The First Racing Rahal

Today the name Rahal is synonymous with motor racing. Bobby Rahal has entered the history books as a top Indianapolis and sports car driver, and his son Graham seems destined to continue in his footsteps. A few older “motorheads” remember that Bobby’s father Mike was also involved in competition, starting with small-capacity sports cars in the late ’50s. However, it wasn’t Mike Rahal who headed the family dynasty on the racetracks. That honor must go to Edmund Rahal, the prominent leadfoot from Savannah, Georgia.

Ed and Mike’s grandfathers were brothers, making the men second cousins. Make that double second cousins, since their grandfathers married women who were sisters. The family name originates from Lebanon, where Ed’s father was born, although at the time it was still part of Syria. Ed’s mother came from Damascus. Their families moved to the U.S. around 1900, when they were infants. Ed’s Dad ran a garment factory in New York, and then became a regional sales manager for the American Chiclet Company in Cleveland, Ohio, where Ed was born in 1925. Eventually, the family settled in Savannah.

Young Edmund joined the Marine Corps at 18. He fought at Iwo Jima where he witnessed the iconic raising of Old Glory. After demobilization, Rahal managed a soda shop on his Dad’s property until 1950, when the Marine Corp recalled him. This time the action was in Korea, where he fought with the First Marine Division at Chosin Reservoir until he was evacuated with frostbitten hands and feet. A display cabinet filled with citations for bravery serves as a reminder of Ed’s early years.

Rahal’s first taste of motor racing came in 1952, when he entered a brand-new MG-TD in an SCCA race at Hunter’s Air Field, a SAC base near Savannah. Obtaining a competition license turned out to be surprisingly easy, but the MG did not reach the checkered flag. A new job working for a Ford dealer in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by one in Clearwater, Florida, put further racing plans on hold until 1955, when Ed returned to Savannah to start his own business. Called Sports and Foreign Car Centre, it specialized in Jaguar and BMC products, such as Morris, at the premises of a former Packard dealership.

Jaguars were prominent in production racing in 1955. Rahal continued from where he had left off in 1952, with a two-year-old XK-120M drophead coupe traded in for $3,000. On February 27, at the Fort Pierce SCCA National in Florida, he started the day in the 17-lap Shamrock Village Trophy race, but finished next-to-last in a field of 22. In the 50-lap feature for the Lion’s Club Trophy the young driver fared better, coming home 13th overall and 3rd in CP class. Sherwood Johnston, Carroll Shelby and Jim Kimberly dominated the event in their C-Modified Ferraris.

Ed recalls seeing his first D-type Jaguar at Fort Pierce: “During practice I thought I was really going fast. All of a sudden a car caught up alongside me. For a fraction of a second there was dead silence, no noise at all, with the sounds of our cars canceling each other out. Then everything exploded and the car was gone. It was the D-type.” It turned out to be Phil Walters practicing the new Jaguar. A factory loaner to the Cunningham team, the D-type was doing a dry run for the Sebring 12 Hours scheduled two weeks later, when Walters and Mike Hawthorn drove it to victory.

In his next appearance, the 1955 Thanksgiving Day races at Walterboro, South Carolina, Ed won a 1st in CP and an excellent 2nd overall, after pressing Mike Marshall’s winning Porsche 550RS the entire distance.

1956: The Roebling Touch

Things were different a few months later. In the March 10, 1956, Walterboro SCCA National, Rahal finished far down in the standings in the Cheehaw Trophy race. Dead last was another Jaguar XK-120, owned by Robert G. Roebling, an eccentric Yankee living near Savannah, while S. H. “Wacky” Arnolt performed strongly in a 2-liter Arnolt-Bristol. Sherwood Johnston won the big silver in Cunningham’s D-type, followed by Kimberly’s Ferrari and Cunningham in another Jaguar D. Both Rahal and Roebling felt their production Jags were quickly becoming uncompetitive.

The XK-120 drivers were part of a group of amateurs loosely organized under the Savannah Sports Car Club. In an effort to enhance their racing success, last-place Roebling offered new cars to the club. Its members decided that a well-handling, 2-liter production car with a reliable competition history would be the best choice. Rahal, the youngest of the group, did most of the research. He considered the Morgan Plus-4, but in the end recommended the 2-liter, 6-cylinder Arnolt-Bristol Bolide, going for $4,245 in racing trim. It featured a 130-bhp English engine and drivetrain (of German heritage), an English chassis, and Italian coachwork by Bertone. Bristol Motors shipped running chassis to Turin, Italy, where steel bodies were welded to the frames for extraordinary stiffness. Soon Wacky Arnolt, the Chicago-based entrepreneur behind this international production line, received an order for three new cars.

Robert Roebling paid for the entire purchase. His generous support added up to $15,000 for the Arnolts and another $15,000 for their maintenance, including a transporter with observation platform. He could afford it. Robert’s great-grandfather was John Roebling, the founder of a Pennsylvania-based wire cable business that designed and built a number of suspension bridges, the Brooklyn Bridge among them. The family also owned the Mercer Automobile Company at the turn of the century. In 1956, Robert’s foundation helped finance Roebling Road, the private racetrack also known as Savannah-Effingham Motorway, near Faulkville. After studying various tracks in England, John Rueter—like Roebling, a long-time SCCA supporter and Savannah Region officer—created its layout with the assistance of Rahal, who offered him an office in his dealership. Rueter’s contributions to the SCCA earned him the club’s Woolf Barnato Trophy that year.

