Common with racing and sports cars of the period, it featured minimal bodywork consisting of a "dog house" hood, open bucket seats, a tiny "monocle" windscreen in front of the driver, and a cylindrical fuel tank on a short rear deck.

Production Bearcats differed from the factory "White Squadron" racers by having fenders, lights and a trunk.

The first public mention of the car (then spelled "Bear Cat" ) is in an advertisement in the 1912 program for the Indianapolis 500 mile race.

The 1921 series K featuring a new "DH" engine with a detachable head was introduced, but a switch to left-hand drive in the following KLDH (L for left) meant the end of the Bearcat, since its narrow front seat and cockpit did not leave room for centrally located gear and brake levers.

It was a small coupe featuring dual side-mount spare tires and a rakish dip in the doors, similar to contemporary (and future) sports cars.

The same year, the model range was enhanced by the DV-32 powered "Super Bearcat", which offered full weather protection and higher performance.

In 1915 a stock Bearcat was driven by Erwin "Cannon Ball" Baker from California to New York in eleven days, seven hours, and fifteen minutes, shattering the previous record and inspiring the later Cannonball Run race and film spin-offs.

In 1914 it was priced at $2,000 (equivalent to $60,837 in 2023[1]), almost four times that of the basic American-made Model T. The colorful history and rakish image of the Stutz Bearcat made it one of the better known antique cars to later generations of Americans.

and showed a Triumph driver, complete with raccoon coat, next to an early 1920s Bearcat, in a campus setting.

In the late 1960s, he built and marketed a fiber-glass replica of the car, based on the chassis of an International Scout utility vehicle.

Car customizer George Barris made two much more accurate replicas for the 1971 television series Bearcats!.

While externally very close to the original cars, they were in fact built on custom chassis powered by Ford drivetrains and had modern four-wheel brake systems for safety.

The Bearcat II was based on the Pontiac Firebird chassis with 5.7-liter (350 in3) V8 multi-port fuel-injected Corvette engine and had a lightweight, dent- and corrosion-proof body made of what Stutz called Diamond Fiber Comp., a kind of carbon-fiber composite.

The German dealer Auto Becker in Düsseldorf offered the car with a 210 bhp, 5-litre (305 cu in), multi-port fuel-injected V8 and a galvanized chassis for 380,000 DM.

In the episode "The Trouble with Trillions" of The Simpsons, Waylon Smithers drives a maroon Stutz Bearcat with Mr. Burns and Homer.