Ultimatecarpage.com update (07-13-08)

[Wouter Melissen]

Dear Ultimatecarpage.com visitor,

It might come as a surprise to some of you that the first proper sports car was not built in Stuttgart, Coventry or Modena, but in Trenton, New Jersey. Named after a local county, the Mercer Type 35J Raceabout was the first machine to combine a relatively powerful engine with a drivable chassis. Even by today's standards the Mercer is still a fine handling machine, which can not be said for most high performance cars built in that era. Although it was intended as a road car, Raceabouts scored hundreds of victory across the United States. A factory entered example came very close to winning the Indy 500 against much more powerful, purpose built racing cars. Eventually it came second to a 4-valve per cylinder Peugeot Grand Prix car. Today only seventeen examples are known to exist, which in combination with its fine handling and racing record makes the Type 35J one of the most desirable brass-era cars.
Nearly fifty years later there was little that reminded of America's pioneering role. Road racing was dominated by European sourced racing cars, which had completely taken over from the backyard specials. In 1958 a very young and wealthy American by the name of Lance Reventlow decided it was time to take on the European invasion with an all-American racing car. Built by a dream-team of designers and fabricators, his Scarabs quickly grew out to be the cars to beat in the SCCA sanctioned events. In the hands of the likes of Reventlow himself, Chuck Daigh, Carroll Shelby and Augie Pabst these beautiful V8-engined machines remained competitive for many seasons. Generally considered as the finest front-engined racing cars, the Scarabs not only beat the best front-engined European cars, but were also able to fight off the 'superior' mid-engined machines. The featured example is the prototype, which was used by Reventlow and later converted into a road car.

Enjoy the links:

1911 - 1914 Mercer Type 35J Raceabout - Images, Specifications and Information

1958 Scarab Mk I Chevrolet - Images, Specifications and Information

Regards,
Wouter Melissen