Fiberglass Sports Cars
The Forgotten Era, 1950 - 1965

Stout

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WILLIAM BUSHNELL STOUT
1880-1956

 Born in 1880 in Quincy, Illinois, Stout was very interested in gadgets and making things at an early age. A magazine paid him twelve dollars for an article on mechanical toys he had made himself. He continued to write articles to put himself through the University of Minnesota.

In 1914 Stout created a cycle-car powered by a V-2 motorcycle engine with friction drive and four-speed automatic transmission. In 1919 at his Stout Engineering Labs in Dearborn, Michigan, he built the first American commercial monoplane. Henry Ford bought the Stout Metal Airplane Company in 1925 and Stout produced the Ford Tri-motor.

Stout designed many other advanced vehicles like his Scarab car, a people- moving forerunner to the minivan in 1936. It had a rear-mounted Ford V8 engine, flexible seating, thermostatically-controlled heat, electric door locks and a unit body. At the time of his death in 1956, Stout was studying the flight of insects and adapting their wing structure to airplane design.

 
William B. Stout's use of fiberglass for auto bodies pre-dates Bill Tritt by about 5 years. Stout only did one prototype so has no claim to having the first production fiberglass car in the US. Henry Ford was playing with a type of plastic for auto bodies made from soybeans in 1941 or 42. Bill designed and built the plane that became the Ford Tri-motor. He sold it to Henry and Edsel Ford. In 1935 and 1936 he build nine Scarabs like this one. They were a forerunner of the 'mini' van. The Stout Scarabs are of a rear engine design with a Ford 85hp flathead and had aluminum bodies. To help finance this car company Bill had two silent partners. Phil Wrigley (the chewing gum guy and close friend of E.L. Cord) and Willard Dow (son of the founder of Dow Chemical Co) Willard was President of Dow when these Scarabs were built. He had one of the nine cars and was my dad's boss and friend. It was driven to Detroit to SAE Meetings and Dow was mobbed by the press so finally sold it to keep them off his back. One Scarab was on display at the Detroit Historical Museum when I was a kid. Dad told me some of the Dow part of the Scarab story when we saw the 1946 model in about 1952 or 1953. In 1945 Bill Stout built this 10th Scarab which he kept until 1951. It was shown to the public in 1946 and had a fiberglass body. It does not have the Buck Rodger's / Chrysler Airflow look like the 1935/36 Scarabs (a much smoother shape with round sealed beam headlights). It has the same general 'mini' van layout. One of the first Special Interest Auto magazines has the Stout Scarab as a feature car, too. -- Hugh --