Description
The Scarab was unlike most cars of the era. Virtually all production cars at the time used a separate chassis and body, with a long compartment in the front, housing the engine, longitudinally placed behind the front axle, and a rearward passenger compartment. The front-mounted engine would typically drive the rear axle through a connecting drive shaft running underneath the floor of the vehicle. This layout worked very well, but had severe limitations where space utilization was concerned.
Instead, the Scarab did away with the chassis and drive-shaft, to create a low, flat floor for the interior, by using a unitized body structure, and by placing the Ford-built V8 engine in the rear of the vehicle. The car’s creator, motorcar and aviation engineer and journalist William B. Stout, envisioned his traveling machine to be an office on wheels. To that end, the Scarab's body, styled by John Tjaarda, a well known Dutch automobile engineer, closely followed the construction of an aluminium aircraft fuselage.
Featuring a very short, streamlined nose and tapering upper body at the rear, it foreshadowed the contemporary monospace (or one-box) MPV or Minivan design — featuring a removable table and second row seats that turn 180 degrees to face the rear — a feature that Chrysler currently markets as Swivel ’n Go.
Although reminiscent of the Chrysler Airflow streamliner, and aerodynamically efficient, it was generally considered ugly at the time. Today its futuristic design and curvaceous, finely detailed nose earn it respect as an Art Deco icon.
Read more about this topic: Stout Scarab
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