1961 Scarab FL

Lance Reventlow was born in 1936, the son of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton and Danish Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Reventlow. Needless to say, he was born of considerable wealth, even after his parents divorced he was a man of considerable means. By the early 1930s, he fostered a passion for automobile racing. That interest blossomed even further when he met Bruce Kessler, another individual with considerable riches and a knack for the mechanical inter-workings of automobiles. The duo raced cars in Europe and America, visiting factories and gathering techniques on how to build a successful racing machine. After this tour, Reventlow was convinced that he could assemble an American team to build and race a competitive car.

The first attempt at making this dream a reality was the Scarab MK1. It was a fast car that showed tremendous promise. It was soon followed by another Scarab, the MKII. In total, three examples of both the MK1 and MKII combined were created.

After racing in the US, the Scarab team turned their focus on the European scene. Their sports racers MKI and MKII were not legal to compete in European races, so a new car was needed. The decision to enter F1 competition would prove to be a very bad move. The team was young and lacked the necessary experience to build and race in this sport.

The engine was an Offenhauser unit designed by Leo Goosen. It had four cylinders with twin plugs per cylinder. In comparison to other F1 teams, it was lacking in power.

The chassis was designed by 23-year-old Marshall Whitfield. This would be the first car he ever designed. The chassis was completed before the engine was ready, so a replacement unit from one of the prior cars was used. Initial testing showed that the car had many pitfalls. The brakes were inadequate, so the all-American theme was abandoned in favor of the proven Girling discs.

More development and testing meant that the car missed the entire 1959 season. The team made its debut at Monaco in 1960. The car was unable to keep pace with the other machines racing the circuit; it even had slower times than the Formula Juniors that were being run in other races throughout the weekend. This would be the fortune of the Scarab team's effort throughout the season. They qualified for a few of the races but never were serious contenders.

Near the close of the season, the team was able to recruit Richie Ginther. At Reims, the team blew all their engines during practice and did not compete in the race. The final race of the season was at Riverside. Chuck Daigh was able to qualify 18th out of the 23 cars entered; he finished in tenth place during the race.

In 1961, the Formula 1 regulation decreased engine capacity from 2.5 liters to 1.5 liters. This caused many cars to be obsolete and had teams scrambling to create a new competitive car. In response, the English marque created a new racing series called Intercontinental Formula which allowed displacement sizes up to three liters. One of Scarab's F1 cars was given an Offenhauser 3-liter engine and sent to Europe to compete in this series. Chuck Daigh had little success behind the wheel, his best showing coming at Goodwood. The car was later totaled at Silverstone and sent back to the United States.

Following in the success of Cooper Cars, as were many marques, Reventlow decided to try his luck with a mid-engined car. Eddie Miller was recruited to help in the project. As with the prior cars, the goal was to build an all-American car. This idea was shortly abandoned in favor of Girling disc brakes and a few other mechanical components. The engine was still underpowered in comparison to the competition.

When regulations became official, it was announced that production engines were allowed, and so was the modification of those engines. Team Scarab chose the Buick aluminum V8 engine and began making modifications which resulted in 300 horsepower. The team's prospects, and the business venture, were looking positive. That is, until regulations were changed just prior to the start of the season which made the team's efforts obsolete.

Most of the employees were let go, the factory was shut down, and production was canceled.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jun 2007

Sold for $154,000 at 2004 The Monterey Sports and Classic Car Auction.
Sold for $196,000 at 2021 RM Sothebys : Monterey.
Lance Reventlow was the son of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton and the financial source and inspiration for the Reventlow Automobiles Incorporated (RAI) racing team - the constructor of the legendary Scarabs. Approximately seventeen Scarabs would ever be built and they were among the finest racer cars of their era.

Reventlow assembled a team of skilled West Coast craftsmen, drawing on Sothern California's cadre of experienced Indy Car builders, and the hot rodding community. There were a plethora of specialty sports car builders, along with many eager and talented drivers, who were excited about international sports car racing in the United States. Many were drawn to the European sports racers that were nimble and delivered plenty of power for their lightweight construction, but many became unusable as needed spares and repair parts dawdled in the pipeline that led from the European builders to the American shores. This led to homegrown American V8 race cars, first with Cadillac power, then Oldsmobiles and Chrysler Hemi units, and in 1955, Chevrolet combined casting skills and sound design to create the powerful, strong, and lightweight small-block V8. This quickly became the favored engine, with many finding homes in European sports-racing cars, taking advantage of the sophisticated chassis design and development with the reliable U.S. V8 power.

Among the list who capitalized upon this formula were builders like Bill Sadler and Brian Lister who designed and assembled vehicles specifically for the Sports Car Club of America's modified classes. Reventlow's list of fabricators and builders included Emil Diedt and Phil Remington while Jim Travers and Frank Coon managed the engines. Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes conceived and executed the chassis. Body designs were courtesy of Chuck Pelly and Ken Miles provided his insight and experience to make the chassis most effective with the engine. Warren Olsen was the team's manager and Chuck Daigh performed whatever task was needed, along with test driving duties. Reventlow provided the financial resources needed to build these competitive and sophisticated vehicles.

The decision to move into Formula One was ambitious, to say the least, and Scarab's approach was to employ untested technologies in a conventional front-engine rear-drive layout. Development consumed the entirety of the 1959 season, as the team worked on building the laydown four-cylinder engine with desmodromic valve operation. The culmination of their work was unveiled in 1960, but it was unable to compete against the highly advanced mid-engined competition. The season was a dismal disappointment.

At the end of the 1960 season, the FIA once again reduced engine capacity for the World Championship Formula One series to 1-liter, effectively making all RAI's construction and development of the 2-liter desmodromic four-cylinder obsolete.

In the wake of the FIA's 1-liter displacement limitation arose a new series for 1961 known as the '366' Formula Series. RAI had been working on a 'rear engined' Scarab using a Troutman and Barnes tube frame chassis and Colotti gearbox in unit with the differential. It was designed to house a Chevy V8 engine but was soon modified to accommodate the smaller and lighter Buick version of the B-O-P aluminum block V8 shared by the Pontiac Le Mans, Oldsmobile F-85, and the Buick Skylark. In this guise, the Scarab was driven by Chuck Daigh to a fourth overall finish at Sandown Park in Australia in a Formula Libre.

Unfortunately, the Intercontinental formula soon ended and the Scarab was set aside in the Reventlow Automobiles shop. When the RAI shop was leased to Shelby American for Cobra development and production, the rear-engined Scarab was recovered by Chuck Daigh and eventually sold to Bob Korst, later passing through at least one subsequent owner before being acquired by Peter Boyd. Ali Lugo de Armas acquired it from Boyd in 1986 and began a long-term restoration that was completed in 1997.

Currently, the Scarab is represented in its original livery and is powered by a B-O-P aluminum V8. The pushrod-operated overhead-valve V8 engine breathes through four Weber 45 DCOE carburetors and is backed by a four-speed Colotti T.37 manual transmission. It produces approximately 300 horsepower and is kept in the driver's control via four-wheel Girling disc brakes. The triangulated tubular steel chassis has a 90-inch wheelbase and is clothed with aluminum bodywork.

In 1999, it won the Amelia Award at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. In 2001, it was driven by Damon Hill as the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and it participated in the Goodwood Revival later that year. Additionally, it has had multiple appearances in the Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca from 2006 through 2011.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2021