his first run from L.A. to New York City in a Bearcat,
a testament to the speed and reliability of the sturdy Stutz.
In 1916, Stutz shares went up on the New York Stock Exchange,
and by 1919, control of the firm had changed hands.
Harry Stutz, frustrated by the new management style, resigned.
Harry Stutz passed away in 1930,
after a career of booms and busts, highs and lows,
and everything from race cars to fire engines.
In 1920, the fallout of a disastrous
stock shorting scandal upended the company's management.
The newly reorganized firm took a different track
marketing what they called Safety Stutz.
>> The safety components that they put into the cars,
they were a bit ahead of their time
when it comes to that.
Their transaxle that Harry Stutz developed
and would use in his cars, that was really before its time,
when you think about it.
There's a lot of cars today that still use a transaxle design.
It's neat to look back at these old cars and be like,
man, they were doing this back now 100, 90 years ago.
>> In 1926, Stutz sales peaked with over 5,000 cars
rolling off the line, touting new body styles,
safer designs and bigger engines.
The Stutz became the car of choice for many
well-healed motorists of the age.
>> They were making high-tech fast cars,
but they were adding a lot of what we would consider now
elegance and style that you wouldn't really see
with an American car at the time.
>> In 1928, a Stutz Blackhawk finished second
at the 24 Hours of Le Mans,
a feat that would not be topped by an American car company
for almost 40 years.
By 1935, The Great Depression and shifting tastes
spelled the end of the road for Stutz,
but not before building more than 35,000 cars
in a dizzying variety flavors.
In the early 1970s, the Stutz nameplate was resurrected,
sharing little beyond brand and model names,
these new ultra luxurious vehicles drew on the Stutz
reputation to sell extravagantly expensive automobiles
to America's wealthiest consumers.
>> Elvis Presley bought the first two.
Frank Sinatra owned one.
It was the car of the Rat Pack.
They were designed and the bodies built in Italy,
shipped over here, and then coupled with either
Cadillac or Pontiac drivetrains.
>> Over 100 years later, the legacy of the splendid Stutz
has far out lived their production run and the life
of their eccentric creator.
They stand now as monuments to a bygone era
of Hoosier motoring excellence.