The Stout Scarab didn’t just anticipate the modern minivan

(EXPANDED FROM JUNE 2, 2023)

Histories about the Stout Scarab tend to emphasize that it was the first production minivan (Peek, 2021; Wikipedia, 2023). However, this innovative 1930s car strikes me as also being the granddaddy of the 1960s camper van because of the versatility of its interior configurations, which include a folding table and movable seats (Patton, 2008).

Even that comparison isn’t quite right because the Scarab was a testbed for advanced engineering ideas more in line with modern sports cars than vans, which have largely been treated as utilitarian products by major automakers.

For example, the Scarab displayed an exceptional amount of attention to aerodynamics even by today’s standards. In addition, the car had four-wheel independent suspension and a unit-body space frame that was initially made out of aluminum. That resulted in the Scarab weighing under 3,000 pounds even though it had a rather long, 135-inch wheelbase (Peek, 2021; Wikipedia, 2023).

Imagine, if you will, how Chrysler’s first minivan might have looked if its designers had paid a similar level of attention to aerodynamics, such as through a more teardrop-shaped rear end.

Was Walker’s car of the future informed by the Scarab?

In the comment thread of our story about George Walker’s envisioned car of the future, Chicago Frank suggested that it was a lot like a Scarab (go here).

Whether consciously or not, Walker took most of the Scarab’s features and added some new ones such as a plastic body and bubble-like windows.

The main way that Walker “mainstreamed” the Scarab’s design was to give it a more traditional front end. He argued that a rear-engined car needed to have “some semblance of a hood” or the driver “would feel as though he were exposed to all sorts of dangers” (1940, p. 120A).

A postwar version of the Scarab essentially followed Walker’s advice. A prototype dubbed the Project Y included more traditional two-box styling with the passenger compartment moved farther behind the front wheels. This car, which was never produced, also sported a fiberglass body, a radically rounded windshield, enclosed wheels and an air suspension.

Walker had argued that his envisioned car of the future could have been built in 1941 (1940, p. 120A). However, Stout’s experience with the Scarab suggested otherwise. Only nine cars were reportedly produced between 1934-39.

One barrier to better sales was the car’s high price. Even after the aluminum body was switched to steel, prices started at $5,000 (Peek, 2021). That put the Scarab well into the luxury-car class during a time period when sales were weak at that price point.

It also didn’t help that initial Scarab sales were by invitation only and the production target was 100 cars per year (Ernst, 2013). Indeed, an early ad emphasized that the car offered “individuality” over “standardization” and “fine craftsmanship” over “mass production” (Peek, 2021). These were basically hand-built cars.

Stout designs a more sophisticated car after WWII

After World War II, Joe Frazer, who then headed Graham-Paige Motors Corporation, contracted with Stout to develop the Project Y car, which was intended to be a successor to the Scarab.

Richard Langworth (1975) reported that Stout’s design was not chosen for production by Graham because it was judged too far ahead of its time. It didn’t help that the car was projected to have cost a whopping $10,000.

Langworth quoted Graham executive Hickman Price as saying that, in retrospect, he was “sort of intrigued with what it might have meant to the industry at that time” if the car had been built (1975, p. 18).

The Project Y car’s most advanced features may have uncut its viability, such as a laminated fiberglass body developed with Owen-Corning (Hacker, 2011). The body was reportedly so strong that it didn’t need a frame — and you could “smash the rear deck with a sledge and not make a dent” (Popular Science, 1946).

Also see ‘The 1949 Kaiser-Frazer’s new body styles showed the limits to innovation’

If Stout’s prototype had been decontented enough to make it affordable, could this pioneering vehicle have developed at least a modest market akin to the postwar Jeep? Or was a variation on a minivan too far ahead of its time — at least with a rear engine?

NOTES:

This story was originally posted on June 2, 2023 and expanded on Dec. 23, 2024.

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RE:SOURCES

• Ernst, Kurt; 2013. “Cars of Futures Past – Stout Scarab.” Hemmings. Posted July 11.
• Hacker, Geoff; 2011. “The 1946 Project Y ‘Forty Six’ Stout – Oldest Known Surviving Fiberglass Car.” Undiscovered Classics. Posted May 15.
• Langworth, Richard M.; 1975. Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit. Princeton Publishing, Princeton, NJ.
• Patton, Phil; 2008. “A Visionary’s Minivan Arrived Decades Too Soon.” The New York Times (subscription required). Posted Jan. 6.
• Peek, Jeff; 2021. “The groundbreaking 1930s Stout Scarab was the first—and coolest—minivan.” Hagerty. Posted Sept. 22.
• Popular Science; 1946. “GLASS CAR Needs No Frame.” July issue: pp. 84-85.
• Wikipedia, 2023. “Stout Scarab.” Page last modified May 13.

ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:

• oldcarbrochures.org: Dodge Caravan (1984)

PHOTOGRAPHY:

• Banner photograph a circa 1936 Stout Scarab taken by Jim Evans.
• 1936 Stout Scarab photographed by Michael Barera at the Stahls Automotive Collection.
• 1946 Stout Scarab photographed by Joanna Poe at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners.
• All of the listed photos are from Wikipedia and reproduced through the Creative Commons. They have been lightly edited to reduce background shadows.