1961 Scarab FL Monoposto

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 Chevy V8-powered Scarab sports racers wearing the ice blue Scarab livery completely dominated the U.S. Road Racing Championship. The team turned their attention across the Atlantic for the 1958 season, but the FIA ruled their Chevy V8s out of international competition, restricting sports cars to three liters. Reventlow decided to sell the Scarab sports car and announced RAI's intention to enter Formula One.

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