1959 Scarab F1

I took this photograph at Luffield corner during the HGPCA Pre '60 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

It's Donald Orosco in his 1951 Scarab F1 which was built by American Lance Reventlow's Reventlow Automobiles Inc to contest the 1960 Formula 1 racing season. Like the Aston Martin DBR4 it was virtually obsolete before it turned a wheel in anger - in the 1959 season, and again in 1960 the old front-engined cars were dominated by the rear-engined ones, and the old 2½ litre Formula was due to be replaced by a new 1½ litre limit in 1961. The car had a 2,441cc straight-4 engine designed for Scarab by Leo Goossen, formerly of Offenhauser, and only started in two races in 1960, both Lance Reventlow and Chuck Daigh retiring from the French Grand Prix, and the single entry in the USA Grand Prix finished in 10th place driven by Chuck Daigh. The programme of the event says this about the car:

 

'Mention should also be made of the F1 Scarab, appearing at the Festival for the first time. This was an ambitious project, the brainchild of Woolworth's heir Lance Reventlow in the wake of resounding national success with his Chevy-powered sportscars. The cars were beautifully built, but by the time they arrived in Europe in 1960, the Formula 1 world had changed, and a front-engined design could no longer be expected to compete. The following year one Scarab F1 was fitted with a 3-litre engine for the short-lived Intercontinental Formula, and it is in this form that it appears this weekend, in the hands of owner Don Orosco.'