Roebling and his wife, Rahal, Rueter and team mechanic Henry Huber, a Swiss ex-pat, picked up the three cars at Wacky Arnolt’s showroom in Chicago. They made a stop at Wacky’s body shop in Warsaw, Indiana, for additional racing modifications. This included repainting the cars in the team colors, red with a white stripe, and the mounting of special magnesium Borrani wheels. Except for minor overheating during Cincinnati’s rush hour, the cars performed perfectly on the long trip to Georgia. Once in Savannah the now-broken-in cars were equipped with stainless steel roll bars fabricated by Roebling’s personal metalsmith.

The re-energized Savannah team debuted on July 1, 1956, in the SCCA Regionals at Courtland. The track consisted of a 3.2-mile layout on an abandoned airbase in the northwest corner of Alabama. Rahal, Tom Waring, Harry Harkins, Rueter and Roebling alternated in the three cars. Wacky Arnolt was proud to publish the results in his company newsletter, Arnolt Soundings: the Arnolt-Bristols finished both races they entered with two 1sts, including an overall victory. Rahal won the 45-mile race for EP and GM cars, and he finished 6th overall (1st in EP) in the 90-mile feature, which went to Dick Dungan’s Mercedes 300SL.

The second appearance of the Arnolts came on August 5 at Mansfield’s 2.4-mile DeSoto Airport. Again, the team cars drove in convoy on public roads to the Louisiana track near the Texas border. It was an exhausting trip but the effort was worth it. Roy Cherryhomes’s 4.4-liter Ferrari 121LM was the fastest car that weekend, but Rahal scored 1st overall in Race 3 for larger production models. In addition, the team achieved two class wins, a 2nd and a 3rd among the five races on the program. Then the long return trip to Savannah began.

Later in the season Rahal realized two more class wins for the team at Chester, South Carolina, but by the time the Enoche races at Gainesville, Georgia, came along (with a 2nd and 3rd in class) the relatively heavy cars had ceased to be front runners.

1957: Re-Engineering a Blown Arnolt

By 1957, Rahal was fed up with the persistent brake troubles of the drum-braked Arnolt assigned to him, chassis 404X3019. He modified the front brakes, replacing the Alfin drums with Triumph TR3 disc brakes. Rahal’s car was the only Arnolt ever to race with discs.

First action came on February 9–10 at New Smyrna Beach Airport, south of Daytona, Florida, where Bill France organized an early foray into professional sports car racing. Saturday was reserved for qualifying, with Rahal 24th fastest in a combined field of 60 modified and production cars. Sunday’s 12-lap large production race for the Sports Illustrated Trophy went to Paul O’Shea’s Mercedes 300SL, with Rahal’s Arnolt-Bristol finishing 11th. It surprised Ed that Duncan Forlong’s Bristol-engined AC finished 5th, a full lap ahead of him. The 40-lap feature for the Pure Oil Trophy went to Carroll Shelby in John Edgar’s 4.9-liter Ferrari 410S, with Rahal 16th, six laps down and bested by competitors in an AC, XK-140, MGA and TR2. Clearly, the Arnolt-Bristol had seen better days.

The Boca Raton SCCA Regional followed on March 9-10. Jack Ensley won the feature in Gay Jackson’s finless D-type Jaguar, but what the 5,000 spectators remembered most were the valiant efforts by an Arnolt driver in Race 4, a 30-lapper. On its last lap, Rahal’s Bristol engine broke two piston rods. Amid loud cheers from the crowd the driver jumped out and pushed the 2,700-pound car for more than a mile to the finish. There, Rahal collapsed and had to be revived with oxygen. The effort won him 3rd place, plus the Sportsmanship Award.

Word spread and a March 27, 1957 letter from Wacky Arnolt to Rahal read: “Dear Ed, I received a clipping from the March 12 edition of the New York Herald Tribune from Mr. Earl Nisonger of New York. The picture shows you pushing an Arnolt-Bristol a mile to the finish. I am sorry about your tough luck, but congratulations on your sportsmanship.”

With sympathy from Wacky his only support, Rahal considered a new Bristol engine too expensive for a car that was no longer competitive. Instead, he went for cubic inches. In the months to come, his mechanic Kruger Johnson cut the Arnolt’s firewall to make room for a 5.4-liter Corvette V-8. The gearbox was Chevrolet as well, while Kruger made up the rear end from modified Plymouth parts. It would be the only Arnolt/Chevy in existence. As a result, it was confined to modified class, a major drawback.

Impressed by the AC-Bristol’s performance in the hands of Duncan Forlong at New Smyrna, Rahal bought his own. He drove it first at Gainesville, Georgia, in the Enoche races on May 25–26 and won his class. To increase the AC’s horsepower, he always raced it without a fan.

