The Scarab Formula One

Sunlight on Gleaming Metal, the throaty high-revving cry of powerful engines, the bright sea of spectators straining forward at the drop of the starter's flag, the lifting haze of bluegray exhaust as fender-less projectilelike cars bullet for the first turn, the snaking impassive length of dark macadam ahead, waiting to be conquered by the helmeted men of speed. This is the sport of Formula One road racing as it is practiced in Europe, a colorful, swift, savage--and sometimes deadly--game played for rich stakes by seasoned professionals.

Today, in 1960, a new challenger is invading this specialized sport; for the first time in European racing history, an all-American team rolls out to the Formula One starting grid, bringing the blue and white of the United States to the great Continental circuits.

The man behind this unique team effort is twenty-three-year-old Lance Reventlow, creator of the fabled cat-quick Scarab sports cars which, in winning the main event in December of 1958 during Nassau's Speed Week in the Bahamas, gave this country its first important international victory in almost four decades (since Jimmy Murphy won the French Grand Prix on a Duesenberg in 1921). Now Reventlow is attempting to equal his Nassau success in the even-more-difficult Formula One category.

Road racing is represented in its purest sense in Grand Prix Formula One competition. Totally unlike sports/street machines, GP cars are more closely akin to Indianapolis racers: all four wheels are exposed, there are neither doors nor running lights and there is room for only the driver in the single cockpit. They differ from the Indy machines in that they are much lighter, of lower horsepower and are designed to hug a twisting road circuit rather than an oval track. Their shark-sleek wind-sculptured bodies must combine blinding speed with superb roadability--and until today no U.S. Formula One team has existed to combat the "unbeatable" marques of Europe: Ferrari, Vanwall, Cooper, Maserati, BRM, Aston Martin, etc.

One might well ask, how did the millionaire son of dime-store heiress Barbara Hutton get involved in the ruggedly competitive world of professional Grand Prix racing? The answer lies in Reventlow's frustrated personality. ("I wanted to prove that I could be really good in something--something money alone couldn't buy.")

Born into immense wealth (he is said to be worth upwards of $25,000,000), Lance had idled from one school to another through his youth, "aiming at nothing in particular." Prior to entering his first road race in 1955 Reventlow had engaged in several sports: he was an excellent horseman, enjoyed skindiving, skiing and polo--and had learned to fly his own plane. (An asthmatic condition kept him away from the more physically violent pursuits.)

Then, at Santa Barbara, California, late in 1955, Lance finished a distant fifteenth in his new 300 SL Mercedes, but the fever of motorized competition was upon him. ("I pretended that it was all a joke in the (concluded on page 46)Scarab Formula One(continued from page 35) beginning because I didn't want to look foolish. But it was no joke; it was the thing I'd been looking for all my life."

Lance bought a racing Cooper, frequently winning his class over the following months with the small, agile British machine. Trophies began to collect in his $400,000 house above Beverly Hills.

"But nothing came easy for me in driving," says Reventlow. "I had to think out every move and instinct almost never came to the rescue. I'd find myself spinning out on a certain corner and not know why. It was all very hard work."

An overseas trip to England's famed Snetterton circuit taught Lance that motor racing can also be very dangerous. He sideswiped another car "at something over a hundred" and his sports Maserati shot off the road, rolled end for end and landed directly on top of its stunned driver. ("I heard the fuel pump ticking away like mad above me and I thought, 'Oh, oh, this baby is going to blow and send me about forty feet into the ground like a pile driver!' but some track officials got me out OK."

By the time he'd returned to the States Lance had made an important decision: he would build his own cars, capable not only of competing with Europe's best, but of beating them. In carefully observing the European factory teams he had become convinced that it required "no special magic" to win a Grand Prix event. Talent, money and dedicated work would effect the miracle--and he was fully prepared to invest all three. His inspiration was Britain's Tony Vander-vell, who had won the Manufacturer's Prize in 1958 with his green Vanwalls, bringing international honor and prestige to England. Lance set out in a calm, utterly businesslike fashion to earn the same honors for his own country.

With sports car expert Warren Olson, he formed Reventlow Automobiles, Inc. Wisely declining to place the cart before the horse, he determined to produce a winning sports car before tackling the more involved problem of a Formula One machine. Rounding up three of the nation's finest automotive talents (driver-mechanic Chuck Daigh, designers Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes), he launched Project Scarab. A student of Egyptology, Lance named his creation after the sacred beetle of resurrection and immortality.

