The Road to Elegance.(Escape Roads)

Byline: GEORGE P. BLUMBERG

Stutz was perhaps best known for its rakish, stark, rough-and-ready Bearcat sports car. But this one-off 1929 Stutz Convertible Victoria, with body by Hibbard & Darrin of Paris, takes the Stutz image down the road of elegance and luxury.

The close-coupled design, built for the 1929 New York Salon, sits on a 135-inch wheelbase and is grandly imposing. It rides on 6x20-inch tires, with double spares mounted behind the huge leather-covered trunk. The aluminum body channels over the frame rails about five inches, for a low profile. Aircraft cues abound-exposed rivets dot pontoon front fenders, there are full disc wheels, and streamlined valances and running boards. Chrome Woodlite headlights add to the effect, while the large Pilot Ray center spot mounted on the front bumper swivels with the steering.

Tilt the front seatbacks forward, and the tan leather seats slide as well, providing access to the rear for two passengers, who can plant their feet in the footwells. A Bakelite steering wheel is mounted atop a chromed column. "It's a long hood,'' laughs the car's owner, Ralph Marano of Westfield, New Jersey, "but the cowl is back close to the seats.'' Legroom is tight. Door caps and comprehensive instrument panel are of bird's-eye maple with nickel inlays. The steering wheel hub houses light switch controls, plus a spark advance/retard lever and hand throttle.

The car's straight-eight sohc engine with dual spark plugs is industrial art, with its dazzling black-enameled block and valve covers set off by polished aluminum parts like the intake manifold. A plaque states "Stutz Vertical Eight'' and the serial number. The 4.9-liter engine produces around 115 hp.

There is no fuel pump, the fuel system relying on gravity and vacuum. To start the car, you first open the fuel petcock to get fuel flow from the underhood storage tank downward into a glass bowl and then into the downdraft carb. Retard the spark, ...