1960 SCARAB FORMULA 1 CAR

CURRENT OWNER JULIAN BRONSON

The Scarab was the first world championship grand prix car from the US, and was conceived and built by Woolworth heir Lance Reventlow. He had raced in the United States and Europe through the 1950s, then moved his fledging team into international racing.

Built in Venice, California, the frontengined Scarab design made its grand prix debut at Monaco in 1960, but it was too late to the party as Cooper and Lotus had already moved the goalposts by developing rearengined cars. Three front-engined machines were among just eight cars built by

Scarab, the others being four sportscars and one rear-engined single-seater.

Soon after the ill-starred F1 project, Reventlow, who had inherited $25 million on his 21st birthday in 1957, started to lose interest in racing and the team was closed down in ’62.

The front-engined Scarab-offenhauser now owned and raced by historic racing ace Julian Bronson was the team’s spare for the 1960 campaign, and was unraced in period. It was later acquired by Tom Wheatcroft and spent many years as part of the Donington Grand Prix collection until Bronson bought it six years ago.

Since then, despite some engine frustrations in the early stages of the project, Bronson has developed it into one of the fastest front-engined cars still racing. More than 50 years after it went to Monaco – albeit to sit in the garage and not race – Bronson took the car back to the principality to race at a circuit where he always shines.

Bronson and his small team build the engines in their own workshop and reckon they are running 240bhp, compared to a quoted 235bhp in period. But it’s the blend of torque and horsepower that makes the Scarab a front-engined benchmark in HGPCA races.