Latest News
Understanding Aftermarket Aero OptionsThe Stutz Blackhawk Was Pure ‘70s Glitz and Glamor
In the 1970s, the Stutz Blackhawk was the height of luxury, with celebrity owners that included Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley.
The World’s Most Expensive Car (in 1971)
Back in 1971, to flaunt one’s wealth and prestige you needed more than a Cadillac as your ride. Heck, at $7,000, your dentist might drive a Cadillac! No, no. For a celebrity to broadcast their elite status perhaps a Rolls-Royce would do in a pinch, ringing up at $19,000. But for unassailable exclusivity, the grandest opulence, and sheer expense there was but one choice, the Stutz Blackhawk. This neo-classical fever dream of a roadster was reserved for the rarified realm of the ultra-famous and cost an eye-watering $26,500, two-and-a-half times the annual average salary in the US, equivalent to $200,000 today. That price tag made the Stutz Blackhawk the most expensive car in the world in 1971.
But what made the Stutz Blackhawk so desirable that Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley vied for the chance to buy the first one? And how did it get a Detroit V8, an ornate Italian coach-built interior, and a retro design that harkened to American pre-war luxury marques? Find out as we unspool the story of one of automotive history’s most unusual luxury cars, the Stutz Blackhawk.
Stutz Brand Revived
Today, the luxury car segment is dominated by names like Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercedes, and Porsche, but prior to WWII, the luxury car market was vastly different, at least when it comes the most successful names in the business. In the 1920s and ‘30s the rich, famous, and powerful whipped Delahayes and Bugattis, Cords and Duesenbergs, Pierce-Arrows and Packards.
One such company was Stutz, which first made its name with their Bearcat sports and racing car. Over the years Stutz evolved into one of America’s premier luxury carmakers. The Depression Era was tough on luxury carmakers and like many of its cohort, Stutz went belly up, concluding production in 1937.
One name in our above list of early luxury carmakers should stand out to you: Bugatti. That’s because, unlike those other marques, the Bugatti badge lives on, albeit under new, unrelated auspices. Like Bugatti, Stutz saw a revival of its own.
Enter one Virgil Exner, long time Chrysler design head who’d worked on everything from Studebakers to Plymouths to the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. Exner’s exotic and edgy “Forward Look” designs had worked for Chrysler in the ostentatious automotive landscape of the 1950s, but by the early ‘60s, Chrysler and the rest of the car world were moving on to more conservative stylings, stylings that didn’t jibe with Exner’s risk-taking ethos. Exner was eventually fired by Chrysler and moved on to the consulting world.
In 1963, Exner released a slew of innovative designs, “Revival” stylings of pre-war American luxury cars. These modern reimagings included classically inspired new looks for Packard, Auburn, Duesenberg, Mercer, Stutz, and Bugatti, among others, all appearing in a feature in Esquire magazine. The article caught the eye of investors and the Bugatti design got as far as a Ghia-built prototype in 1965. Though the Bugatti didn’t get all the way to production, Exner’s idea of a “Revival” of American classics stuck around and an investor from the Bugatti venture, banker James O’Donnell, bought up the rights to the Stutz name in 1968 with a notion of executing on Exner’s design.
The Blackhawk’s Italian Body & American Heart
The Stutz Blackhawk debuted at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City in 1970. The first prototype cars were hand-constructed by Ghia while the production versions, also hand-built, were done by another Italian coachbuilder, Carrozzeria Padane of Turin. But the Blackhawk had less exotic mechanical origins where it began life the States as a G-body Pontiac Grand Prix before it was then stripped of all but its chassis and running gear shipped over to Italy for a new body and custom interior.
The body of the Blackhawk is a sight indeed, a flashy throwback more befitting Jay Gatsby’s era than the days of Woodstock and bellbottoms. The Blackhawk features a long hood finishing in a jutting chrome grille. The headlights protrude on individual stalks. There’s a chrome strip that runs the full length of the car, tastefully arching up and over the rear wheels. Note the chrome side exhaust pipes which on some cars were functional while others, at the buyer’s request, were ornamental. On early cars, the trunk lid even features an exposed spare tire (later converted to a spare tire hump). The first 27 Blackhawks, including all those built in 1971, had a split windshield.
