Stan Johnson stands by the Sustan XI, also known as the Sustan E. It is an electric car he designed and built in his garage in Blue Earth. He began building his first car in 2007 and is currently working on car No. 12, which will be another electric model.

“Stay active and keep moving.”

Those are the words of advice given by 80-year old Blue Earth resident Stan Johnson regarding what it takes to enjoy one’s senior years.

“I try not to sit around too long,” he says. “I guess I have plenty of hobbies.”

Stan moved to Blue Earth in October of 1990 with his wife, Amy.

“Amy died in 2004,” Stan says. “In 2006 I got married again. Her name was Susan.”

Stan and Susan actually knew each other when they were growing up because they went to kindergarten together in Vernon Center, but then Susan moved.

“We became classmates again in ninth grade in Garden City. But, unfortunately, by that time she had a steady boyfriend,” Stan laughs.

Stan was not the only person who had lost their spouse.

“Susan’s husband had also died and we started seeing each other,” Stan comments.

Unfortunately for Stan, Susan died in 2015. Even though Stan has lost two spouses to death, he looks back fondly on both marriages.

“Some people go through their whole life never having a happy marriage,” he notes. “I was blessed to have been married to two wonderful women.”

Stan gives credit to Susan for encouraging him in his hobbies, one of which is building cars which resemble a horseless carriage.

“Susan and I saw our first one (horseless carriage) when we were in Kiester,” Stan recalls. “I had the bug.”

Stan would base the designs of his cars off actual vehicles, most of which were originally built in the early 1900s.

Each car carries the Sustan nameplate, a combination of Susan and Stan and a Roman numeral designating its order in Stan’s production line.

“The first car I built (Sustan I) took me from September of 2007 until March of the following year to complete,” Stan says. “It was modeled after a curved dash Oldsmobile built in 2001 by Ransom E. Olds. The name was chosen for the unique shape of the footboard.”

Stan reveals his replica departed quite a bit from the original.

“I built it mostly for parade use and just for the joy of building it,” he admits. “It was built from scratch, not a kit. There were ideas from three different plans as well as some of our own used in the design of this vehicle.”

The car is powered by an 18 and a half horsepower, overhead valve, air cooled Briggs and Stratton unit.

“It has an electric starter and the transmission is a Tuff-Torq hydrostatic drive unit from a John Deere riding mower,” Stan says. “The wheels are Worksman heavy duty bicycle wheels. We used buggy springs, go-kart brakes and other readily available parts.”

Stan and Susan also fabricated much of Sustan I.

“We built the spindles, the front axle, body and frame,” Stan comments. “Lee’s Auto Body Shop of Blue Earth painted the frame and J & J Upholstery upholstered the seat and covered the top.”

Stan shares that Duane Pilcher made the Sustan I emblem and the brass horn was donated by Gay Edwards from Nicollet.

With Susan’s help and encouragement, Stan kept building more cars, each one of them unique in its own right.

“My first attempt at an electric car was Sustan III. It didn’t work out,” Stan says. “I gave it to a friend who was going to put a hit-and-miss engine in it.”

Another interesting design was the Sustan VI which is a three-wheeled vehicle inspired by the 1887 Benz Motor Wagon.

“I believe Carl Benz was the first person to patent an automobile in 1886,” Stan shares. “His 1886 wagon is thought to be the world’s first purpose-built automobile with a gasoline engine.”

Another interesting design was the Sustan IV, which was patterned after a delivery van made by Oldsmobile in 1904.

In 2023, Stan once again tried his hand at an electric car with the building of the Sustan E (Sustan XI).

“It is powered by three 12 volt, deep cycle, lead acid batteries and the batteries are wired in series to provide a total of 36 volts to run the motors,” he explains. “The motors are 650 watt gear motors (scooter motors).”

His second attempt at constructing an electric car proved to be successful and Stan is currently manufacturing another electric car, Sustan XII.

Before he moved to Blue Earth, Stan lived in North St. Paul and worked for Control Data.

And although he was not building replica cars back then, he had a great deal of experience building other cars.

“I built a street rod back in 1976,” he remembers. “It was a 1929 Ford Roadster with a Chevy 283 motor. I also took a 1983 Ford Ranger and put a 302 Ford V8 in it and took a Chevy S10 Blazer and put a 350 cubic inch Chevy engine in it.”

Stan has also built RC (remote control) model airplanes and he has even constructed a couple of small pull-behind mini campers.

And where does he store all of the automobiles he has made?

“Well, I’ve given at least five of them away,” Stan says. “Nothing makes me happier when I hear back from those people who I gave the cars to and they tell me about the smiles on their children’s or grandchildren’s faces when they give them rides in those small automobiles.”

“It puts a smile on my face too,” he concludes.