Harry Stutz is most famed today for his own namesake automobiles, but they were not his first mechanical creations. He first worked as an engineer for the American builder of the famous “Underslung,” then became Chief Engineer and Factory Manager of Indianapolis’ Marion Motor Car Company.

The Special Roadster of 1910 was one of the last Stutz-designed Marions and the direct ancestor of the subsequent Stutz Bearcat. A similar example, driven by Louis Disbrow, was victorious in a ten-hour race at Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York, leading Marion to produce what it described as “an exact duplicate of this exceptionally fast car.” Built on a stock Model 10 chassis shortened by ten inches for improved handling, it incorporated Stutz’s own designs for an innovative transaxle, delivering the 40 horsepower of the 255.4-cubic-inch L-head four-cylinder Continental engine, as well as brakes and a Schebler carburetor—the designs of which were all copied for the 1912 Bearcat, as was in large part the very sporty, barely-there open two-seater bodywork.

According to documentation in the car’s history file, prolific and prominent early enthusiast Lindley Bothwell of California purchased this Marion, the sole surviving Model 10 Special Roadster, in 1941. It remained in the Bothwell barns on the Rancho Rinconada in Woodland Hills for 30 years, then was purchased by the equally famed Harrah’s Automobile Collection in 1974. The car was exhibited at Harrah’s for the next decade.

When the Harrah Collection was dispersed at a series of still-renowned auctions, Don R. May III of Palo Alto, California, acquired the Marion in 1984 and immediately commissioned a full restoration by Wally Child of Gresham, Oregon. Mr. May noted that the original wood wheels and nearly all the original body framework were able to be preserved, while the much-battered original fenders served as excellent patterns for precise reproductions. The body was finished in Vermillion with black fenders, original colors as described in Marion literature. Restoration was completed by 1988, after which the car reportedly won either Best of Show or First in Class at no fewer than six concours events on the West Coast. It would remain in the May family collection for decades.

Still in beautiful shape throughout, this fascinating automobile is one with a superlative heritage, as well as robust performance true to its designer, the pioneering Harry Stutz.