By 1981 the Blackhawk's base price was $84,500 ($279,242 adj.). But Stutz knew it would have to update its coupe to keep buyers coming back for more, and the majority of updates took the form of trim differentiation and cost-cutting. Let's talk about the multiple generations of Blackhawk.
Nineteen feet long and full of wood, precious metals, and optional mink upholstery, the Blackhawk asked a stunning amount of money that was far greater than domestic personal luxury coupes, and more than a Rolls-Royce. At a base ask of $22,500 ($162,533 adj.) in 1971 dollars, there were few cars which actually competed with the Blackhawk's purchasable exclusivity. And said exclusivity attracted some very wealthy people. Let's talk celebrity status.
In our last Stutz entry, we saw the once famed luxury maker resuscitated by an entrepreneurial banker. Still headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, the newly renamed Stutz Motor Car of America, Inc. built a neoclassical coupe to excite lovers of polyester, personal luxury, and a mélange of styling cues from the Twenties and Thirties. The company's first offering was the new Blackhawk, styled in a baroque Pontiac kind of way by Virgil Exner.
We pick up the Stutz story again today, as the super luxurious American brand went off to the automotive graveyard in the sky. However, the legendary name was not forgotten by certain people in Indianapolis who wore wide lapel suits.
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