When the Savannah Region of the SCCA hosted the Sunshine Festival races at Malcom McKinnon Airport near the Brunswick-Sea Island Resort, Ed could not resist trying out a recent trade-in, a Lancia Aurelia GT. He won the Frederica Cup race, a 5-lapper for Ladies and Touring Cars. However, since Ed did not qualify as a “Powder Puff” member, no trophy was awarded. Converting the Arnolt to V-8 power took up the rest of the year.

1958: Proud D-Type Ownership

The SCCA Regional season in Florida started at New Smyrna on February 15–16, 1958. Rahal brought his now-completed Arnolt/Chevy but it suffered development problems, finishing last in the 12-lap prelim and retiring in the 40-lap Paul Whiteman Trophy after running 3rd. Both races went to Joe Sheppard in Gay Jackson’s Maserati 200SI. Because of the Arnolt’s unreliability, Rahal skipped Boca Raton in early March.

Hillclimbs provided an additional competitive outlet for the foreign car dealer from Savannah. Unlike featureless airport courses, the Chimney Rock hillclimb near Asheville, North Carolina, offered the thrill of racing on real roads. Rahal entered his AC-Bristol on April 13, weaving up the 3-mile mountain course with nine hairpin turns. It was Ed’s first appearance at Chimney Rock and he captured 1st place in EP class, 10 seconds faster than the next AC.

Two weeks later at Dunnellon Park, near Ocala, Florida, on April 26–27, Rahal and the AC finished 3rd in a 12-lap Race 2, on Saturday, behind Duncan Forlong’s AC and George Arents’s Ferrari 250 TdF. E. D. Martin’s Ferrari 315S won Sunday’s 30-lap feature; no records remain of Rahal’s finish that day.

A major change came at Chester, South Carolina, for the third annual sports car races at the County Airport on May 17. Rahal arrived at the event with a new purchase behind his Morris tow van. The car was a white, 3.4-liter, 1957 Jaguar D, chassis XKD 553, previously raced by fellow Savannah resident Harry Rollings. Offered at $6,500 around mid-April, Rahal did not need much encouragement to acquire his first real “big iron” car.

The Jaguar turned out to be far from standard. Unlike D-types sold to privateers, this one came with a fin. It also featured experimental quick-change brakes, larger calipers and torsion bars, originally installed by the factory for testing purposes at Sebring in 1957. Its original owner, Jaguar dealer Jack Ensley, sold the car after Sebring, special parts still intact. Nevertheless, Chester proved a disappointment: Ed’s new purchase led the 25-lap feature comfortably until it retired with a broken fuel line. C. K. Thompson’s D-type and Dan Clippenger in Frank Harrison’s Maserati 450S dueled for the remainder of the race, which went to Clippenger.

The organizers of the Enoche races at Gainesville, on June 7–8, decided it would be fun to show the fans how a NASCAR stocker and a sporty car compared on the 2.7-mile municipal airport road course. They arranged a special 2-lap Saturday feature between local racer Bud Lunsford in a modified 1957 Chevrolet and Ed Rahal’s AC. It was not a contest. The Chevy’s acceleration was no match for the superior road holding of the much lighter AC, especially in the hands of a skilled driver. At the end of the opening lap, Ed led by 100 yards and Lunsford pulled out of the race, admitting defeat. Sunday’s 10-lap sprint for the Queen City Trophy went to E. D. Martin’s 3.8-liter Ferrari 315S, whose 300 horses proved too much for Rahal’s D-type. At the checkered flag, Ed beat fellow D-type owner Thompson and Joe Sheppard’s Porsche 550RS for the runner-up position. The 30-lap feature for the Cherokee Medalist went to Martin again, with the D-types trading positions.

The Carnival of Speed races at Walterboro, South Carolina, on July 4–6, proved Rahal’s Jaguar purchase fully justified. Friday started with drag racing at the local air base while Sunday focused on speedboat racing on the Colleton River. In between, five races were scheduled on a 3.5-mile course at the airfield. Rahal arrived with both his AC-Bristol and the D-type. By Saturday evening he was the proud owner of three silver awards for overall wins in each race entered: the Ashepoo Trophy (won in the AC), the Combahee Trophy (for winning the 10-lapper with the D-type) and the Colletonian Trophy (for winning the 20-lap feature). In the production race, Ed beat Johnny Cuevas’s Porsche Carrera and Roy Tuerke’s Corvette. The main competition in the modified races consisted of Harry Rollings in a newly acquired Maserati 450S and Chick Butcher’s Ferrari 500TR. Rollings’s Maserati finished a runner-up in the preliminary, but drowned its V-8 engine in a rain puddle on lap 3 of the feature and retired, leaving 2nd overall to Butcher.

