Just Cool Cars: 1913 Stevens-Duryea is tricky to drive
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- For its day, this was one powerful car -- even though its engine cranked out a mere 44 horsepower.
That's about as much as could be produced from the 480-cubic-inch, 6-cylinder engine of this 1913 Stevens-Duryea Model C-Six at the time, says its owners, Whitney and Diane Haist of Orinda, Calif.
The car was built in Chicopee Falls, Mass., and Haist says only nine of its type survive today.
"Driving these cars takes a whole set of skills," says Whitney Haist as he displayed the car last Sunday at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance here, one of the country's top car shows.
You can't just drive. You almost have to act like an engineer, adjusting the ignition spark, shifting with a double-clutch technique and just keeping an eye on things. But before the show, the Stevens say they managed to pull it off -- taking the car on a 70-mile tour with other historic cars.
"It ran great," Whitney Haist says.