1. Lance Reventlow's stepfathers included actor Cary Grant and Prince Igor Troubetzkoy.
24 Facts About Lance Reventlow
2.
Lance Reventlow was born at Winfield House in London, restored by his mother and named for her grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth.
3.
Lance Reventlow's birth was difficult and his mother almost died during his delivery.
4.
In 1944, Lance Reventlow's father was awarded custody until he reached school age, after which his mother would gain custody.
5.
Lance Reventlow was largely estranged from his father until the Count's death in 1969.
6.
In 1948, at age 12, Lance Reventlow was introduced to the world of Grand Prix motor racing when his mother married Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, who won the Targa Florio that year.
7.
In Hollywood, Lance Reventlow became friends with fellow auto enthusiast James Dean and competed in club events around California.
8.
Lance Reventlow said he had coffee with Dean at a restaurant approximately thirty minutes before Dean was killed in an automobile accident near Cholame, California, while driving his Porsche 550 Spyder.
9.
Lance Reventlow began his racing career in America in the mid-1950s, initially with a Mercedes before moving to an 1100cc Cooper in 1956.
10.
Lance Reventlow briefly drove a Cooper Formula 2 car, before returning to the United States.
11.
Lance Reventlow then set up his own company in Venice, California, to construct Chevrolet-powered race cars he named Scarab with Phil Remington as chief engineer.
12.
Lance Reventlow had looked at buying a Lister Jaguar, but thought that he could build a better car.
13.
Lance Reventlow's racing team was much talked about for having built the first Formula One race car in America.
14.
Lance Reventlow went back to the drawing board and built a competitive prototype Scarab rear-engined car, but had become less interested in racing before its testing was complete.
15.
Lance Reventlow's organization constructed a total of eight Scarabs during its existence.
16.
Two of the front-engined formula cars were powered by Lance Reventlow-commissioned engines drawn up by American racing engine designer Leo Goossen to Lance Reventlow's specifications, while the third car was powered by a Goossen-designed and engineered Offenhauser engine.
17.
At the age of 21, Lance Reventlow was given the choice between becoming an American, Danish or British citizen.
18.
On March 24,1960, Lance Reventlow married actress Jill St John at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.
19.
St John filed for divorce on October 2,1963, citing extreme cruelty; she stated that Lance Reventlow called her "stupid and incompetent" in front of others and bullied her into taking part in dangerous sports.
20.
On November 6,1964, Lance Reventlow married ex-Mouseketeer Cheryl Holdridge in a lavish ceremony in Hollywood before 600 guests.
21.
In 1972, Lance Reventlow was seeking real-estate developers as partners to build a ski resort in Aspen, Colorado, where he had a home.
22.
Lance Reventlow was an experienced pilot, with thousands of hours, rated fully for IFR on multi-engine planes, but on July 24,1972, Reventlow was a passenger, scouting locations for real estate in a hired single-engine Cessna 206.
23.
Lance Reventlow was initially buried, but his remains were later exhumed and cremated.
24.
Lance Reventlow's ashes are interred in the Woolworth mausoleum at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.