Of course, the buyers of the Blackhawk wouldn’t settle for a Turbo-Thrift straight-six under the hood or even the Grand Prix’s smallest V8. Instead, the Blackhawk came with a Pontiac 455 cu.-in. V8, the Grand Prix’s largest, making 325 horsepower stock and tuned to make a full 425 horsepower. This engine was then paired with a three-speed automatic feeding power to the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential. The Blackhawk was given Firestone LXX run-flat tires, an exclusive for 1971. These run-flats tended to jump the rim (bad news!) and were thus discontinued by Firestone.
Throughout its production, the Blackhawk saw numerous other engines optioned into the car at the buyer’s request, including GM motors like their 454 V8, Cadillac’s 472- and 500-cu.-in. V8s, Ford’s 429 Cobra Jet V8 and the Thunderbird’s 460 V8.
What Made the Stutz Blackhawk so Expensive?
The Stutz Blackhawk looked expensive, if anachronistic, on the outside, but it was the car’s interior that took it from mere visual oddity to next-level-luxury. The Blackhawk’s cabin is filled with outrageously expensive materials. The padded dashboard and custom seats come in rich and supple English leather. Buyers could choose three different wood trims: bird’s eye maple (exceedingly rare), burled walnut, or redwood. The Pontiac gauges are replaced by custom gauges, gilded as much of the interior is in 18- and 24-carat* gold. Lamb’s wool or mink were your options for headliner and trunk liner material. The dash came with a cigar lighter and a Lear Jet stereo complete with eight-track player, then the most expensive stereo you could buy. Interior options included a set of matching luggage and a liquor cabinet. The Blackhawk also featured luxury amenities like automatic climate control, an adjustable air-suspension, and cruise control.
Oddly, the Blackhawk retained the Grand Prix’s basic gear selector.
Elvis’ Last Ride
The Stutz Blackhawk, being the highest of high-end luxury cars, needed a certain rich and well-connected clientele to purchase it. That’s where Jules Meyer comes in. Meyer was the owner of Pontiac of Los Angeles and held sway with a cadre of celebrity car buyers like Frank Sinatra, Liberace, and Elvis Presley. It was the latter who offered to buy the prototype Blackhawk when Meyer was first shopping the car around to his client base. Too bad for Elvis, as Meyer told him Sinatra had already gotten dibs on the car. Elvis managed to sway Meyer when he proposed to do a promotional photo with the car, netting Presley car #2.
Elvis had an extensive car collection, but it appears the Stutz Blackhawk was among his favorites. He bought multiple Blackhawks, including one he later gifted to his friend Dr. Elias Ghanem (including a dedication plaque on the dashboard), and a 1973 Series III Blackhawk which was Elvis’ daily driven car and the one he was driving when the final photo of him was snapped, the day he passed away in 1977.
Elvis wasn’t the only celebrity to nab a Stutz Blackhawk. Sinatra got his, too, and so did Rat Packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., as well as Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Evel Knievel, Lucille Ball, Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, Paul McCartney, and the Shah of Iran.
As you might have guessed, the Stutz Blackhawk wasn’t a world-beating success. Stutz lost money on the initial years’ worth of 25 cars** to the tune of $10,000 per car, shades of the BMW 507 and later Porsche 959. But Stutz continued to build cars and eventually got into the black. By the late 1970s, Stutz was expanding their offerings as well as their client base, building limousines and armored 4x4s for foreign heads-of-state and even reviving the Bearcat nameplate in 1979. O’Donnell finally bowed out of the company in 1988 and Stutz finally folded in 1995 with an estimated 617 vehicles built over two decades.
*Sources differ on the carat number if you care to correct the record.
**Again, sources differ on whether the number is 25 or 26 for 1971 Blackhawks completed, probably owing to whether and how one includes the prototypes.
