A12| Wednesday, October 2, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**
Joe Morrey, 67, an attorney from St. Jo-
seph, Mo., on his 1972 Datsun 240Z Scarab,
as told to A.J. Baime.
As a law student in the 1970s, I used to
read car magazines to take breaks from
studying. One day I saw an article about a
car called Scarab. An entrepreneur named
Brian Morrow was taking Datsun 240Zs
(built in Japan) and upgrading them for
higher-performance, with Corvette engines.
The idea intrigued me. In the 1960s, the
Shelby Cobra became an icon—a foreign
body mated to a powerful American en-
gine—and the Scarab struck me as a Cobra
for the 1970s.
In 1984, I was looking at used cars in
Hemmings magazine when I saw a Scarab. I
thought, that’s interesting. Then I saw that
it was serial number 1. I thought, that’s
even more interesting. It was expensive and
I had to take out a loan to buy it. It blew
me away the day I got in it.
Over the years I have owned many cars—
Porsches, Jaguars, Mustangs. I keep looking
for a car that excites me more than the
Scarab, and I have never found one. The
power-to-weight ratio is off the charts, and
the engine shakes the ground. When I did
some research, I learned that my car was
the original Scarab prototype, the car that
appeared on the company’s brochure, and
it originally belonged to the company’s
owner, who had nicknamed the prototype
Sliver.
In recent years, some Datsun fans got cu-
rious about Scarabs. How many were built?
Did they still exist? Last year I was con-
tacted to bring my car to the annual
“ZCon” car show, in Branson, Mo., in July.
Other Scarab owners were bringing their
cars, and the founder, Brian Morrow, was
going to be there.
We arranged to make my car a featured
vehicle at the convention banquet. But we
kept it a secret from Mr. Morrow. When I
met him, he kept saying how much he
wished he could see his original Scarab
again. Eventually, we ended up in front ofmy car, which was under a cover. We pulled
the cover off and he said, “It’s Sliver!”
(Says Mr. Morrow: “I can still remember
building that car in my garage. It was re-
ally emotional seeing the car again.”)
Later we went for a drive, 12 Scarabs
through the Ozarks, and Mr. Morrow got to
drive the car he had built decades earlier.
It was a day neither of us will ever forget.BARRETT EMKE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (4)
The Datsun 240Z is a cult favorite of car fans, and this Scarab version has numerous high-
performance upgrades. This vehicle was the company’s original prototype.Above, Mr. Morrey at the wheel. Part of the allure of this car, he says, is the sound of the engine
‘It shakes the ground.’ The car has a 327-cubic inch V-8 engine (detail pictured at right).
‘I keep looking for a car that
excites me more than the
Scarab, and I have never found
one,’ says owner Joe Morrey.MY RIDE| A.J. BAIME
When Datsun
Met Corvette
An amped up Datsun Scarab flies
The 1972 Datsun 240Z Scarab that attorney Joe Morrey has owned
since 1984 packs a powerful Corvette engine. The high-performance
Scarab brand was created by an entrepreneur named Brian Morrow for
a short time decades ago, and surviving examples are rare today.BMWPORSCHE
!
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