Last Call: Strut Your Stutz Edition


It’s been a while since I’ve watched Saturday Night Fever but this picture of the New York skyline and Brooklyn Bridge backdropping a Tiparillo-smoking woman while her chauffeur waits in her custom two-door Stutz Blackhawk convertible is reminder enough of the tackiness that era exuded. Seriously, who the hell gets chauffeured in a two-door 2+2?
Last Call indicates the end of Hooniverse’s broadcast day.  It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.
Image: PICSSR on Flickr

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26 responses to “Last Call: Strut Your Stutz Edition”

  1. Mr B Avatar
    Mr B

    I would so drive one of these

    1. Rover 1 Avatar
      Rover 1

      If you have a chauffeur, you don’t really want the ‘sporty’ one. You want the Limo.
      This one is still the state car of Gabon.
      http://www.madle.org/pr80roygab1.jpg
      Or at least the IV-Porte
      http://www.ks-classic-cars.ch/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Stutz-iv-porte-Duplex.jpg

      1. outback_ute Avatar
        outback_ute

        I wonder how much design input the customer had with that limo (the customer is not always right!), but Stutz don’t seem to be too reliable for good design either.

        1. Rover 1 Avatar
          Rover 1

          It is one of those ‘too strange to be true’ stories that is, in fact, true. They commissioned Paolo Martin of Pininfarina fame to do the design.
          Paolo’s other work for Pininfarina included…
          1967 Pininfarina/BMC 1800
          http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studios/1967_Pininfarina_BMC-1800_Berlina-Aerodinamica_02.jpg
          http://www.coachbuild.com/2/images/encyclopedia/Pininfarina/BMC_1800_Berlina_Aerodinamica/Pininfarina_bmc_1800_berlina_aerodinamica-1967_2.jpg
          1967 Dino 206 Competizione AKA ‘The yellow Dino’
          http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studio/large/67pininfarina_dino206_competizione_1.jpg
          1970 Pininfarina/Ferrari 512 Modulo
          https://hips.hearstapps.com/roa.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/14/47/546b4b3359549_-_jimg_modulo_1.jpg
          1971 Pininfarina/NSU RO80
          https://iedei.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/ro80_pininfarina.jpeg
          1971 Fiat 130 Coupe
          https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5265/5657096467_49c5aa78d8_b.jpg
          1975 Rolls Royce Camargue
          https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6076/6112025791_c8a49aeb9e_b.jpg
          So perhaps it was an off day?

          1. outback_ute Avatar
            outback_ute

            There are shades of the RO80 design in the limo, but perhaps he was outside his comfort zone. The 206 Competizione is not an improvement over the 206 SP!

          2. Rover 1 Avatar
            Rover 1

            Which he also had a part in. The yellow Dino was an early attempt at applying aerodynamics in which Pininfarina was a leader.
            He still shows the Stutz on his website.http://www.paolomartindesigner.com/

  2. salguod Avatar

    Looking at a possible replacement for the 318ti tomorrow. My cousin is selling his 2002 Acura RSX S that he bought new. 240K, probably needs the suspension gone through, tires and maybe engine work. Says it doesn’t have the top end power it used to. That’s the part that scares me a little. But, it’s just $1,500. I’ve always liked the car, and the price seems right. I’m guessing these are near the bottom of the depreciation curve too.

    1. salguod Avatar

      Drove it yesterday. Solid car, very little rust and aside from a few dash scratches and a ripped seam in the driver’s seat, the interior was nice. Suspension needs front strut mounts, there’s a broken exhaust hanger and the tires are shot. Oh, and it needs a cat.
      Biggest worry is that not all the ponies seem to be coming to the party. 7,800 RPM redline and it really didn’t want to go past 7K. Didn’t have that Honda willingness to rev. I’m thinking that the VTEC wasn’t kicking in (yo). It also evidently uses about a quart of oil per 1,000 miles. Judging by where it was parked, at least some of that is leaking out.
      Still considering it, but have to do some research on causes for VTEC not working.

      1. outback_ute Avatar
        outback_ute

        If the cat is stuffed it could be causing a significant restriction

  3. Alff Avatar
    Alff

    I know this is just a pimped out Grand Prix but I have wanted to rock one for forty years. If the good lord answers my prayer I promise to lay a patch in His name every time I pull away from a stop. Just make mine a hardtop.

