Larry Rathgeb, head engineer behind the first 200-mph racecar, dies of coronavirus at 90

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Larry Rathgeb, head engineer behind the first 200-mph racecar, dies of coronavirus at 90



Larry Rathgeb, 90, with a Daytona racecar. Rathgeb headed engineering for racing development at Chrysler in the 1960s and ’70s and led the team that broke the 200-mph record. (Steve Lehto)

By Meryl Kornfield
April 24, 2020 at 6:50 p.m. EDT

This article is part of “Faces of the dead,” an ongoing series exploring the lives of Americans who have died from the novel coronavirus.

In the 1970s, during the heyday of stock-car racing, Larry Rathgeb, the lead engineer for racing development for the Dodge Daytona, took a risk that nearly cost him his job. ... He told his bosses at Chrysler that by focusing on aerodynamics rather than horsepower, they could reach record-breaking speeds of 200 mph — though the car would look more like an airplane than an automobile.

With the executives’ blessing, Rathgeb, racecar driver Buddy Baker and a mechanical crew went to NASCAR’s Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on March 24, 1970, with a Dodge Daytona stock car rigged with a nose cone and wing on the car. ... The first time around the oval track, the car clocked 194 mph. Thirty laps later, the team led by Rathgeb took it to 200.447 mph, a world record for a closed course. ... “NASCAR racing wouldn’t be what it is without Dad,” his son, Jeff Rathgeb, told The Washington Post.

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On the 50th anniversary of the automotive achievement this year, car enthusiasts recalled Rathgeb, 90, who died two days before. He had contracted the coronavirus at a senior independent living community in West Bloomfield, Mich., and was hospitalized from March 17 until he died on March 22, his family confirmed.

Car enthusiast website Hemmings called the day Rathgeb’s “crowning achievement,” and the automobile blog Allpar said Rathgeb “had many other cars to his credit.” Fox Sports shared a tribute on-air of Rathgeb during an e-sporting event on Sunday.

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Meryl Kornfield
Meryl Kornfield is a reporter at the investigative desk of The Washington Post. Follow https://twitter.com/merylkornfield