This is too good not to pass on. It made me change my dream car from a
straight-eight '38 Buick Limited limo with a bar.
It's a terrific description in a 1979 Car & Driver story of driving a 1914 Stutz Bearcat — just as a thunderstorm breaks. (Electric-start appeared in Bearcats in 1914. How could anyone hand-crank a 390-cubic-inch engine?)
The
Car & Driver story by Patrick Bedard is way towards the bottom of a very long page. Click on Car & Driver at the top right, or run a search on the page for "elemental" (without the quotes) that will blow past the article's extensive intro and background.
QUOTE
Column lever to full choke. Switch mag to one side. Hand throttle slightly open. Almost full retard on the spark. His hands move in a practiced flutter, caressing the levers. Then he presses a mushroom-shaped button on the floor and the engine starts instantly. More adjustments: throttle back, two-thirds spark advance. The engine smooths to a mellow idle, sending gentle shudders through the body with every power stroke; the block is bolted solidly to the frame. It's a huge four-cylinder-390 cubic inches with two spark plugs per cylinder in a T-head configuration.
<snip>
The sky is blue-black now. Koveleski runs the Stutz out in second gear, shifts, and continues to accelerate in third. We're in a full sprint for home. Electricity is in the air, arcing across the sky, and I know this is a perfect ending for a day with a Stutz Bearcat. Now we'll see what this baby can do.
. . . He drops to second gear as we crest a hill. The engine speeds down the grade, making the frame buzz, sending tingles up through my feet. He leans out to work the hand brake. . . . He's got the Stutz wide open, straining up a steep hill. The fierce flatulence of its exhaust drowns out even the thunder. The whole car shudders with the effort. Speed picks up as the road levels. Down a long stretch, the wind roaring in my ears, I try to read the speedometer but there's too much water on my glasses.
Gimme! Gimme!
