Get a Stutz!

While Detroit is hard put to sell the 1958 cars, the simple, stately autos from another era are moving fast. Last week the Stutzes, Simplexes and Duesenbergs of yesteryear commanded a hotter demand and a higher price than any time since they went out of production. In the nation's major trading post for antique (prior to the mid-1920s) and classic (usually prior to 1942) cars, the automobile pages of the Sunday New York Times, a 1920 seven-passenger Fierce-Arrow was advertised for $2,500 v. $7,250 when new. Many oldsters were worth more than ever. A completely rebuilt 1904 Cadillac went on sale for $6,500 v. $900 new. And a fully restored 1910 Simplex raceabout, with double-chain drive and 90-h.p. engine, was offered for a thumping $9,500 v. about $6,000 new.

Some 20,000 U.S. drivers own antique or classic cars, and their number is growing fast. The Horseless Carriage Club, for owners of cars produced prior to 1916, has jumped from 350 members in 1944 to 7,500 today. The Classic Car Club, for owners of fancy cars of 1925-42 vintage (mostly Packard Eights and Twelves), counts 1,700 members, will add 300 this year. The aged-auto fad has claimed many VIPs. Among them: Dwight Eisenhower, who used to enjoy relaxing in his mother-in-law's high, stubby 1914 Rauch & Lang Electric until it was sent to the Eisenhower Museum at Abilene. Kans.

Old-car buffs buy the Maxwells. Cords. Hupmobiles. Mercers. Briscoes. Flints. Kissels and Jewetts for as little as $100. spruce them up to sell for as much as $10,000. But the restoration job is expensive, requires an average of 1,800 hours to do it properly. The restorers scrounge for unused parts in old garages and specialty shops, often rebuild every major part.

Many a company has helped along the restoration boom. New Jersey's Scandinavia Belting Co. still makes transmission linings for the Ford Model A and Model T. In the East, at least three major wheelwrights make wheels for the oldsters. Western Auto Supply. Sears. Roebuck and Montgomery Ward market parts for the Model T. Firestone Tire & Rubber sells several thousand antique tires a year, priced up to $67.55 each (for the Stanley Steamer and Stutz).

The vintage auto clubs also help to keep the craze alive by emphasizing authenticity and quality. The Classic Car Club recognizes only blue-blooded autos of "fine design, high engineering standards and superior workmanship." Regardless of age. it blackballs all Chevrolets, Plymouths. Xashes. Dodges, Pontiacs, Buicks. Oldsmobiles and De Sotos. even turns down some Cadillac models. Recently the club even refused to admit Ford's modern Continental Mark II as a "classic."

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