Lance and His Scarabs

I don’t remember when I first met Lance Reventlow, but it must have been through my buddy, Bruce Kessler, who was Lance’s best friend. Lance became a significant figure in fifties-era racing because of his creation of  the Scarabs. I knew him, but not well, so recently I talked with some mutual friends to get a perspective for this remembrance.

Through his relationship with Bruce, Lance became involved in Southern California sports car racing in 1955 when he raced his 300SL and then a Cooper Bobtail. Bruce was working at Warren Olson’s repair shop in Los Angeles and Lance started to hang around there. One thing led to another and Lance decided he wanted to have his own all-American sports car.