Lance Reventlow’s Incredible California Hot Rod

Lance Reventlow’s mother was the Woolworth Heiress. As a result, Lance grew up with the financial advantages that most of us can only dream about. At the age of 18, his mother bestowed upon him a huge home in Beverly Hills and more money than any 18 year old could ever spend. He used it with great vigor – throwing lavish parties, dating gorgeous and expensive starlets, and driving the fastest cars.

But Lance wasn’t really a hot rod guy. His time growing up in Europe exposed him to sports cars from an early age and this tainted him a bit. Coopers, Maseratis, Ferraris, and Jags were his style… until a trip to England with his pal, Bruce Kessler, changed everything. They toured the Lister factory and came away thinking they could do better in America.

And once back in the states, they gave it their all using the aid of some of the best names in hot rodding including the legendary Chuck Daigh. By this time Lance was around 21 years old and already had a fortune worth somewhere north of $25 million. That money gave the project some freedom and the end result is one of the sexiest and fastest sports cars from the era. They called it the Scarab.

After months of testing and tinkering, the first Scarab was shown in April of 1958. After that showing, two more cars were built. Of the three, two were right-hand drive while one was left-hand drive. The sports cars were dominating on the street and a blast to drive, but they were too late for Grand Prix Racing – rear-engined cars had taken over by the time the Scarab was ready and the exclusively designed Desmodronic valve motors were unreliable.

I was fortunate enough to purchase the fourth Scarab built by Troutman as the 25th Anniversary Scarab from Count Richard Reventlow (Lance’s 1/2 brother). I also purchased Lance’s archives, trophies, scrap books, blue prints, and two Scarab Desmodronic valve engines. Along with all of this stuff was a stunning illustration by Chuck Pelly of a Desmo engined sports car that was never built.

Enjoy the photos and see you next time!

Ron Kellogg

Editor’s Note: I bet some of you fellas are wondering what a “Desmodronic Engine” is… Put simply, it’s an engine in which the valves are opened and closed by a cam and leverage system rather than a more conventional spring. The idea is that the cam and leverage system is less volatile at high RPM than a long valve stem and spring setup that is prone to “float” and break. It was all about turning high RPM.

In any case, the Desmo motors featured in the Scarab F1 cars were really the car’s achilles heal as the Desmo gear couldn’t cope with the large amount of movement in the engine block and would reliably pull the valves closed too far – resulting in failure.

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