On July 19–20, the airport of Cocoa-Titusville in Florida hosted a weekend of SCCA racing. Entrants came from Georgia and Alabama, as well as the regular crowd from the Florida area. The fast 3.5-mile course was perfect for a car like the D-type. Sunday’s Race 3 started well, with Rahal and his AC-Bristol winning the 12-lapper for large production cars, leaving George Koehne’s Corvette in the dust. However, in Race 4, 12 laps for modifieds, Joe Sheppard took the silver with his Porsche 550RS, beating Rahal and Roy Schechter’s Porsche 550RS. The 30-lap feature turned into a hot contest between Rahal and Sheppard. The Jaguar went wide at one point and the Porsche surged ahead, but Rahal had other plans. On the front straight, in full view of everybody in pit lane, the Georgian retook the lead and waived a good-humored “bye-bye” to Sheppard. The Porsche driver’s dad and sponsor, Jack Sheppard, saw the gesture from the pits and had a fit. According to Ed, who took the checkered in 1 hour and 9 minutes, Sheppard Sr. never spoke to him again, although he remained on excellent terms with Joe. Despite his win, the feature was spoiled for Rahal by the loss of his AC-Bristol. DeWitt Titus, a regional SCCA officer and stockholder in Rahal’s foreign car dealership, borrowed the car for the main race and rolled it.

Few people remember that the Southeast was a hotbed of sports car racing in those days. Virtually every couple of weeks a Regional could be found on the SCCA calendar for the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. On August 31, it was Courtland’s turn again to organize a day of competition, the Fourth Confederate Grand Prix. The field was a good one, with E. D. Martin in his Ferrari 857 Monza, Rahal and Thompson in their D-types, Walt Cline in Frank Harrison’s Maserati 450S and Bill Kimberly’s Ferrari 500TR. The 400 horses of Cline’s big Maserati were enough to claim the 10-lap preliminary, chased across the line by Martin and Rahal. However, just before the start of the 25-lap main, the 450S was pushed away with zero oil pressure. This left the feature to the D-types. Previous year’s winner Thompson led the first 20 laps, closely followed by Rahal. Then the leading D-type fishtailed and Ed passed to win the Governor’s Trophy.

On October 11–12, the SCCA organized the Sam Collier Memorial Sports Car Races at Venice Airport in Florida. A 3.4-mile track south of the Tamiami Trail hosted an ambitious program for an inaugural event: on Saturday two 70-mile races, followed the next day by a 6-hour endurance race for the Sam Collier Trophy. Race 2 included the big modified cars, with E. D. Martin’s 250 Testa Rossa, David Lane and George Koehne in 200SI Maseratis, and Roy Schechter in his Porsche 550RS. Rahal entered his D-type in an unusual gray color—Rahal had not had the time to finish the car’s white paint job, so it ran in its primer coat. Martin took an early lead but retired after losing a Borrani wheel. This put Koehne in 1st place with Rahal gradually closing in. When the Maserati stopped for new rubber, this warm-up session for the Six Hours ended with Rahal 1st overall, followed by Koehne, Schechter and Lane. Joe Sheppard’s Porsche 550RS, a late arrival, did not run on Saturday.

Next day’s enduro used a Le Mans start, with 44 entries lined up based on engine size. Rahal’s D-type was slow firing up and left amidst the small production cars. Martin’s Testa Rossa led the field during the first hour, only to retire after 35 laps with a broken pinion gear. For the next three hours, Schechter’s Porsche, co-driven by Lew Rappoport, dominated. Early on, Rahal’s luck took a turn for the worse. During Ed’s first tire stop a crewmember topped off gasoline, but did not properly lock the Jaguar’s fuel cap. It popped open, soaking Rahal’s clothes as fuel gushed into the cockpit. He parked on the side of the track and jumped out, mindful that even static electricity from opening the door could start an inferno. With a towel borrowed from a nearby spectator, Ed drove back to the pits for a change of driver’s suit. Although he had never sat in a D-type before, Rahal’s friend Lonnie Rix took the wheel for three or four laps while Ed cleaned up. Too much time had been lost for the Jaguar to be a contender, while in the final hour Sheppard passed Schechter for the lead. Both Porsche drivers took the checkered flag with 133 laps completed, with Sheppard winning the Sam Collier Trophy. The much-delayed D-type finished 3rd, five laps down and just beating Lane’s Maserati 200SI across the line.

1959: National Exposure at Last

Rahal started the 1959 season with his Arnolt/Chevy, showing up at New Smyrna Beach on February 28, followed by Boca Raton on March 8. He remembers his mount as a “bad-ass car with tremendous acceleration and top-end speed, until it came time to stop.” Clearly its customized disc brakes could not handle the extra Corvette horsepower. At New Smyrna, brake trouble slowed Ed’s lap times. Persistent rain at Boca Raton did not help the brake-challenged Arnolt either. A late arrival at Boca, Rahal competed only on Sunday. Competition consisted of Lucky Casner in Jim Hunt’s 250 Testa Rossa, J. J. Packo and Dave Lane in 200 SI Maseratis, George Arents in his 250 TdF and Bill Kimberly’s 500TR. During Sunday’s Race 2, Hunt gave his own Testa Rossa a try, while E. D. Martin had a go in Kimberly’s 2-liter Ferrari. Rahal led the pack at the start, but Hunt outbraked him during the opening lap. Then Martin began a battle with Rahal for 2nd. Thanks to the 500TR’s superior handling, Martin led on the twisty sections, only to be blown off by the Arnolt on the long straight. The fight lasted three laps, then Martin took the left turn at the end of the straight while Ed went straight, forced to take the escape road for lack of brakes. The preliminary finished with the Hunt and Martin Ferraris ahead of the Packo and Lane Maseratis.

