Stutz Monte Carlo: Advanced Sedan Styling for circa-1930

This post's featured design falls into the gray area of having a coachbuilder's body in a small-scale "production" run.  And was from a low-volume carmaker, to boot.  That car firm was Stutz Motor Car Company that ended production in 1935.  (Technically so, but essentially it was about two years earlier.)  I wrote about late-model Stutz cars including today's subject here.

Stutz's Monte Carlo was a "close-coupled" four-door sedan.  That is, although there was seating for at least four people, the passenger compartment was shorter than normal.  At the likely price of restricted back-seat legroom, the style effect was racier than normal.

A noteworthy feature was a trunk profile years in advance, as will be shown below -- an early instance of a sedan with "bustle back" styling.

Monte Carlo bodies (1929-1933) were by the Weymann licensee Weymann American Body Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, where Stutz also was based.  As the link explains, the Weymann system made use of wood structuring that included flexible joining, along with padded cladding with a synthetic leather protective layer.  The link also lists advantages of the Weymann system.  Defects included minimal collision protection and shorter useful life compared to metal-clad bodies.  By the early 1930s, Weymann bodies were rapidly falling out of fashion.

In terms of styling, a Weymann defect was that the protective layer was not smooth, not shiny.  Sort of like the matte paint finish occasionally seen in recent times.

Most Stutz Monte Carlos had Weymann system bodies.  But at least one 1933 Monte Carlo had aluminum cladding, even though it was built by the Indianapolis Weymann firm.

I do not know who styled the Stutz Monte Carlo.

Gallery

1930 Cadillac Town Sedan - car-for-sale photo
I don't have a decent side view of a 1930-vintage Stutz sedan, so this Cadillac photo will serve to indicate the upscale sedan styling norm for that time.  Note that the aft side of the passenger compartment is nearly vertical.  There is no integral trunk, instead a detached one.

1929 Stutz Blackhawk Doctor's Coupe - Donnington Auctions (New Zealand)
On the other hand, coupes and roadsters did have "bustle backs," often featuring a rumble seat.  So this concept was available for sedan styling, but essentially not used at the time.

1929 Stutz Lancefield Saloon - via coachbuild.com
British coachbuilder Lancefield made several bodies for Stutz's.  This is an early example that used Weymann technology.  Note the modest bustle back.

1929 Stutz Monte Carlo by Weymann (Indianapolis) - Bonhams
Here is an early Monte Carlo of the same vintage.  It features a bustle back with nearly the same profile as that on the Lancefield.  I don't know which design was came first.  Regardless, these are the earliest examples of bustle back sedans that I'm presently aware of.  There might well be earlier examples, so please let us know in Comments.

1930 Stutz Monte Carlo by Weymann (Indianapolis) - via RM Sotheby's
A beautifully restored Monte Carlo.  The beltline two-tone strip enhances the already impressive length.  The passenger compartment greenhouse is low, proving a racy appearance (compare to the more standard greenhouse on the Cadillac in the first image above).

The lower body is massive, helping to contrast and enhance the low roofline.

Even though the bustle back contains trunk space, this car has an auxiliary, detached trunk.

1933 Stutz Monte Carlo by Weymann (Indianapolis) aluminum body - via RM Sotheby's
A very late Monte Carlo example.

The metal cladding provides smooth surfaces for paint.  I find the result much more attractive than the dull-finish Weymann paint jobs. 

No extra trunk here.  The bustle back feature gives the car a more modern appearance than other 1929-origin American sedan designs.

Stutz Four-Passenger Boat Tail Speedster?!?

For me, the terms "four passenger" and "boat tail speedster" don't go together.  When I think "speedster," I visualize a two-passenger roadster or possibly a seriously sporty cabriolet.  And "boat tail" means an even more racy variation on the speedster theme, harking mostly to the late 1920s to mid-1930s.

However, in the late 1920s Stutz marketed a few four-passenger speedsters, some of which had boat tail styling.  Actually, I don't know categorically that those names were used by Stutz to describe those cars, as my research material on Stutz is limited.  Perhaps they have been applied retroactively.  Or maybe, if the bodies were coachbuilt, the coachbuilders used them.

That said, until this post was conceived, I was unaware of open-top, four-passenger cars sporting a boat tail rear.  I remain unaware if anything similar was built on other brands's chassis'.  Please comment if you have information.

Gallery

1928 Stutz BB Four Passenger Speedster by Philips - RM Sotheby's photo.  The term "Speedster" puzzles me because this car is clearly a convertible sedan or phaeton.  But there it is.

Now for a 1928 Stutz BB Black Hawk Four Passenger Speedster - via Steve Sexton, Flicker.  These cars lack foldaway canvas tops. 

1928 Stutz BB Black Hawk 4-Passenger Speedster - Hyman photo.  This appears to be a boat tail design, given the lack of a folded canvas top.  Usually Hyman presents multiple views of its cars, but this is the only image I was able to turn up on Internet searches on Google and Bing.

1929 Stutz Four Passenger Boattail Speedster - Ex-Harrah Collection via Christies.  The back seat is covered by a tonneau.

1927 Stutz AA Black Hawk Four Passenger Speedster - Simeone Museum via Automobile Quarterly.  This was the image that caught my eye, revealing the boat tail on a four passenger body.