Six months later the prototype sports machine--housing a much-modified Corvette engine under the bonnet--was ready for its maiden run at Palm Springs. With Reventlow aboard, the metallic blue and white speedster sizzled to a second overall, just behind SCCA National Champion Carroll Shelby. A new legend was born.

Lance soon added two more Scarabs to his stable and began a campaign of victories across the U.S. climaxed by a decisive sweep at Nassau in 1958.

"Then we knew it was time to move ahead," says Lance. "It was time to take the giant step."

Reventlow sold two of the Scarabs (one is currently being raced by Milwaukee's Jim Jeffords, the other by the young brewery heir, Augie Pabst). He converted the third into a de-tuned personal car for rapid highway motoring and immediately began work on the new Formula One machine. (The sports cars had cost an estimated $70,000 each; the GP cars would run much higher.)

Lance insisted that the car be made up entirely of U.S. components. These included a special four-cylinder Scarab engine, displacing two and a half liters with a projected rev limit of 10,000 rpm, which would power the new car over the road at a top speed approaching 200 miles per hour. The lightweight tube chassis (influenced by the Mercedes Grand Prix car of 1955) must be supple, yet strong enough to absorb the punishment of the rougher European circuits such as Monza and the Nürburgring. Indeed, this was a giant step in the sport of motor racing.

"All I want," Lance told his staff (which now included designer Marshall Whitfield), "is the best racing car in the world."

Seven months later, in mid-July of 1959, the GP Scarab Mk 1 - the prototype--was completed and taken to the fast Riverside road circuit for test runs. Piloted by Chuck Daigh, it lapped in 2:07 -- or less than three seconds over the absolute course record. Since the special Formula One engine was not yet installed (a three-liter Meyer-Drake powerplant had been adapted), Reventlow was well pleased, and Chuck Daigh found the handling qualities of the Scarab "particularly satisfying."

Reventlow explains how it feels to handle a Formula One GP machine. "It's like driving a normal sports car full speed on ice," he says. "Throttle response is instantaneous in all gears. If you floor it on the straight you'll spin off as easily as most cars will in a tight corner. This kind of power can be frightening."

Actress Jill St. John, Reventlow's extremely attractive wife-to-be (they plan a marriage in the spring), refuses to think about the dangers connected with Grand Prix competition. ("If Lance wants to race, he'll race. I'm not out to change him.")

Careful design is evident in the new Scarab. Technically, the car is unusual in many respects: a four-speed Corvette gearbox -- set on its side to obtain shift control at the top -- is wedded to a Hali-brand quick-change center section; both rear wheels are controlled by a single water-cooled disc brake; the lightweight multitube frame has double tubing for extra strength around the cockpit, literally forming a cage around the driver; the entire driveline is offset to the left to effect a lower seating position; fuel and oil lines -- all aircraft type -- run along the upper frame for protection and repair accessibility. (The cockpit seat is an example of the care and thought inherent in the Scarab; it was designed by a physiologist to fit Reventlow's exact contours.) The now-completed overhead-cam desmodromic valve Scarab engine is also unique. It incorporates five main bearing caps secured at the bottom and sides to distribute the crankshaft strain more evenly to the crankcase.

Covering this mechanical maze is a sleekly handsome aluminum body shell, the work of Emil Diedt, painted in traditional blue and white U.S. racing colors and bearing the crest of the sacred beetle.

A team of two of these Scarabs had been expected at Florida's Sebring Grand Prix last December, but they did not appear. One reason for their absence (and many insiders believe it to be the reason) concerns the inadequate starting money. Starting money is the sum paid to factories for the guaranteed appearance of their cars. By the loose rules of the system, the fastest and most popular marques get the most money. Reventlow, who wishes to be thought of as a driver and constructor, not as a young millionaire, felt that the publicity value of the Scarabs would be sufficiently powerful to draw large crowds; hence he is reported to have asked top dollar.

It is still too early to predict what the future holds for the Reventlow Formula One Scarabs. Based on the performance of their sports model predecessors, the new Scarabs should do quite well. Even if they simply finish the grueling GP events, this in itself will constitute a solid achievement -- in view of the fact that most of the European teams have some three decades of experience behind them. Whatever the outcome, a new era of motorized competition has begun for America. The gauntlet is down; the challenge has been met -- and Lance Reventlow's dream of today ("to drive my own car against the finest in the world and win over them all") might indeed become tomorrow's reality when the low, compact, lion-hearted Scarab roars into the arena of champions.