The feature race used a Le Mans start, with Rahal’s Arnolt heading the field based on its engine size. Conditions were miserable when the flag dropped, although the earlier downpour had become a mild drizzle. This time Rahal was much slower in getting away as he wrestled to put his safety belt over his raingear. He drove a conservative race and finished 4th behind Casner, Kimberly and Arents.

The 12 Hours of Sebring on March 21 finally brought a factory-sponsored ride for Rahal. He was scheduled to co-drive a brand-new lightweight 140 bhp AC-Bristol owned by his friend Lonnie Rix, an Air Force Lieutenant stationed near Savannah. The car was one of three entries submitted by AC Cars Ltd. Unfortunately, two days before the race, Rix and Rahal’s mechanic Gilbert Johnson—taking the AC out in heavy rain to have something to eat—crashed when pushed off the highway by a pickup truck. Johnson, who was at the wheel, did not survive. Rix escaped with bruises, but the new AC was completely wrecked.

The drivers were forced to fall back on Rix’s older AC, which he had brought to Sebring to sell. The car had plenty of mileage on it and suffered from a slightly slipping clutch. On the positive side, it had just been equipped with new disc brakes. Rahal started at 10:00 a.m. and alternated with the owner every 20 laps. After two hours of racing, their AC led EP class, almost a lap ahead of its nearest competitor. Two hours later a fuel line broke. The crew told an unhappy Rahal—acutely aware of the fire risk—to stay out until a new line could be scavenged from another car. During the subsequent pit stop, the AC’s class lead evaporated. Around 8:30 p.m. more trouble developed. A broken tie rod had to be replaced, taking almost 17 minutes. This deficit was impossible to make up in the remaining time. The Rahal/Rix AC finished 3rd in class, 24th overall, although they still beat the only Arnolt-Bristol in the race by three laps. They donated their prize money to Gilbert Johnson’s family.

Ed soon acquired another interesting competition car. Frank Wahlstrom, whose family owned a Savannah steel company, had bought George Koehne’s Maserati 200SI. However, Wahlstrom had no race experience and his ample waistline made him a poor fit for the Maserati. Rahal bought the car and entered it in the April 18–19 SCCA Regional at Venice. Sunday’s program featured two races for modifieds, Race 2 and the feature, Race 5. Joe Sheppard, the winner of the 6 Hours in October, led the field in the preliminary with his Porsche 550RS. Behind him, a dogfight developed for 2nd among George Arents (Ferrari 250 TdF), Johnny Cuevas (Carrera with 1.6-liter RS engine) and Chuck Cassel (Porsche 550RS). Rahal made a bad start, but once going, quickly disposed of the dueling trio to capture 2nd place. At the finish, the order was Sheppard, Rahal, Arents, Cuevas and Cassel.

Things developed much differently in the feature. Again Sheppard pulled away, but on lap 23 came in with engine trouble, retiring two laps later. By then 2nd-place Rahal had virtually no brakes left on his Maserati. He stopped using the brake pedal altogether, slowing down with his gearbox. This allowed Arents’s 250 TdF into the lead until it suffered a blowout on lap 26. Now Cassel was in charge and the Fort Lauderdale VW dealer took the checkered for his first main victory, trailed by Rahal and Arents. Rahal began to realize that when he raced the Maserati, as he did his D-type, its Italian drum brakes could not take punishment like the Jaguar’s discs.

On May 2–3 at the old Tuskegee Air Force Base near Auburn, Alabama, Rahal tried the Arnolt/Chevy again. Running 3rd, he retired from Saturday’s prelim with a bad rear axle. The feature went to E. D. Martin’s Ferrari 315S, ahead of C. K. Thompson’s D-type and Bill Kimberly’s 500TR, which had traded places some 15 times. Soon afterwards Ed sold the Arnolt to Fred Glassner of Savannah.

Porsche’s dominance in Florida competition continued at Miami’s Master Field on May 30–31. In Saturday’s sprint (Race 4) Rahal ran the 2-liter Maserati, only to suffer more brake problems. Sheppard’s Porsche 550RS ruled and only Kimberly’s Ferrari 500TR could stay close. For Sunday’s feature Rahal decided to switch to his D-type. In the opening lap Dave Lane’s 250 Testa Rossa—just acquired from Jim Hunt—outpaced Sheppard, but soon the Porsche driver began to pull away for another win. Rahal managed to take Lane as well, finishing 2nd overall with Lane and Cassel’s 550RS next and Kimberly retiring with heat exhaustion. Ed remembers that he should have won the feature, but that his physical condition was less than stellar after partying all night. And the heat did not help!

The weekend of June 6–7 offered two days of competition at Gainesville for the Enoche. In 1958 E. D. Martin ran away from the field in his Ferrari 315S. With his Testa Rossa on its way to Le Mans, he relied on the 315S again. Sheppard was felled by a virus and it was up to Rahal’s 200SI, Kimberly’s 500TR Ferrari and Graham Shaw’s D-type to counter the 3.8-liter Ferrari juggernaut. Unfortunately, both the Rahal and Shaw entries spent the weekend on their trailers with mechanical problems, in Ed’s case the brakes again. Martin won, with Kimberly 2nd overall. Rahal grew tired of the Maserati’s unreliability and sold the car for $3,000 to Bob Kingham, who would drop a Corvette engine in its bay and install Birdcage discs for a successful extended career.

