BEARCAT
Built for the TV series "The Bearcats" in the 70’s. Many hours of research were involved in recreating the vehicle depicting the 1914 Stutz Bearcat of the era. Parts and components were found throughout the country through various collectors were shipped to the Barris shop for final construction. Three different vehicles were built to service the production requirements, the #1 unit was used to simulate the hard drive and stunt portions of filming, while #2 unit was used for personality driving by Rod Taylor and Dennis Cole and the #3 unit was used for touring and press events.
Over 1500 man hours and $30,000.00 was spent to hand build each of the three vehicles in steel. The mechanical running gear is a Ford Six 272 cu. in. engine with four speed automatic transmission that was outfitted with Ansen posi-shift, coupled to the heavy duty rear end, Hurst engineered tubular 50⁄50 ratio shocks were used for controlled driving action. All late model components were converted to tie the new parts with the vintage components. All brass sheet metal parts were restored and replated. The forty gallon fuel tanks were of spun aluminum built my Moon Equipment Co. and the Stewart Warner gauges were used to provide accurate account of vehicle operation in addition to establishing the final wood grain dash panels. Race Car Engineering spent hundreds of hours matching the necessary parts to conform to the overall conversion. The reproduction of tires sized to fit the old wood spoke wheels were created by Lester Tire Company. An overall cream color with black and maroon stripes is the final paint finish matching the maroon leather bucket seats.