Lance Reventlow dies

Lance Reventlow died on 24 July 1972 with a Formula 1 record of one start and a much larger place in American constructor history. Scarab, the team he created with family money and genuine technical ambition, reached Grand Prix racing just as its front-engined design became obsolete.

Reventlow was born into immense wealth as the son of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, but his racing operation was not simply a socialite’s diversion. Based in California and built around engineers including Phil Remington, Scarab produced competitive sports cars in the late 1950s. The blue and white machines beat established European opposition and encouraged Reventlow to attempt something far more difficult.

An American car arrives one revolution late

The Formula 1 Scarab was designed and built in the United States, an important distinction at a time when the world championship remained overwhelmingly European. Its engineering was serious, but its timing was ruinous. By 1960, Cooper had demonstrated that the future belonged to compact rear-engined cars. Scarab arrived with the engine in front of the driver and the proportions of an era that had just ended.

Reventlow and Chuck Daigh failed to qualify at Monaco. Reventlow made his only championship start at the Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying the Scarab 15th before retiring on the opening lap with engine trouble. Further entries brought no recovery, although Daigh later finished tenth at the United States Grand Prix at Riverside.

The programme was closed after a brief attempt to develop a rear-engined successor. Reventlow stepped away from racing, while the Scarab workshop and some of its people fed into the next phase of American performance engineering.

A short life beyond the paddock

Reventlow was 36 when he was killed in a light-aircraft crash near Aspen, Colorado. Three other people also died. The circumstances ended a life that had already moved away from Formula 1, but the date fixed Scarab’s story more firmly around its founder.

The team’s world championship results were poor and the front-engined car was late. Neither fact removes the scale of the attempt. Reventlow tried to create an American Formula 1 constructor with its own chassis and engine at a time when the practical distance between California and the European championship was measured in far more than miles.