Meanwhile, in Florida, a brand-new racetrack had opened its gates, two years after its construction began. Bill France’s Daytona International Speedway hosted the first 500 miler for NASCAR stockers in February, followed by a USAC-sanctioned Indy and sports car event in April. The SCCA could not ignore the track and, on September 5–6, the organization scheduled a Labor Day Regional, the first amateur event on the Speedway. The track layout combined the tri-oval with a 1.31-mile infield course, adding up to 3.81 miles. Unlike today, the oval was run clockwise.

Rahal barely made it for Saturday’s 57-mile, 15-lap preliminary race. On Wednesday, his Jaguar was still completely apart, with Ed and his mechanic working through the night to get the car race ready. After leaving Savannah at 4:40 a.m. on Saturday, the team just made the 10:00 a.m. registration deadline in Daytona.

A 3-lap qualifier determined the grid positions for the prelim race. Rahal claimed it at 88.5 mph, followed by Chuck Cassel (Porsche 550RS), Art Huttinger (Bocar XP-5), George Metzger (4.9-liter Ferrari 375 Plus) and David Lane, who spun his 3-liter Testa Rossa. Asked for his opinion on the new Speedway, which seemed to intimidate a fair number of SCCA drivers, Rahal commented: “I love it. It was one hell of a thrill for me. It’s the only time I’ve ever had that car wide open for such a long distance.”

In the 15-lapper, the D-type ran away from its competition. When the Bocar, billed as the fastest sports racer in Florida, spun out, the final order became Rahal, Lane, Cassel, Huttinger and Metzger. Rahal averaged 94.1 mph, with Lane’s Testa Rossa recording the fastest lap with 96.7 mph in his duel with Cassel.

In Sunday’s 152-mile, 40-lap Regional, Ed took the lead from the start. In the early stages Lane’s Testa Rossa put up a fight, setting another fastest lap of 96.8 mph only to retire with engine trouble after eight rounds. Reclaiming the fastest lap with a 97.4-mph average, Rahal pitted for fuel on lap 32. By now Cassel and Huttinger had dropped out as well and the D-type had a two-lap lead over the only other big-modified entry left, Metzger’s Ferrari. It seemed easy sailing from here on, but with only four laps to go the D-Jag’s oil pressure began to drop. By the next-to-last lap it had hit zero. Easing his car around the final lap, Rahal still held a commanding lead over 2nd-place Metzger, but after taking the checkered he immediately pulled onto the infield with smoke pouring from under the hood.

In the winner’s circle, a happy Rahal collected his trophies from Miss Southland, while Pennzoil capitalized on Ed’s victory in one of their promotions, quoting him: “I broke an oil line during the race and won with my oil pressure showing zero. Thanks to Pennzoil Z-7’s tough and lasting film, my engine did not freeze up.” It took the winner 1 hour and 40 minutes to cover the distance, an average of 91.4 mph.

Rahal’s double Daytona victory, plus a subsequent win at Dunnellon, earned him some well-deserved publicity at last. He and the D-type appeared on the cover of the October 1959 issue of Sports Car, the SCCA’s national publication. His performances also assured his return to Daytona for the SCCA National Championship race on November 14–15, where a three-car Cunningham Lister/Jaguar team was ready to take on George Constantine’s semi-works Aston Martin DBR2 for the C-Modified title. Other entries were Alan Connell’s 315S Ferrari and E. D. Martin in his new Birdcage Maserati. Rahal qualified on the third row, next to Connell and Don Sesslar’s Porsche RSK.

The D-type made a good start. On the opening lap it was running 5th, in tight formation with Constantine’s Aston Martin, the Hansgen and Crawford Listers and Connell’s Ferrari. Then Rahal felt the Jaguar getting loose due to new, insufficiently scrubbed tires, which allowed Windridge, Martin and Sesslar to slip by. One lap later, Martin suffered a fiery crash that took out Sesslar, as well. It was a close call for Rahal, too. Lacking any visibility because of the inferno, Ed just missed the wreckage of the two cars. After a 45-minute clean-up, the race was shortened to 35 laps with Rahal restarting in 7th spot. The field was waved off in single file, and was so stretched out that Ed lost contact with the leaders immediately. He retired after completing only 23 laps, victim of the same broken oil line that almost cost him victory in September. The line proved too long, vibrating heavily. Ed had asked the Cunningham team, also the Jaguar importers, for a replacement before the race but was turned down, though they supplied the item after the race. Connell went on to score an upset victory over Hansgen and Crawford, with Constantine 4th after pitting for new rubber.

