Automobile Design & Collection

Brooks true passion was classic automobiles. Through his early career as an industrial designer- and later, as an automotive designer for such companies as American Motors, Volkswagon, Alfa Romeo and Studebaker, Stevens began a modest hobby of collecting classic cars. The hobby eventually grew into the Brooks Stevens Automobile Collection & Museum in Mequon, Wisconsin. Which closed its doors in 1999. In addition to racing his cars against other vintage cars, Stevens began to formulate a modern concept car that would combine the safety and dependability of standard components but have a look of the nostalgia of yesterday. He dreamed up the Excalibur, a revival of an earlier era’s grand touring car, for Studebaker. When that company went out of business, he and his sons took over the Excalibur’s production and formed their own corporation, SS Automobiles Inc., in 1964. There was never a replicar maker until Excalibur and it lasted 24 years.