Old guys still have the best stuff! Even if we only read about it in a book, at least we were getting our info in semi-real time. When I was in high school, I checked magazine racks daily for the latest Road & Track, Sports Cars Illustrated and Sports Car Graphic. Thats where kids in the Midwest first learned that the fastest, open-rollerball sports car in the world lived in California. Forget Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin and Jaguar -- Lance Reventlows Scarab was where it was at in 1958! A 21-year-old product from one of poor-little-rich-girl Barbara Huttons many failed marriages, Reventlow used a chunk of Mumseys dime-store millions to commission hybrid smokestack lightning from hot rodders Dick Troutman & Tom Barnes. Dick & Tom mixed Indy know-how, aviation industry professionalism and good ol SoCal hot rodding panache with the best of European bloodlines, crammed a full-race small-block Chevy 283 under a gorgeous skin styled by 18-year-old design genius Chuck Pelly and started winning everything in the Golden State that wasnt nailed down tight. By my senior year, Reventlow and his wife -- future Bond girl Jill St. John -- had moved on, first to Europe with a new open wheeler for an ill-advised shot at Formula 1 and later to divorce court. In the meantime, the three original Scarab sports racers moved on to Augie Pabsts sensational Team Meister Brauser where they would eventually pass into history along with the birdcage Maserati and another Troutman & Barnes design, the original Chapparal. Historys last thundering, fire-belching, tire-shredding open-class front-engined sports cars So it sat for over 50 years, until a few lunatic old dudes decided the Reventlow Scarab chassis numbers didnt have to stop at #8! Make your engine and brake selections now and just stand back because this is not some stupid kit car but a true continuation of the original Scarab line -- all you need to bring is the nerve and the money, honey. As my old motorcycle partner liked saying: How fast you go, little boy, depends upon how much money you got! Rock on, old guys!! https://youtube/watch?v=r0An9nt58W8&feature=youtu.be
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 03:23:48 +0000
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