Kurtis

World Championship Grand Prix racing arrived in the USA in 1959, at Sebring, and the winner of that year's Indianapolis 500, Rodger Ward, elected to pits on Offenhauser-engined Kurtis midget against the European cars. It was outclassed. Ward qualified it last, and retired after 22 laps of the 42-lap Grand Prix.

Scarab

Lance Reventlow brought together a group of talented people in his Scarab Formula 1 project.
Warren Olson and Chuck Daigh produced a handful of sports-racing cars that were very successful in US West Coast racing. This sparked Grand Prix ambitions, and rather too slowly for the pace of change in Formula 1 at the time, an original design for their American contender took shape. A front engined car, intended for the 1959 season. It had a space frame, all-independent suspension by wish-bones and coil springs and an original four-cylinder engine with desmodromic valve gear.
Development of this slowed the programme and by the time the handsome cars reached the circuits in 1960 they were obsolete. Reventlow and Daigh failed to qualify for the first two Grands Prix they attempted, Daigh retired from the car's only European Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps and placed tenth in the only other appearance at Watkins Glen.
Lance Reventlow sensibly retired from the Grand Prix scene.

Scirocco

American Hugh Powell backed this team in 1963, and the construction of its pair of simple Formula 1 cars with space frames that had been laid out by Paul Emery, with BRM engines.
The first Grand Prix for Scirocco was the 1963 Belgian race, and in subsequent Grands Prix in Europe two cars were entered, for Tony Settember and Ian Burgess. Settember finished eight at Spa and that was the only classification for the team.
Then at the end of the year Hugh Powell ran out of money packed suitcases and disappeared from the scene. The Burgess's car was sold to Andre Pilette. He fitted it with a Climax engine and entered it under the Equipe Scirocco Belge banner, contesting several races that year after which the cars were not seen again.

Parnelli

Vel Miletich and Indycar driver Rufus Parnelli Jones were successful American partners in racing, and when Jones retired from race driving they obtained Firestone backing for a team enterprise. They constracted a number of Lotus people, including designer Maurice Phillippe, and Mario Andretti. In 1975 a base was set up not far from the Lotus factory in Norfolk.
The first Parnelli Formula 1 car the VPJ4 arrive to make its racing debut in the North American events in 1974. It was a neat car, very much on Lotus 72 lines, and ran through 1975. However, the team principals seemed to have little interest in races outside America, Firestone's withdrawal was a setback, and development work was negligible. Mario Andretti drove it to score just five points in 1975, but gave it another go in 1976.
A revised car was prepared, with coil springs of place of torsion bars in the suspension, but it started only twice in 1976 and then Vel's Parnelli Jones team gave up.

Penske

American Roger Penske made his name in sports car racing before becoming a patron, running cars in several US classes but generally with the emphasis on sports cars and usually with Mark Donohue as driver. After they won the 1972 CanAm championship their thoughts turned to Formula 1.
The Penske PC1 was designed by ex-Brabham man Geoff Ferris and built in Graham McRae's old shops in Dorset. It was a handsome conventional wedge car powered by the Cosworth DFV. The PC1 was first raced in the 1974 Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport, Donohue's eleventh place seeming to promise well for the first full season in 1975. But that promise was not fulfilled, allthough Donohue did score Penske's first points with a fifth place in the Swedish Grand Prix.
Penske bought a March 751 for direct comparison, and this was to lead to the PC3. Sadly, this made its debut in John Watson's hands in the US Grand Prix, for Mark Donohue had crashed fatally in the Penske-March during the warm-up of the Austrian Grand Prix.
John Watson drove the PC3 to a fifth place in South Africa, then it was succeeded by the sleek PC4 in mid season 1976. This was a front-running car. Watson was third in the French and British Grand Prix, and then he won in Austria. That proved to be the high point for the team, as Penske had decided to abandon the GPs for US track racing and at the end of the 1976 season the PC4s were sold to the ATS team.

Beatrice-Lola

This enterprise seemed an extravaganza when Beatrice, claimed to be America's largest consumer products company, backed parallel Formula 1 and Indycar teams to be run by Carl Haas. He employed many talented people, too many, and some of the talents were fading a little and brought the Lola marque back to Grand Prix racing.
The car was designed by Neil Oatley and John Baldwin. The straightforward Beatrice-Lola THL1 first ran in August 1985 with Hart-turbo engines. The ex-champion Alan Jones was persuaded out of retirement to drive it, starting in three late 1985 races, and retiring each time.
In 1986 season he was joined by Patrick Tambay, and from the third race the Ford Cosworth engine was available. By that time the Beatrice element was declining as top management changes brought changes of policy. Team Haas saw out the season, gaining six Championship points in the name of Lola.