Tuesday 7 October 2014

I Had Heard Of A Car Named Scarab Before,

it was made in 1958,


it has a interesting history, in the second half of the 1950s, the V8 engined 'backyard specials' were quickly replaced by purpose built sports cars, which were predominantly sourced from Europe, the 1958 season was expected to be particularly competitive as revised regulations left all big-engined racing cars obsolete for major international races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, many of these cars were not ready for retirement and found their way into the hands of American racing drivers, enter the young Lance Reventlow, who surprisingly decided to build his own car instead, his history is a story in itself, at just 22 years old his father was a European count, whose mother was heiress to the Woolworth fortune, and whose wife at the time was actress Jill St. John, Lance built eight cars - four were astounding successes and four were spectacular failures, during the production of the Scarab Sports Roadster, as European sports car rules were changed to permit only engines up to 183 cubic inches, this made the Scarab's small block Chevy 283 cubic-inch V8 obsolete,


but I have to say obsolete or not I thought it was a nice car both at the time and now, 

but then along comes this Scarab I had not heard of before, the 1936 Stout Scarab, beating the Reventlow number of 8 cars built, the Stout Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, between 1935 and 1949 built 9 cars, the car that William Bushnell Stout built (who many call The Father of Aviation), was way ahead of it's time, not only did it have a unit construction body made out of light aluminum, it featured the famous Ford flathead V8 engine placed at the rear driving the rear wheels via a Stout-built three-speed manual transaxle, it had a 135-inch wheelbase, 4-wheel independent coil spring suspension, and the most spacious cabin of any American car as the result of no running boards and no drive shaft tube, this $5,000 aerodynamically vehicle was well ahead of its time, by the way going back to the Scarab that Lance built I had heard that there is a company remanufacturing kits of them, but I know nothing of the company other than their web page, would I like one? you bet!


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