Stutz Victoria Sedan. Very strange

A Stutz Victoria Sedan. There is also a Stutz in Arnhem Rolls Royce Museum 'Hooper International'. But it is not for sale. The Stutz at Kennis in Valkenswaard is. But whether we know much more about it?

The 1985 Stutz Victoria Sedan is handmade in Italy

And like his relatives, it had free-standing headlights, a luxurious interior, and a spare tire under a bulging hood on the butt. Beautiful? You cannot argue about taste. But a Stutz certainly stands out.

A wild start

In 1914, the Stutz Bearcat was pretty much the toughest sports car you could buy in the States. The beast immediately established its reputation in the Indy 500. Immediately after that, all Hollywood celebrities wanted a Stutz Bearcat and the car was the cork on which the brand floated for twenty years.
"You have to be nuts to drive a Stutz." That was true until the crisis of 1930.

The name remained dormant for about thirty years until former designer Virgil Exner was hired to help create the ideal mix: a car with American V8 technology and a beautiful Italian body. A car for the absolute top segment. That was in 1968. The first approach was to revive Deusenberg like this. The capital group behind the idea included some descendants of Deusenberg. And there was a beautiful prototype. But no money and the factory in Italy that was talked about did not exist.

And so Stutz was chosen as the brand for the rebirth. The rest of the story - which also featured John Z. DeLorean - reads like a boy's book. And the Stutz Blackhawk was reborn. After that came the sedans. And no matter how beautiful or ugly you think the bodies are, they were completely hand-sculpted. To perfection. There were therefore few cars that were more expensive than a Stutz.

The Duplex and the IV-Porte

The Duplex was a sedan version of the Stutz Blackhawk compartment. A four-door prototype was built in 1970 by Carrozzeria Padane, Modena, Italy. The sedan was sold under the name Limousine in 1972 and under the name Duplex in 1973 for US $ 32.500 (adjusted for inflation now about two tons). The Duplex remained true to its name and production was discontinued in 1974. Only one or two were built.

The four-door Stutz IV-Porte (also known as Duplex and Victoria) were sedans made by Stutz Motor Car of America in the 70s and 80s. The Stutz Diplomatica and later the Royale were limousines produced in the 70s and 80s. All of these cars shared distinctive design features, such as a covered spare wheel protruding through the trunk and free-standing headlamps, and a very luxurious interior.

In 1981 the 'production' of the IV-Porte was stopped and the model was replaced by the Stutz Victoria. This sedan was 10 inches (25 cm) longer and offered more legroom including folding tables in the rear. The newcomer was marketed as a limousine, complete with driver service provided by Stutz. The Stutz Victoria retained design features such as the protruding spare tire lid on the trunk and the free-standing headlights, but no longer featured the bold sidepipes. About 20 cars were built.

Most copies of the Stutz Victoria were white and went straight to the stables of the royal house of Saudi Arabia. There they turned out to be more susceptible to maintenance and malfunction than the average company camel and after about two or three years the Stutzen retired. So there must still be a few there.