In June 2004,
I got an envelope from Virgil Exner, jr.
He had told me that he won't be able to attend the Stutz-Meet 2004, and so he wanted to send me a surprise,
his contribution for the Meet was a phantastic design for a new Stutz Revival!

In the late 60's, Exner's father, Virgil M. Exner, sr. designed the Duesenberg Revival project.
It failed.
But O'Donnell took the chance to start the Stutz Revival,
and it became the very first successful revival project in automobile history.
And it still is the only successful!

Today, we have several Revival Cars on the market.

Bugatti, for example.
The first revival, the EB110 failed after about 100 cars.
The second revival, now financed by the Volkswagen trust is a 1001hp-beast, top-speed over 400km/h.

Maybach, also a German powered project.
The car looks like a big S-Class, they produce cars,
but will they be able to stay in business as long as Stutz, more than 20 years?
We will see...

There were projects to revive
Bizzarrini
Diatto
Hispano-Suiza
Invicta
Isotta-Fraschini
Jensen
Russo-Baltique
They only were projects.

Even the actual Rolls-Royce Phantom is (in my eyes) only a revival car,
produced by a new owner, at a new location...

All the production-revival cars are limousines, or supersportcars.
The idea of O'Donnell, to produce the ultimate Coupé is missing, again,
like in the early 70's, when the original Exner-Stutz was put on wheels.

So Virgil Exner, jr. designed a new Coupé:

The side view shows a C-Pillar that reminds the Stutz-Fans to the Renwal Revival Stutz, the color supports our memory...
According Mr. Exner, the car is based on a 136 inch (=345cm) wheelbase, the overall length is 19ft (=570cm),
that means this Coupe is as long as a Maybach 57!

The front-view, showing a radiator grill, a must for a Stutz.

The rear-view, of course showing a spare-wheel.
Today, there is no need for a real spare-tire, but a Stutz without that detail?
The 1972 Blackhawk Humptrunk wasn't a design success, and so a new Stutz has to show at least a symbolic spare-wheel!

The second design sketch for the rear-view shows more similarities with the 1971 Blackhawk.

After a phone-call with Mr. Exner, he had the idea to put some freestanding headlights on the car.
The radiator grill was also slightly modified.
These small changes create a complete different look.
And this is definitely a Stutz-face!

Mr. Exner also modified the rear-view.
Freestanding taillights let the car look more unique, and every car-enthusiast can identify this as a new Stutz.
There is another modification, in my opinion a small but very important one:
The chrome trimline at the rear, now showing more similarities with the rear-view of the 1971 Blackhawk.

A great design!

On some of the pictures you can see the head of a sphynx, one design sketch shows the name "Spynx" (without "h"!!!),
so I call it the Spynx-Project.
Of course, a Stutz Coupé could have been named Blackhawk (VIII, IX or ???) again,
but in my opinion, the name "Spynx" is better!

While Europe seems to have some sort of revival-mania, where is America?
Like in the 70's, an American has to buy European cars to have an ultimate automobile.
This can be changed!

Please note:
All these design sketches are copyrighted by Mr. Exner. All rights reserved!
Do not use without written permission!!!

the Spynx-Project:
Aero
Imperial
Spynx
Stutz
X-Series
Royale

see the new Revival Cars:
2004 Stutz
2004 Imperial
2005 La Salle

back to Exner, jr.-website