Stutz Bearcat 1979-1992

The Bearcat name was resurrected for the 1967 Stutz Motor Car of America design based on Virgil Exner's Duesenberg "Revival Car" concept. Because of design difficulties with this convertible Stutz decided to produce the 1970 Blackhawk coupe first.

In 1976, a convertible called D'Italia based on a standard Blackhawk was presented at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The conversion was done by Dan Steckler, working for Stutz in California. Only one D'Italia was ever made, although others have done Blackhawk conversions as well (i.e. customizer John D'Agostino). Evel Knievel and Wayne Newton owned the car respectively.Elvis Presley also had a black Stutz with a red leather interior an gold plated gear stick. It was the last vehicle he drove the night before he died. It is now housed, along with a number of his other vehicles at Graceland.

Because new US safety regulations required convertibles to have a rollbar, an open-air Bearcat was not manufactured until 1979. The new Bearcat used the GM A platform shared with the Blackhawk, and was essentially a Targa top coupe. Stutz offered it for $100,000 (equivalent to $352,270 in 2019. The Bearcat switched with the Blackhawk to the GM B platform in 1980, with the exterior continuing the Blackhawk's exposed trunk-mounted spare tire and freestanding headlamps.

In 1987, a completely new Bearcat convertible, called the Bearcat II, was introduced. The base platform was the GM F platform for 1987, with the trailing edge of the spare forming part of the car's rear bumper. The Bearcat II was based on the Pontiac Firebird chassis with 5.7-liter (350 in3) V8 multi-port fuel-injected Corvette engine and had a lightweight, dent- and corrosion-proof body made of what Stutz called Diamond Fiber Comp., a kind of carbon-fiber composite. It retailed for $125,000 (equivalent to $281,305 in 2019), including a carbon-fiber hard top for use in winter and a matching luggage set. The German dealer Auto Becker in Düsseldorf offered the car with a 210 bhp, 5-litre (305 cu in), multi-port fuel-injected V8 and a galvanized chassis for 380,000 DM. The 6-litre (350 cu in) Corvette engine was an option. Just 12 or 13 Bearcat IIs were produced between 1987 and 1995. Notable owners included the Sultan of Brunei, who owned two.

[SIZE=1]Source: Wikipedia[/SIZE]