1918 Stutz Bearcat

This car took part in a 5 lap Edwardian Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.

The programme of the event has car number 95 in this race as the 1908 Brasier Voiture de Course of Mike Holt, but this is his 1918 Stutz Bearcat. The car is chassis S2306 and was once part of the A.K.Miller Stutz collection in Vermont, USA. Mike Holt obtained the car from that collection in the 1990s as a rusted rolling chassis which was mechanically complete but with no usable body parts, and sourcing the parts and performing the restoration took 12 years. The Stutz Bearcat has a 4-cylinder 6 litre sixteen valve engine with dual ignition.

On 19 May 2016 I showed photographs of this car that I took at Oulton Park in 2008.

Stutz Bearcat

I took this photograph at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996. The only note I made about it at the time is that it was a Stutz Bearcat, though the board at the front of the car probably gives its full history. According to the DVLA record the registration number DS 8689 now belongs to a 1993 Honda motorcycle.

The Stutz Bearcat was introduced in 1912 with a 390 cu in (6.4 litres) straight-4 engine and in 1913 a six-cylinder version of 426 cu in (7 litres) became available. Production of the Bearcat ceased in 1924 although the name was reintroduced with a new model in 1930. The car pictured here seems to be one of the very early models.

Stutz Bearcat

This car competed in two of the handicap races at the VSCC's Hawthorn Memorial Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in June 2008.

It's Mike Holt's 6 litre 1918 Stutz Bearcat. The Bearcat was the first American car to be regarded as a racing car, one competing in the first Indianapolis 500 mile race in 1911, and you can read the story of Stutz here.

Here's Mike Holt at Britten's chicane during the first of his races that day.