1960: Scaling Down Track Appearances

The year began with another Speedway showing for the D-type, in some of the SCCA races leading up to that NASCAR extravaganza, the Daytona 500. On January 30, Rahal captured the 15-lap prelim, beating Huttinger’s Bocar by 6 seconds. Lane, who ran a Porsche RSK, came in 3rd, 26 seconds behind the winner. Initially, Huttinger did offer stiff opposition but, by lap 8, Rahal pulled away from the Bocar. This was not as easy as it seemed because the Jaguar suffered from locking and fading brakes. Its rear tires were also oversized, scraping the Jaguar chassis. They would not have lasted much longer than 15 laps and Ed was fortunate not to suffer a blowout.

Sunday’s feature was shortened to 12 laps to accommodate nationwide TV coverage by CBS’s Speed Spectacular. Huttinger led the opening lap, but Rahal caught him on lap 2. The D-type crossed the finish line 400 yards ahead of the Bocar, followed by Bob Kingham’s D-type and the Porsche RSKs driven by Cassel and Lane. Also televised by CBS that day was a bizarre Le Mans-start exhibition race lasting only a single lap. Promoter Bill France had arranged a Lotus 11 ride for world heavyweight boxing champion Ingemar Johansson in this one-lapper. However, the Swede’s insurance underwriter objected, so Johansson’s only action that day was waving off the drivers. Making a perfect Le Mans start, Rahal claimed his third victory for the weekend, followed by Kingham’s D-type. In his final chance for silver, Huttinger made a slow getaway, never able to make up the difference.

On March 5–6, the SCCA hosted its fourth weekend of racing at the Daytona Speedway. This time the race direction was changed to counterclockwise and the course length was cut to 3.1 miles by eliminating the West Bank turn. A slight S-turn was added in the infield—in fact, so slight that many drivers spun out after misjudging their braking point. Again, a Jaguar D-type claimed the feature, but it was not a good weekend for Rahal. A pre-race favorite, Ed won Saturday’s Race 4, a 3-lap qualifier. However, on Sunday he was disqualified twice in preliminaries. On the first lap of Race 2, Rahal and Huttinger’s Bocar spun in the S-turn and both were black flagged for illegal re-entries. In Race 8, the rivalry continued, and this time the Bocar made it through the deceptive turn, while the Jaguar fishtailed. Rahal could not make up lost ground in the remaining laps and Huttinger won. In the 10-lap Race 6 another disqualification occurred. Huttinger’s Bocar caught fire and officials waved a red flag, just as Ed was about to pass a TR3 on the back straight at 160 mph. Unable to slow down in time, Rahal overtook and received the black flag. In the feature, Ed crunched fenders with an errant Austin-Healey that swerved into his path. Disgusted, he pulled out, making several uncomplimentary remarks about the caliber of certain Florida drivers. Dave Lane’s RSK, winner of two prelim races, appeared an easy winner but was collected by George Robertson’s Corvette in the S-turn. The victorious D-type was Bob Kingham’s, consistent all day.

Around this time, Rahal decided to sell his foreign car agency. The business had always been undercapitalized and cash flow remained a continuous problem. When efforts to obtain the local Renault dealership did not work out, Ed threw in the towel and closed shop. He went to work for another car dealer in Savannah. That, plus raising a family of four kids, meant that racing was out of the question for now. The discretionary income just wasn’t there.

Six months later the local SCCA chapter announced the first Geechee Prix at the Roebling Road track, to be held on November 5–6. Ed, who lived only 20 miles away, could not resist the temptation to enter his Jaguar. The D-type’s age showed. In Race 1, on Sunday, Rahal managed 4th overall, behind Sheppard’s Porsche RSK, Charlie Kolb’s Cooper Formula Junior and Huttinger’s Lister/Chevy. In the feature, Sheppard remained unbeaten, in spite of spinning twice. Bill Story’s Lotus 11 and Huttinger’s Lister followed him home. After its Daytona successes, Rahal’s D-type had become an also-ran. Finishing 5th overall, he parked the car, put it under wraps and stopped competing for the next two years. The exception was a factory-sponsored ride with an Austin Mini Cooper in the August 19, 1962, Marlboro 12 Hours for sedans, where Ed and his co-driver Dave Lane retired with gearbox trouble. Their teammates Roger Penske/Dick Thompson survived to finish 4th.

When the SCCA went professional with its U.S. Road Racing Championship in 1963, the lure of getting paid for a decent performance brought Ed back to the racetrack. He put the D-type through meticulous preparation after two years of inactivity and entered it in the second USRRC race of the season, the Fiesta Races at Pensacola on May 26. Roger Penske (Zerex Special), Tim Mayer (Cooper Monaco) and Hap Sharp (Cooper Monaco) formed the front row. Rahal qualified his old war-horse 17th in a field of 26 cars and it was not the only D-type present. Bill Fuller brought his Chevy-powered, finless version as well. Fuller, a Louisiana lumberman, baptized his the “Rebel Special.” Both D-types had one thing in common: Jack Ensley was their first owner. Ensley raced them at Sebring in 1956 (chassis XKD 538, the Fuller car) and 1957 (Rahal’s chassis XKD 553). Qualifying 12th, Fuller joked with Rahal about the wisdom of entering vintage cars in this fast field.

