"I think that the shot of the Scarab is mis-labeled as to its driver...  Looks like Brooooose (Kessler) to me."

(7-21-09)   From historian Ron Cummings:

"I pulled my race program for the Santa Barbara Cal Club Aug. 30-31, 1958  weekend.   The Scarab is listed as:    #3 Scarab III  Meyer-Drake  Blue  Lance Reventlow, Bruce Kessler  2990 cc.   Dm   Beverly Hills.

Lance was back east racing the Mk I and Kessler drove this car. 

Two Ferrari 250 Testa Rossas and a couple of old Ferrari Monzas were faster than the Offenhauser powered Scarab. This discouraged the Reventlow group and the car was re-engined with a Reventlow-Chevrolet. The team stopped calling the car Mk. III and referred to it as the second Mk. II after the Chevrolet motor was installed."

(7-21-09)   From Bill Kreuger:

"Chuck Daigh (who was back East with Lance hunting for the Cunning- hams at the time that Bruce drove #3 at Santa Barbara)  told me that reducing the displacement and running the Offy on gasoline just wasn't a good combination for the other engine design parameters and that it never breathed correctly.  They tried that Offy in the F1 car and I think that Orosco has it in his F1 car. 

Chuck was at Goodwood with Ali Lugo and his F1 car several years ago (the car that Barnaby now owns and did not sell at the recent Houston auction at 450k) and poor Ali was already suffering from the illness that finally got him and could not leave his hotel room. Chuck drove the car and had a drag race with Orosco down the straightaway and said that the Desmo engined car stayed right with Orosco and the Offy that was put back to original size and was therefore not legal. 

Chuck said that Moss commented that the car would have been competitive back in the day if it ran like it did at Goodwood after Chuck's engine rebuild (he found that Travers and Coon were not following Leo Goosen's prints and always set the valve lash so that the valves never fully closed -- perhaps as a result of pulling the heads off of the valves on the first go around). Chuck said that the proper (Goosen) valve lash (that he performed on Ali's and the Collier engines) produced approx. 40 more HP. 

I was given the Goosen print of the valve gear on a back board that Chuck had on the wall in his shop all the time that I knew him.  He had sent to the Goosen Archives in the Midwest to get all the prints before starting the 
rebuild. 

Of course all of this is myth & mystery."