Cars
1927. Stutz “Black Hawk". The day the white hawk turned black
The article tells the story of Frank Lockhart, a young racing idol in the USA in the 1920s who created an innovative and high-performance car, the Stutz Black Hawk, for an attempt to break the land speed record.
Over time, the desire for supremacy has robbed the world of some great talents. One is Frank Lockhart, born in the USA in 1903, and, by the age of 23, already a racing idol with various successes under his belt, including Indianapolis. Lockhart is also a perfect example of how it is possible to create an extraordinarily innovative and high-performance car on the basis of experience rather than formal learning.
This image conveys perfectly the accuracy of the aerodynamics characterizing the Stutz "Black Hawk" designed by Frank Lockhart to beat the land speed record.
His Stutz Black Hawk, built for an attempt to break the land speed record on the hard-packed sand of Daytona Beach, was a true masterpiece of its time. Backed by the Stutz motor company, for which he competed, and supported by Duesenberg engineers, Lockhart created a “real missile”. Lightweight, powered by a small supercharged engine — this was actually a combination of two small (1500 cc) Miller inline V8 engines installed at an angle of 30° —, perfectly faired, and developed for maximum aerodynamic efficiency, the car had all the credentials to set a new record.