How Four-Door Sedans Got Their Trunks

I borrowed this post's title from a Rudyard Kipling Just So story title dealing with elephants, in case you might be curious.

For some reason hard to fathom 90 years and more later, American automobiles did not have storage areas worthy of the name.

For example, even this late-1920s Checker taxi in New York City has no roof rack or other obvious place to store luggage and other large objects.  I suppose these were placed between the passengers' knees and the driver's seat.

Trunks became an industry-wide feature during the 1930s, the decade when car design evolution was at tis strongest.  The focus here is on four-door sedans because coupés and some two-door sedans, due to their shorter passenger compartments, got integrated trunks sooner than their four-door siblings.

Examples of trunks from that era are shown below.  Unless noted, images are of cars listed for sale on the internet.

Gallery

1929 Auburn 8-90
This Auburn is typical of its time, having no trunk.

1929 Hudson Club Sedan by Biddle & Smart - RM Sotheby's photo
However, some larger upscale cars did have trunks.  This Hudson's trunk is conventional, being a separate item placed aft of the main body of the car.

1930 Stutz Monte Carlo, Weymann body - RM Sotheby's
This Stutz appears to have two trunks, a separate unit at the extreme rear as well as a trunk abaft of the passenger compartment accessible from outside.  This was extremely rare in 1930 for four-door sedans.

1931 Marmon Sixteen Close-Coupled Sedan by LeBaron - Hyman Auctions photo
Marmon V-16 cars were among the those at the top of the price/prestige ladder, and this one has a trunk attached to the car's body.  It is a separate element, not integrated like the Stutz's trunk in the previous image.

1933 Cadillac Town Sedan
By 1933 trunks like this were becoming common on larger cars.

1934 Studebaker Land Cruiser - my photo
Here is an example of an integral trunk several years ahead of its time.  The design of this car was derived from the 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow.

1935 Buick 41 Club Sedan
More typical is the trunk on this Buick.  It remains visually distinct, yet its edges are smoothed into the main body -- a step towards complete integration.

1936 Cord 810 Beverly - Hyman
Standard Cord 810 Westchester sedans had a fastback design incorporating a lidded trunk.  Beverly models had fancier interiors and some were given the tacked-on trunk lid seen here to provide some extra storage space.

1936 Lincoln Zephyr - factory photo
Aerodynamically-influenced Zephyrs has integral trunks.

1938 Studebaker Commander
Less radical is the trunk on this Studebaker.  In some respects it's similar to that on the 1935 Buick above, but its blending into the body is more complete.

1938 Graham
Now we see an early version of the "bustle back" style common after the war.

1939 Mercury Eight
A "fastback" design like the Zephyr, but this Mercury's trunk is wider and more practical.

1941 Pontiac Torpedo Sedan
By the early 1940s integral trunks were the industry standard.

Died Together: Stutz and the Classic, Pre-Streamlined Era

I share the opinion of other writers I've read over the years that American classical, pre-streamline, luxury automobile design reached its apogee in 1932 or thereabouts.  The awkwardness of typical 1920s designs had been sloughed off.  This was probably due to exterior design passing from a company's engineering staff to either custom body designers, corporate styling staffs or consultants with coachbuilding firm design experience.

Consider the Stutz, a brand in decline by the late 1920s that the Great Depression of the 1930s eventually killed (more information here and here.)

It had success at the Le Mans in 1928 and '29 -- not a win, but high placing.  This, along with the aura of its famed Bearcat from 1912, gave the brand a sporting reputation.  But Stutz could not afford to develop the V-12 motors its competitors such as Packard could.  So it marketed a motor with two intake and two exhaust valves for each of its eight in-line cylinders.  This was called the DV-32 for "Dual Valve" (of each type) for a total of 32 valves.  Stutz's motors with single intake and outlet valves were called SV-16s ("Single Valve" and 16 total).

Nevertheless, many of these final Stutz cars were magnificent.  That, and their rarity, resulted in high auction prices in recent years.

Below are some examples.

Gallery

1929 Stutz Blackhawk Roadster - Hyman Ltd. photo

1930 Stutz SV-16 Monte Carlo by Weymann - RM Sotheby's photo
Weymann bodies were fragile, being treated fabric over wood frames.  This Monte Carlo is interesting because of its bustle-back design that harks ahead to the rapidly-growing popularity of that style in the postwar era.  Also interesting is the extra luggage trunk tacked aft of the bustle back.  The low passenger greenhouse is very sporty looking, though driver vision and headroom for hat-wearers probably weren't the best.

1931 Stutz DV-32 Rollston Convertible Victoria - RM Sotheby's photo
Long wheelbase, long hood, minimal overhang front and rear.  Also no bustle back.

1931 Stutz DV-32 Rollston Convertible Victoria - RM Sotheby's photo
Another example by the same coachbuilder.

1931 Stutz DV-32 Roadster - Bonhams photo
This roadster seems to have a boat tail.  I have no information regarding the coachbuilder (assuming it's not a factory body).

1932 Stutz Super Bearcat
The sporty Bearcat was revived towards the end.  Very long (proportionally) hood, the driver seated well towards the rear.

1933 DV-32 Monte Carlo by Weymann
This body is virtually the same as the 1930 Weymann's shown above, though the box trunk is absent.

1933 DV-32 Monte Carlo by Weymann - RM Sotheby's Photo
A recent view of the Stutz shown in the previous photo from 1933.