Evaluation: Acquired new by Thomas Ives Hare Powel of Newport, Rhode Island. Sold in 1936 to Smith Hempstone Oliver, later curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s transportation collection. Driven by Ralph Mulford in the old-timers exhibition at the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. Later restored for Winthrop Rockefeller and displayed at Petit Jean Mountain, then to Bill Harrah who sold it in 1976 to James Conant. Sound old edge chipped paint. Good nickel and chrome. Dry, cracked wood spoke wheels. An honest but aging Stutz.
Bottom Line: Sold here in 2006 from the Conant estate for $715,000 in essentially the condition in which it is today and with only about 500 more miles in the intervening fifteen years. One of few Bearcats with an unassailable, never separated, history, a car that deserves to be preserved and maintained as it is without being fluffed up for a concours and a sound value in this transaction.
