Excellent Googling, sir! I hope the readers are beginning to realize that the tidbits I place in these posts, including pictures of Mouseketteers, are often clues, and not just flights of my sweet insanity.
The car pictured is what is commonly referred to as a Scarab Mk IV, the last of the Scarab line. In this iteration, it had been converted for street use, and some talk of offering them for sale was bandied about, before the project went bust, with the helping hand of the IRS.
Lance Reventlow, disappointed with his complete lack of European Grand Prix success (Reventlow Automobiles Incorporated - RAI- built and raced Formula cars to little effect) began to lose interest in racing as a “hobby” by 1962. His mother, Barbara Hutton, was tired of the continuing expense and the Internal Revenue Service served notice that RAI had to make a profit in 1963 or else, much as it had with Briggs Cunningham's operations. Reventlow began closing down the RAI works in 1962, but decided to take one last shot at racing.
RAI had built a mid-engined car designed to Formula Intercontinental specifications. It had a 3-litre Offenhauser engine to meet the rules and was raced several times in England during 1961 with a total lack of success - nobody ever built a good sports car around the Offy engine. RAI still had the car, though, and was able to convert it to an SCCA-legal sports car by widening the chassis to make room for two seats and a mildly hopped-up version of the new Buick aluminium-block V-8 engine. Repco would make a World Championship engine out of the Buick in just a few years, but in 1962 it only had potential.
Lance managed a second place in a less-than-stellar SCCA Regional field at Santa Barbara on Labor Day of 1962, and then showed up at another SCCA Regional in Reno with the Oldsmobile version of the aluminium-block V-8 in the engine bay three weeks later. The Olds may have been stouter; the Colotti gearbox failed in practice.
Reventlow took the mid-engine Scarab to the Nassau Speed Weeks at the end of the year. It was another disaster. Lance ran in 6th place until it started to rain whereupon he dropped back through the field before stopping in the pits to recruit Augie Pabst, who was quite fast in between stops to dry out wet electrics. Lance took the last Scarab home and never drove it again.
When the IRS forced Reventlow to sell what was left of RAI, Texas oilman John Mecom bought the remnants, including the mid-engined Scarab. He put another Texan, A.J. Foyt, in the cockpit. After running behind the King Cobras at the 1963 Riverside and Laguna Seca races, Foyt convinced Mecom to replace the Olds with a Chevy engine. Everything - chassis, driver, and engine - was now in place and the mid-engined Scarab’s true potential was exhibited when Foyt beat the Cobra team at Nassau and then beat everyone in the 1964 Daytona Continental.
The last Scarab didn’t fare well after February of 1964; at least not until Walt Hansgen was put into its cockpit at Bridgehampton, where he was virtually unbeatable in any kind of car. Hansgen built up a lap lead on Pedro Rodriguez’ NART Ferrari 275P, but a 4-minute pit stop put Hansgen almost a minute behind. Within 10 laps the Scarab, now designated the Zerex Special, caught and passed the Ferrari to give the mid-engined Scarab its last major win.
Mecom finally sold the Scarab to Augie Pabst, but the 1962-vintage car was no match for the Lola T70s and Chaparral 2s it faced in 1965. Augie brought the Scarab home in 5th place in the season-ending Stardust Grand Prix Can-Am race and then both he and the last Scarab retired from professional racing.
Note: I originally posted this response as a modification of Rich's last post, after hitting the wrong button, hence the 'Edit by: KarnUtz' at the end of his post. Mea Culpa
