For those loving speed and racing history (and the technology), and proving that fast is all relative, check out
a 1979 Car & Driver story by Patrick Bedard, who wrote about driving a 1914 Stutz Bearcat. This could never happen now — a 1915 Stutz costing $2,000 U.S. new recently sold for
$368,500 (a Business Week page about Mercers, in which Jay Leno mentions early Bugattis).
In 1979, the guy who owned the Stutz since 1948 (he had put 25,654 miles on it) let Bedard drive the thing. Later on in the story, the owner is back behind the wheel, trying to beat a thunderstorm home. (In a 1951 test, the Stutz topped out at 75 or 80 mph.)
The page is immensely long, with Bedard's story toward the bottom. If you're interested, click on the link and do a search on the page for "McCahill wrote" (without the quotes), and you'll get to the top of the "test" drive.
The engine is a 390-cubic-inch
four cylinder. It's right-hand drive, the accelerator pedal is between the brake and clutch pedals, first is where third is now and it has no synchros.
It's turning so slowly I can count the power strokes - tucka, tucka, tucka, tucka. . . .
<snip>
Only the rear wheels have brakes, but each drum has two sets of shoes, one set activated by the foot pedal and the other by the lever. . . .
<snip>
You had to make compensations for a car's quirks back in 1914, but I doubt that you ever had to baby a Stutz. Even though it's past mandatory retirement age, this beauty gives me the feeling that I could point it toward California and be absolutely sure of getting there.
If I had a choice of winning the Bugatti in the video or the Stutz on that page, I'd take the Stutz.
