Yahoo Autos 1971 Stutz Blackhawk Owned by Elvis Presley Goes to Auction
A 1971 Stutz Blackhawk, one of the 500-600 examples of the luxury car styled by former Chrysler designer Virgil Exner, is going on the block next month through Mecum Auctions.
It’s not just anyone’s Blackhawk. This 1971 model belonged to the King of Rock and Roll himself, Elvis Presley, and the car has the documentation to prove it. A California new vehicle license from the same year is registered to Presley and a nameplate that reads “Elias Ghanem/A True Friend/Elvis Presley” is affixed to the dashboard.
Dr. Ghanem was Presley’s long-time physician. According to Mecum, the car was gifted to him by Presley after an unspecified period of ownership. The odometer reads 31,856 miles.
Built using the bones of a 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix, which sat on General Motors’ G Body platform, the car is decked out with upgrades and luxury appointments. It was outfitted with a limited-slip differential and air adjustable shock absorbers. Owners found mink carpeting, a liquor cabinet, 24-carat gold appointments and a cigar lighter when they looked inside.
Through its years in production from 1971 to 1987, Pontiac V-8s, Cadillac, and Ford engines were offered as part of the customization process. This particular Blackhawk runs on a Pontiac 7.5-liter V-8 with a three-speed automatic transmission. The starting price was around $23,000, which is somewhere north of $150,000 today.
All told, this is the second of four examples that Elvis owned. It goes up for auction on November 10. Recent auctions have brought in around $50,000 for Blackhawks, though one owned by the King should fetch a bit more than that.
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