    1. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      And one brave person parking their car on that street!

  4. ptschett Avatar
    ptschett

    The useless faux runningboard on the door is a nice touch.

    1. mdharrell Avatar

      They’re not entirely useless. They provide protection against being burned from brushing against the side pipes… which are nonfunctional, but that’s hardly the fault of the running boards.

  5. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    The connection between the 80’s corporate housewive and their chauffeurs was greatly explored in one of the best movies of all the time; “The Secret Of My Success” with Michael J. Fox:

    Honestly, I have no idea why this scene seems unavailable in English on the tube…!? Point comes across though.

  6. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    Assuming that the roll bar was required to meet regulations, they should have made it bolt in so that it could be removed at the first opportunity. Then again it does add to general terrible-ness

    1. mdharrell Avatar

      The roll bar was not required, although many US-market convertibles (or should I say “convertibles”) at that time were designed or redesigned to incorporate such a feature in anticipation of a looming Federal regulation that ultimately never came into existence.
      In this case, however, the hoop appears to have served as an easy way to accommodate the requirement for front shoulder belts, so making it removable would have been a no-no.

      1. Scoutdude Avatar
        Scoutdude

        Actually convertibles were exempt from the shoulder harness laws when these were made, I think it is in part due to the popularity of T-tops and Targa tops at the time, the expedience of of leaving factory belts in place and not having to worry too much about structural issues.

  7. Krautwursten Avatar
    Krautwursten

    There’s nothing wrong with using the passenger seat in a taxicab. In fact the American habit of restricting passengers to the rear seats is an exception, not the rule.

    1. Hatchtopia Avatar

      I rode in a taxi in Australia and the driver asked me if I wanted to sit in the front instead of the back. I said, “sure, why not?” then proceeded to casually stomp at the floor for a non-existent brake pedal all the way to the hotel. Lunatics and their wrong-side driving…

  8. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    This is a really very amazingly like wow really very big airplane. The Stratolaunch Roc, which just rolled out of the hangar a couple days ago, and may take its first flight this week. https://www.universetoday.com/135828/monster-stratolaunch-aircraft-rolled-getting-closer-first-flights/
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e97120f3054790f8b1569c0ee3e39d2ac64b5ef3807ba8e4f15fcfe13bd66008.png

    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      That is pretty bold! I wonder what the advantages are of having two fuselages and a centre payload versus a single fuselage and mounting rockets on the wings kind of like drop tanks, which would seem to be simpler. Obviously that would have some assymetric drag and perhaps more than the plane’s engines and rudder could deal with at high altitude?

      1. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        My guess: The rockets are considerably heavier than drop tanks, and if you’re only dropping one, you don’t need a counterbalance with this setup.

  9. ptschett Avatar
    ptschett

    So on Saturday I visited the only surviving building where statehood meetings for northern Dakota Territory were held, the 1880’s old Stutsman County courthouse (which almost got torn down in the 1980’s to make space for a parking lot!)…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1eb0d05a201825a928abd5ea018eb98ef71dc6090934f901d92260b9a58f78e3.jpg
    then a neat little prairie church from the 1910’s…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c758583971664859ae3ea180fd04c993d06c1257fab65c57d856a5a5b3ed993.jpg
    then a pair of decommissioned Minuteman ICBM launch control centers (Grand Forks AFB Oscar-Zero and Mike-Zero) dating to the 1960’s. Oscar-Zero, a few miles north of Cooperstown ND, is preserved pretty much exactly as it was (minus classified equipment, hazardous materials, etc.) when it was shut down in 1997; the $10/person tour is worth it. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf2ab98c22598975ead1a76e5882dce3b88dbc972ab4d07c155fdf180e5f105c.jpg

    1. Smaglik Avatar
      Smaglik

      I’ve done a similar tour in Tucson. Very interesting, and well done. The massive springs used to isolate the silo from the ground were rather impressive, among other things.

    2. Alff Avatar
      Alff

      There’s a decommissioned missile command center at Whiteman AFB, the only place where the two were collocated. We took a crew of Cub Scouts through it several years ago. One of the few scouting events I participated in where the dads were more impressed than the boys.