Lance Reventlow is a name that will be immediately familiar to many of you, especially if you’re a fan of mid-20th Century racing. In short, Reventlow was the heir to the Woolworth fortune, as well as an entrepreneur, and an accomplished racing driver.
He is probably most famous as the owner of Scarab, a company that produced all-American open-wheel racing cars in the late ’50s and early ’60s. The cars were designed and built by Tom Barnes and Dick Troutman, they won numerous races even besting Ferrari at one point – there was also a short-lived foray into Formula 1 with Reventlow and his chief mechanic Chuck Daigh driving for the team.
Carroll Shelby drove for the team in the late ’50s and won for them at the Continental Divide Raceway in Castle Rock Colorado, setting a new record in the process. Shelby and Reventlow remained friends for years afterwards, and many think this is why Reventlow ordered one of the early Shelby Cobras with an almost obscene list of optional extras – extras that significantly increased the price and would have been hugely helpful to Shelby with his fledgling new business.
It was one of the first 73 cars built, and originally had the 260 cubic inch engine, although this was later swapped for a higher-performance 289 cubic inch HiPo unit. It still sports its original chassis and aluminium body, a chrome roll bar and side pipes, aluminum rocker covers and intake manifold, a racing oil pan, sway bars, a competition ignition system, and tach drive.
This was almost certainly one of the fastest of the early road-going Cobras, and its extraordinary history has lead to it being one of the best-known of the early models. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid on it you can click here to visit Mecum.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The Toyota 2000GT The Toyota 2000GT was actually built by Yamaha, and it was originally intended to have Nissan badges. It’s a Japanese sports car not widely known outside the classic car world, but its fame has been increasing in recent years in lock-step with its value, now making the Toyota 2000GT the most expensive…
This is the Lillevilla Allwood Cabin Kit for the Getaway, a kit-built cabin with a cost of $18,800 USD and an estimated assembly time of 6 hours for two people with basic tools. The cabin is designed to be as versatile as possible, it has a wide upstairs a loft for sleeping with a window…
The Kellison J-4R was the brainchild of USAF pilot James Kellison, a man known for his exceptional intelligence, his deep love for cars, and his fascination with lightweight composites. In the 1950s the latest and greatest composite was fiberglass, a material that was a precursor to modern composites like carbon fiber, and that offered excellent…
*Editor’s Note: The authenticity of this car has been challenged since this article was published, any prospective buyers need to do comprehensive due diligence before bidding. We recommend contacting Alan Mann Racing as a starting point, it appears that some of the body panels and possibly the whole shell has been replaced. Introduction Let’s imagine that the year is…
This 1964 Porsche 356 Outlaw has suspension and a tubular steel chassis developed and built by Porsche racing legend and former Brumos Racing Crew Chief Mike Colucci. This fact alone would make it a highly desirable car to any well-read member of the Porsche cognoscenti, but it also has a 1975 911 engine hand-built by noted Porsche engine…
The Tojeiro-Butterworth AJB is a bit of a historical anomaly, it’s the only one that was ever built, and it’s fitted with the unusual air-cooled, flat-four AJB engine. The intials AJB belong to Archibald James Butterworth, a visionary engineer, inventor, and designer, who was a successful and active racer in England until he suffered a…