Torrid temperatures dogged the 261-mile event. Mechanical problems and driver exhaustion made sure things were never boring. Sharp’s Monaco dropped out early, while Mayer’s Monaco was delayed by gearbox problems. Around mid-race, his Zerex Special leading by two laps over four Porsches, an exhausted Penske came in for relief. Sharp took his seat, making subsequent stops for an overheating engine. He was forced to retire the Zerex after a close battle with Ken Miles, who drove relief in Bob Holbert’s Porsche RS-60. It was to be a Porsche day, with Holbert/Miles winning and Charlie Kolb finishing 2nd. Fuller retired his D-type, while Rahal persevered in the extreme heat. He took his obsolete Jaguar to a 7th overall finish and 3rd in the over-2-liter class, good for a $300 payday. It was fun while it lasted, but Ed realized the rate of attrition had worked in his favor.

Later in the year, on November 24, the D-type proved its stamina again in the Savannah 3 Hours at Roebling Road. After many of the top contenders dropped out, Rahal took the checkered for 3rd overall. Only Don Johnson in the Frank Harrison–owned Lotus 23B and Don Russell’s Shelby Cobra bested him at the end of the three hours. But after the race the Jaguar went back under its tarp for another lengthy rest.

By now Ed had become track manager of Roebling Road, essentially a volunteer job. To pay for a pit wall and an airstrip cut out in the nearby woods, he sold advertising signs at the pit area. Then, based on his reputation as a Speedway specialist, Rahal received an invitation from Graham Shaw to share Shaw’s 289 Cobra Roadster in the February 16, 1964, Daytona Continental. The 2,000-km event was the season long-distance opener, confined to GT cars. Shaw’s nickname was “Tombstone,” given him by Rahal during his early XK-120 days, after Graham once cut him off. Nicknames were common in those days. Cuban ex-pat driver Johnny Cuevas named Rahal “The Greek,” and Ed reciprocated by calling him “Marquis de Quiver.”

This was the first appearance for the Cobra Coupe, which ran away from its Ferrari competition. The car’s performance at this track was so impressive that it was later known as the Daytona. Shaw’s roadster made less of an impact. It was a former Shelby team car with a fair number of shortcomings, including its electrical system. Rahal and his mechanic Henry Huber went over it and, with the help of Shelby American’s Ken Miles, received various parts to make it race ready. What they did not check were the wheels.

When Ed took the start, he was wired as a volunteer in a NASA research project to register his heart beat, blood pressure and temperature under the G-forces generated by the Speedway. Early in the race, at full speed on the high bank, a wheel came off. The NASA read-out of that moment must have been interesting! Ed managed to save it, returning to the pits on three wheels and a brake disc. Repairs were made and Tombstone took the Cobra back out. During his stint, Tombstone managed to damage the suspension by wiping out a corner worker’s cover tent. More delays followed in pit row. Third driver Charlie Hayes went out for one lap and refused to continue. Rahal tried as well, but the Cobra was un-drivable. The entry was retired after 116 laps, while the Phil Hill/Pedro Rodriguez Ferrari GTO won the event after the leading Cobra Coupe caught fire.

1966: Final Days in the D-type

In 1966 the old D-type saw action a few more times, mostly for fun. In Alabama, Rahal entered the car in the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup race at Montgomery Industrial Terminal on June 18–19. Paul Wood’s Shelby Cobra led the first six laps of the feature, but on lap 7 Rahal passed him. A three-way duel developed that included Jim Gammon’s Porsche Abarth. On the back straight of the final lap, Rahal used all available horsepower to beat his opponents across the finish line. City Mayor Earl James presented him with the attractive Commissioner’s Cup in victory lane. Ed remembers, “It was probably the most enjoyable race I ever ran. We raced through the city streets, over railroad crossings, between warehouses, bounced off curbs. It was a great day.”

It was also the final feature victory for Rahal and his D-type. The engine had blown one of its spark plugs and was subsequently repaired. However, the problem resurfaced in his next race at Vidalia in Georgia. Although he won the preliminary, Ed—running on five cylinders—had to let a Shelby Mustang go by in the feature. Settling for 2nd overall, Rahal quit racing for good. “It had just gotten too expensive. I couldn’t afford it anymore.”

That year Rahal sold his trusted mount for $6,500, the sum he paid in 1958, to the Vintage Car Store in Nyack, New York. Eventually, chassis XKD 553 ended up in the UK, where a 3.8-liter engine was installed. From there it spent many years in the Rosso-Bianco Collection in Germany. When this collection was dispersed, Bonham’s auctioned off the Jaguar at Quail Lodge, California, in August 2006. Advertised with an estimated price range of $1.5 to $2 million, the old warrior changed hands for $2,097,000. Some auction-scene column writers claimed that XKD 553 lacked any important history. Clearly, they didn’t do their homework.

A number of years ago Kevin Fitzgerald restored Rahal’s Arnolt with a new Bristol engine. Kevin races the car on the vintage circuit with the customized disc brakes installed in 1957. As for Ed himself, the 83-year-old goes to work every day, helping out at Handi House, his son’s portable building and carport business in Savannah. On May 14, 2007, in a long overdue gesture honoring his racing career, Ed Rahal was inducted into the Savannah Hall of Fame. One of these days the former racer hopes to be reunited with his trusted D-type, just for old time’s sake.