THE RACING STUTZ THAT WON IN NEW ZEALAND
Among the many treasures at the remarkable Southward Car Museum at Paraparaumu, on the Kapiti Coast, is the most successful car to race in New Zealand. The late Sir Len Southward, OBE, was personally involved in a three-year rebuild of the 107-year-old Stutz that hard-charging Norwegian Gil Anderson took to third place in the 1915 Indianapolis 500.
Yet it is the car’s local history that elevates its significance to Antipodean enthusiasts, winning New Zealand’s premier race every year from 1926 until 1932. It’s clear then that when Southward acquired the 4.9-litre, four-cylinder, 16-valve overhead cam Stutz, this special piece of local motoring history had come into the right hands.
The Stutz used a Wisconsin performance motor, the most successful racing power unit in US motor racing during the early years of last century, and one of the earliest multi-valve engines. Wisconsin made engines right up until 2018, but the early example in the Stutz was an in-line, 4,851cm3 engine with a nondetachable head, a crankshaft running on three ball bearings, developing 130bhp at a modest 3,000 revs. A cone clutch connected the engine via a driveshaft to the gearbox, which was still mounted on the rear axle.
